| 8 Mar '04 |
SCOTTISH NATIONAL STANDARD BEARER:
Peter Dow
This is a recent development with very small copies of it entitled "My Fundamental Rights" available (FREE!) in local libraries - such a tiny book for such an important issue.
Well, the all-important Article 11 on "Freedom of expression and information" looks promising. It doesn't have the same get-out clause that the European Convention on Human Rights - E.C.H.R. - (Article 10.2) has. So, in principle, were it to be given the force of law, the CFREU would represent an important legal advance for the rights of the people of Europe. (In order for a law of CFREU to be significant, however, there would require to be a commensurate repealing of the ECHR and consequently, so to speak, a consigning of the ECHR to the dustbin of history, where its Article 10.2, as legal anti-rights rubbish, deserves to be put.) Similarly, national defamation and libel laws should be repealed where they impinge upon freedom of expression. I believe that a legal right of reply, properly enforced, should afford sufficient opportunity for persons criticised to try to defend their reputations.
If, however, the CFREU is as good as it appears to be then we can easily understand why heads of state, such as Queen Elizabeth, national parliaments and vested interests in the legal profession are opposing giving the CFREU full legal status. They are certainly opposed to anything which could expose all their nasty little corrupt practices to full public scrutiny. The CFREU, given legal teeth, could allow that.
In any case, defamation lawyers will still try to find a way around any good law of freedom of expression in order to allow their clients to escape criticism - as they try to do in the USA, despite the excellent First Amendment to the Constitution. Nevertheless, I believe that the CFREU, as law, would be a big help in the fight for freedom and it therefore represents a potential positive advance for the people of Europe.
None of the above means that Scots should, in any way, trust Queen Elizabeth or our un-elected Scottish judges. DON'T TRUST THEM, EVER! Even if, in the future, the CFREU is enacted into law by the UK and/or the Scottish Parliament, even then, Scots would still require to gain democratic control over the judiciary and the head of state - by electing judges and by electing a president of a republic. The CFREU may represent a possible advance, but, on its own, it does not provide complete protection of the fundamental rights of Scots. Therefore, let us welcome the CFREU and encourage parliament to pass it (or something like it) into law, but let us NOT leave matters simply at that.
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