Thursday 17th March, 2011, 5.00pm
Arts Lecture Theatre, New Arts Faculty Building

Inside a Terrorist (Police) Cell

Seminar by
Professor Clive Walker
Centre for Criminal Justice Studies, School of Law, University of Leeds

Bio

Clive Walker is Professor of Criminal Justice Studies at the School of Law, University of Leeds, where he has served as the Director of the Centre for Criminal Justice Studies (1987-2000) and as Head of School (2000-2005, 2010). He has written extensively on terrorism issues, with many published papers not only in the UK but also in several other jurisdictions, especially the USA, where he has been a visiting professor at George Washington and Stanford Universities. In 2003, he was a special adviser to the UK Parliamentary select committee scrutinised what became the Civil Contingencies Act 2004, from which experience he published The Civil Contingencies Act 2004: Risk, Resilience and the Law in the United Kingdom (Oxford University Press, 2006). His latest book on terrorism is a comprehensive study of Terrorism and the Law (Oxford University Press, 2011). It builds on prior works such as The Anti-Terrorism Legislation, (2nd ed., Oxford University Press, 2009) and was supported by an AHRC fellowship which funded fieldwork, including in police detention facilities.

Abstract

At the heart of the terrorism policing powers in the Terrorism Act 2000 is arrest without warrant under section 41. Its traditional purpose is to allow for the interrogation of suspects. A second, and mounting, reason is to facilitate forensic testing by explosives analysis, DNA profiling, computer data recovery, and the examination of CCTV footage. These objectives are aided by an elongated period of detention (currently 28 days) which has proven extraordinarily controversial, with past proposals to extend it to 42, 56 and even 90 days and current proposals to reduce it to 14 days. How detainees are treated during the regime which flows from this holding of terrorist suspects in police stations is the subject of this paper, with a focus on practices in England and Wales. The special power of arrest and its usage will be outlined. Then, the paper will consider how detainees are handled in terms of: location; detention periods; access to lawyers and questioning processes; and contacts with family and others. Consideration will then be given to other suggested reforms and safeguards which are designed to enhance arrest and detention as both an ethical and effective instrument for intelligence and information gathering. Reflections on the overall impact and value of special arrest and detention powers will finally be offered.