A matter of law

[andrewducker]

I'm somewhat confused by the fuss over the votes for prisoners stuff that's currently in the newspapers.

The government has to do _something_, as it's been found to be in the wrong by the Europan Court of Human Rights. However, it seems unsure what, exactly, it has to do to be in the right. I know that human rights legislation is going to have some grey areas, but is there a reason why the ECHR wouldn't say "You are doing X, which is wrong, in order to be compliant you must do Y."?

Comments

[sigmonster.livejournal.com]

They do provide broad guidance: they do not provide either model law, or a guarantee that such-and-such conduct will not be found to be a violation in future (because they cannot envision all possible future circumstances, any specific rule might be found to be a violation if in combination with some other pattern of facts which they had not considered).