MARTIN HOWE Q.C.
This is my personal home page. For
information about my professional activities as a barrister, please
refer to the website at my Chambers:
www.8newsquare.co.uk
Current activities
- Working to deliver a clean Brexit, under which the United
Kingdom regains full control of our laws, borders, money and
international trade, and which delivers what 17.4 million people voted
for in the Referendum. I am Chairman of Lawyers for
Britain
which was founded to campaign for a Leave vote in the Referendum. It
has continued afterwards developing and promoting legal solutions for a
Brexit which restores our sovereignty and which does not leave us
enmeshed as a vassal state or colony of the EU with no vote but still
controlled by them. For details of my activities please see the Lawyers for
Britain website, my Brexit Central author pages, and my articles for the Daily and Sunday Telegraph (may need subscription to access).
- Suporting reform of human rights law
through the scrapping of the Human Rights Act 1998, its replacement by
a new Bill of Rights and
Responsibilities which will reaffirm our historic rights and liberties
and incorporate the text of the European Convention of Human Rights
into
UK law, but will de-couple its interpretation from the judgments of the
European Court of Human Rights at Strasbourg.
Unfortunately in the 60 years since the Convention was drafted, this
Court has gone far beyond
its job of interpreting the Convention by creating new judge-made
doctrines which do not exist in the actual
wording of the Convention itself. I supported these reforms at a debate
organised by the Institute of
Ideas on 6 October 2014 (Podcast.)
I worked on reform of human rights laws as member of the Coalition
Government's Commission
on a Bill of Rights for the UK, which reported
at the end of 2012 with a majority recommendation for a UK Bill of
Rights.
I was previously a member of the Conservative Party's Commission to
create a Bill of Rights (and Responsibilities) for the United Kingdom,
which was established after David Cameron's speech of 26 June 2006,
"Balancing freedom and security - A modern British Bill of
Rights".
I have spoken on numerous occasions in support of replacing
the
Human Rights Act with a British Bill of Rights. At The Times/Matrix
Chambers Debate
(More info on the Debate ...),
speaking in favour of the motion were David Davis MP, myself and Andy
Hayman, former head of Counter-Terrorism at Scotland Yard. We were
opposed by Cherie Booth QC, Rabinder Singh QC and Shami Chakrabarti.
I explained some of my ideas on what the new Bill of Rights can
achieve and how it can improve on the present Human Rights Act 1998 in
"The case for a British Bill of Rights"
published by the Conservative Liberty Forum.
- I chaired the
Courts and Sentencing Policy Group of the Centre for Social Justice
and launched
our group's report
with Iain Duncan Smith MP.
This major report,
"Order
in the Courts: restoring faith through local justice"
criticised the Labour Government's over-centralisation of the criminal
justice system and its torrent of legislation, and called for a much
more locally accountable system of justice in which offenders can be
dealt with more effectively.
(See Executive
Summary of the Report).
Political publications
For a selection of my publications on political and
constitutional issues, see Publications.
Recent publications are on the subjects of the EU and our constitution,
criminal justice and sentencing, how to safeguard our civil liberties
through a new Bill of Rights for the United Kingdom, human rights and
terrorism, and the ever growing threat to our ability to make our own
laws from the expanding powers of the European Union.
Legal Publications
Please click here for a
selection of my legal publications, articles and lectures.