THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL STATUS OF THE ISLANDS OF SAINT HELENA, ASCENSION, TRISTAN DA CUNHA AS AN OVERSEAS TERRITORY OF THE UK

Author(s):  
Игорь Ирхин ◽  
Igor Irkhin

This article gives general characteristic of the constitutional status of the overseas territories of the UK, show the directions of cooperation between the UK and the overseas territories. The author has made some conclusions on the flexibility and quality differentiation of constitutional and legal approaches of the organization of the political-territorial structure of the UK. The political and territorial relations between the UK and relevant overseas territory were proposed to classify as unitary with the elements of federalism. The author has confirmed the actuality of the question of the constitutional concretization of the competences of the Governor of St. Helena, Ascension Island, Tristan da Cunha. In order to provide a more complete account of interests of population of the overseas territories was raised the problem of the lack of constitutional provisions on the appointment of the Administrators on Ascension Island and Tristan da Cunha with the opinion formed by elected Councils. The position on the advisability of the constitutional consolidation of the form and order of consideration of the interests of the Islands of Saint Helena, Ascension Island and Tristan da Cunha in the government of the Kingdom, as well as when considering the UK Parliament of legislative acts on issues relating to the whole Commonwealth was argued.

2009 ◽  
Vol 35 (4) ◽  
pp. 943-955 ◽  
Author(s):  
IAN LEIGH

AbstractThis article argues that there is a need to modernise the law governing accountability of the UK security and intelligence agencies following changes in their work in the last decade. Since 9/11 the agencies have come increasingly into the spotlight, especially because of the adoption of controversial counter-terrorism policies by the government (in particular forms of executive detention) and by its international partners, notably the US. The article discusses the options for reform in three specific areas: the use in legal proceedings of evidence obtained by interception of communications; with regard to the increased importance and scle of collaboration with overseas agencies; and to safeguard the political independence of the agencies in the light of their substantially higher public profile. In each it is argued that protection of human rights and the need for public accountability requires a new balance to be struck with the imperatives of national security.


3.8 The standard layout of a treaty A treaty, like English legislation, has a standard format. At the beginning of the treaty is a preamble setting out the main goals of the treaty and the aspirations of the parties. It is divided into clusters of items dealing with similar matters. Each cluster is called a title (which roughly equates with the division of an English statute into parts). Titles contain numbered items called Articles, each one setting out a basic rule or principle. Articles can be divided into paragraphs and subparagraphs. The numbering system is Arabic and it not as dense and complex as that used by English statutes. Figure 5.3: standard layout of a treaty 5.3.9 How do obligations entered into through treaties become part of English law? If the UK government wishes all, or part of a treaty, to become part of English law it must specifically incorporate the treaty, or part of it, into the English legal system via legislation. This legislation goes through the same procedures as any other piece of legislation. If the government expects the treaty to give rise to a range of other measures over time it will usually place sections in this legislation delegating the authority to make later legal changes to others (such as the minister of appropriate government departments). This saves time as there is no need for the full legislative process in Parliament. Whilst it is still the subject of parliamentary debate, it does have a fast track procedure. In relation to treaties becoming part of English law in this way, there is always the possibility that Parliament may refuse to enact the legislation, which would leave the government in an extremely difficult situation. However, the UK Parliament is usually controlled by the political party forming the government and the government would not risk the embarrassment of failure but would guage its position in Parliament prior to signature of a relevant treaty.

2012 ◽  
pp. 132-133

2019 ◽  
Vol 83 (4) ◽  
pp. 284-293 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ben Middleton ◽  
Georgios A Antonopoulos ◽  
Georgios Papanicolaou

A significant body of law and policy has been directed to organised crime generally, with Human Trafficking remaining high on the political agenda. This article conducts a contextualised study of Human Trafficking in the UK, examining the underpinning legal framework before drawing on the expertise of key professionals in the sector, who have been interviewed for this purpose. It is suggested that it is not so much the legal framework that is the problem, but rather there are a number of practical and policy-related considerations that the government should consider as part of their efforts to combat Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking.


2013 ◽  
Vol 20 (20) ◽  
pp. 59-69
Author(s):  
Gábor Kozma ◽  
Attila Barta

Abstract One of the most important segments of the post-1990 transformation of territory-based administration in Hungary was the changing of the geographical structure of deconcentrated state administrative organisations. The study, on the one hand, provides a brief overview of the history of deconcentrated state administrative organisations in Hungary, and discusses the regional characteristics of the organisational transformations after the political changes, taking six moments in time (the middle of 1994, 1998, 2002, 2006, 2010 and 2012 respectively) as the basis. On the other hand, using the same six snapshots in time, it examines which settlements experienced favourable or unfavourable changes, and what factors influenced the selection of the seats for these institutions. The results of the survey indicated that the alignment of territorial structure of deconcentrated state administrative organizations to the planning-statistical, NUTS 2 regions has already begun at the end of the 1990s. The government formed in 2006 took significant steps in the area of aligning the spatial structure of the organizations with the planning-statistical regions; however, in the period after 2010 the significance of the county level increased again. In the period examined, no significant changes took place at the top and at the bottom of the list according to the number of seats: the largest settlements of the individual regions reinforced their leading positions.


2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 107-126
Author(s):  
Lindsay AQUI

This article investigates the contingency plan developed by Harold Wilson’s Labour government for a ‘no’ vote in the UK’s 1975 referendum on European Community (EC) membership. The decision to prepare for the possibility of leaving the EC was seen as responsible, but the primary rationale for devising an EC exit strategy related to the severe political and economic damage that officials believed the UK would suffer if it withdrew from the Community. Officials emphasised the political consequences of a ‘no’ vote in part because the economic consequences were more difficult to predict and because of the rationale that underpinned the decision to join the EC in the first place. This was not easy to communicate in the politicised atmosphere caused by the divisions over the question of membership among Ministers. In the end, the key message of the contingency plan was that leaving the Community would weaken the UK and leave the government with few options except “Going it Alone”.


Subject Money laundering and terrorist financing clampdown. Significance On March 15, the UK Treasury announced plans to create a new watchdog aiming to improve detection of crimes relating to money laundering and terrorist financing, and published draft updates to money-laundering regulations. After Brexit, the United Kingdom will no longer have to adhere to EU money-laundering rules; improving the regulatory framework around suspicious financial activity is crucial to ensure it does not become even more attractive to international launderers. Impacts The new watchdog should make compliance easier, minimising the regulatory burden on high-value sectors. Increased scrutiny of estate agents and lawyers may reduce demand for high-end UK residential property, slowing growth in house prices. Against the backdrop of Brexit, the government may shy away from pressuring Overseas Territories in case it provokes independence demands.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bryony L. Townhill ◽  
Elena Couce ◽  
James Bell ◽  
Stuart Reeves ◽  
Oliver Yates

Climate change is already affecting the distributions of marine fish, and future change is expected to have a particularly large impact on small islands that are reliant on the sea for much of their income. This study aims to develop an understanding of how climate change may affect the distribution of commercially important tuna in the waters around the United Kingdom’s Overseas Territories in the South Atlantic. The future suitable habitat of southern bluefin, albacore, bigeye, yellowfin and skipjack tunas were modelled under two future climate change scenarios. Of all the tunas, the waters of Tristan da Cunha are the most suitable for southern bluefin, and overall, the environmental conditions will remain so in the future. Tristan da Cunha is not projected to become more suitable for any of the other tuna species in the future. For the other tuna species, Ascension Island and Saint Helena will become more suitable in the future, particularly so for skipjack tuna around Ascension Island, as the temperature and salinity conditions change in these areas. Large marine protected areas have been designated around the territories, with those in Ascension and Tristan da Cunha closed to tuna fishing. Although these areas are small relative to the whole Atlantic, these model projections could be useful in understanding whether this protection will benefit tuna populations into the future, particularly where there is high site fidelity.


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