Criminal record/Criminal justice
21 February 2005
Today, Jim Allister made the following speech in the European Parliament
Allister (NI). – Mr President, I have no difficulty with the sensible exchange of information about criminal convictions between Member States, but only the politically blind could fail to recognise the proposals in the Costa report as part of the harmonisation process that is under way in the criminal justice system across Europe. That, of course, is in anticipation of the EU Constitution, within which that harmonisation has a key role to play.
I for one am opposed to a criminal justice system established on the continental model, with its inherent assault upon the essential building blocks of our distinctive and historic British common law system, which include not least trial by jury, habeas corpus, and the separation of the judiciary from the investigative process.
This Costa report, despite its plausible verbiage, is part of that process of harmonisation aimed at creating a single criminal justice system. That is not serving the interests of the British nation in my view and therefore I will oppose that report.
Click to view this and other speeches made by Jim Allister in the European Parliament
