Interesting Links for 08-06-2018

[andrewducker]

Belfast woman to challenge NI abortion law

(tags: NorthernIreland abortion )

Breakthrough pregnancy blood test can predict delivery date and help tackle risky premature births

(tags: babies pregnancy blood genetics )

Sucking carbon dioxide from air is cheaper than scientists thought

(tags: co2 Technology )

Edinburgh city-centre roads to close for Clean Air Day

(tags: edinburgh environment pollution scotland )

Comments

[danieldwilliam]

I agree - there is always going to be a role for judicial interpretation. There is always going to be a role for judicial oversight of the proper functioning of the legislative process.

In the case of abortion in Northern Ireland there is some tension between the principle of devolution (that decisions should be taken by local parliaments) and Northern Ireland's membership of a signatory to the ECHR.

One of my concerns about Bills of Rights and such things is that they are often drafted in a Motherhood and Apple Pie way in order to get agreement and this gives the judiciary a degree of influence over the substantive law that I would (all other things being equal) see resting with more directly democratic decision making bodies. I would prefer to draft my Bill of Rights in a way that makes more of the detail explicit and leaves a smaller role for the judiciary.

I'm generally against things that I think are political decisions being made on the basis of expanding claim-rights through the judiciary. Not least because what the judiciary give, they can take away again.