When protective powers become threatening

Abstract

Indefinite and preventive detention: two archetypal danger-areas for the civil-libertarian mind. Both are permitted by criminal and mental health law, subject to the safeguards provided by common law and the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). Watchful eyes need to remain focused on the interpretation of such powers of detention.That any coercive power that can be abused by authority will be so abused seems a reasonable rule of thumb. Certainly it is the assumption on which responsible legislators ought to work; even if they are willing to trust their own imperturbability in the face of events they have no right to do so, or so to trust their successors. Stop-and-search has been heavily abused, while the limits on control orders are underjudicial scrutiny domestically and at Strasbourg.Terrorism trials and those involving notoriously violent criminals catch headlines, especially where mental disorder is involved. My concern here is the looseness of provisions which, operating out of the public eye, can indefinitely detain people on preventive grounds.