civil liberties (thing)

Civil Liberties are liberties (freedoms, rights) given to citizens of a nation in the constitution or law of that nation. Examples are the right to own property and the right to work. Civil liberties are sometimes knows as civil rights, particularly in the USA (Hence Civil Rights Movement).

Due to the nature of the British constitution (Uncodified, 'flexible', 'evolutionary') British citizens traditionally do not have a list of their liberties. Rather, our liberties are what is left after all Acts of Parliament have been applied. Judges in the UK must judge within every Act of Parliament (Because and Hence we have Parliamentary Sovereignty.) Citizens of the USA have their rights defined in the Bill of Rights and Judges of the Supreme court can deem any legislation or practice to be unconstitutional if it breaches these.
To be precise, in 2000 The European Convention on Human Rights became UK law, and so we have a kind of Bill of Rights in the form of the 'Human Rights Act'. This is still only a run-of-the-mill statute law (and not entrenched), but there are procedures for judges to bring to attention any of the UK's current laws that are illegal under it.

Some cases concerning civil liberties in the UK:

• 1984 : Sarah Tisdell : After releasing papers revealing that the US were to put Nukes in bases in Britain to a Labour backbench MP (Tam Dalyell) Tisdell (A Civil Servant) lost her job and was sentenced to 6 months in Prison under the Official Secrets Act. Tisdell said she disagreed with the Tory Government not telling Parliament of the move until after it had happened. The prosecution could be seen as a breach of a Right to Free Speech.
• 1984 : Banning of Unions in GCHQ (Government Communication Headquarters) : The reason given by the Thatcher government for the banning of any Trade Union membership in GCHQ was security. The banning is a breach of a Right to Free Association, and has been scrapped by the new Labour government.
  
• 1984 : During the Miner's Strike miners were stopped by police while on their way to picket at other mines, when still hundreds of miles from their destination. This was justified by violence that had occured at pickets of the same strike earlier, and this reason was accepted by Judges.
• 1985 : Clive Ponting : There had been dispute over the Argentinian ship the 'General Belgrano' since the Falklands war, when it was sunk, over its situation: was it inside or outside the exclusion zone? The Government had said that it was inside the zone and posed a threat to British ships. In 1985 Civil Servant Ponting released information to a Guardian journalist showing that the Belgrano was inside the zone, but was moving out of it and posed no threat. Ponting was tried under the Official Secrets Act but got a Jury trial and was found innocent on the grounds that he was allowed to break ranks if a Minister had lied to Parliament - as they had done.
• 1986 : Spycatcher : The Government banned publication, imports and exerpts in papers of Ex-MI5 Agent Peter Wright's memoirs under the Official Secrets Act. Another possible breach of the Right to Free Speech.
• 1988 : Sinn Fein Broadcasting Ban : The broadcasting of spokespeople for any Irish group supporting violence, specifically Sinn Fein, with their own voices on TV or radio was banned. This was on the basis that people could be shocked, and that the violent groups could get publicity, but the move is clearly not in line with the Right to Free Speech.
• 1994 : Criminal Justice Act : Passed by the Major Conservative Government, it can be argued that the Act takes away partly the Right to Silence and the Right to Free Association. A refusal to answer questions can now be considered as evidence against a defendant and protests on a public highway are illegal whether causing an obstruction or not.

The only way that there can be protection of British citizen's civil liberties is if there is sufficient scrutiny of and pressure on proposed legislation and executive action. As you can see, none of the Conservative Administrations of 1979 - 1997 had any regard for these liberties: Between 1979 and 1986 Margaret Thatcher prosecuted 29 people under the Official Secrets Act.