Monday 1 February 2010

The End Of Common Law II

The Daily Telegraph today, picks up on the news, highlighted by UKIP's Stanley Booton last week, of the creation of a European Public Prosecutor which threatens the UK's system of common law:
More than 12 years have passed since this newspaper first reported on how the European Union was developing a common criminal and judicial system known as Corpus Juris. Ostensibly, this was designed in the first instance to deal with offences against the EU's financial interests; but it was envisaged that, once instituted, it could be extended to other walks of life, too, and become the template for a European-wide justice system.

This was especially problematic for the United Kingdom, which, together with Ireland, has a legal system that is fundamentally different from the rest of the EU and would therefore be required to adopt a wholly new approach.

Underpinning Corpus Juris would be a new office of European Public Prosecutor (EPP) with a director and deputies in each member state. The EPP would have investigative powers and be responsible for bringing cases before national courts. It would be able to "request" detention without trial for up to six months, renewable for three months at a time, with no maximum limit, and underpinned by the European arrest warrant.

As I blogged here, there's currently an Early Day Motion calling on the Government to resist the encroachment of the EPP.

The Telegraph suggests that this could be the moment for the Tories to put the EU in its place. I emailed my (Tory) MP last Thursday asking him to sign the EDM, as yet I've not even had an acknowledgment.

Cameron doesn't want a bust up with the EU; he hopes the issue will go away (which of course it won't) so in the meantime the Tories will do anything other than put the EU in its place. It's what they've always done.

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