Justice under Fire

In Northern Ireland the freedoms enshrined in Western law have been overturned by the police and the army. "Justice under fire" examines the emergency measures that have been introduced to "improve" the administration of justice. The book looks at specific measures - the wide and increasing powers of arrest and interrogation, the prevention of terrorism act, the operation of the no-jury Diplock courts, the use of plastic bullets, the recourse to supergrasses, and the shoot to kill directives. In each case the social and political implications of emergency laws are assessed. The contributors, all of whom are professionally involved in the theory or practice of law, ask to how much these "improvements" have involved a systematic disregard of basic human rights and consider ways in which the situation might be redeemed.