SCOTTISH lawyers have warned Westminster plans to make it easier to deport criminals may breach European human rights law.
The UK Government wants to use its Immigration Bill, which has just passed a second reading in the House of Lords, to make it harder for those facing deportation to claim their right to a family life is threatened.
However, the Law Society of Scotland believes the Bill could tie the hands of judges, rather than allow them to use their own discretion to decide the merits of cases.
The body, which represents all Scottish solicitors, has asked peers to reconsider this part of the Bill.
Michael Clancy, its director of law reform, said: "We do not agree with proposals to take away from judges the ability to make just decisions in immigration cases, which involve the right to respect for private and family life.
Home Office minister John Taylor, Lord Taylor of Holbeach, defended the Bill as strengthening rights.
Speaking in the House of Lords, he said: "We can ensure that serious criminals will be deported and that those deportations will be subject to less delay. That will not damage human rights but restore balance. It will address the erosion of public confidence in our laws."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article