Threat to courts

The recent decision of the European Court of Human Rights, to the effect that the “whole life” tariffs are a breach of the human rights of convicted murderers, has disturbing implications for Scottish democracy.

This is because, as the public is expected to know, the Scottish Parliament, under Section 57 of the Scotland Act 1998, is made subordinate to both the European Convention and European Community law.

These strictures do not apply to the Westminster parliament.

What we are witnessing in Europe is an unjustified extension of the powers of the European Court over the sovereign rights of independent states.

This court was set up with the specific purpose of ensuring 
that minimum standards of 
justice were maintained, but it has now morphed into imposing its own standards as a form of straitjacket on democratic governments.

Scotland has already had to jettison its time-honoured rules on corroboration precisely because of this extra-terrestrial pressure from an alien jurisdiction.

The European Court needs to be reined in because it has exceeded its original brief, and the Scottish Parliament needs to reclaim full sovereignty for all its democratic decisions.

In particular, Scotland needs its own constitution and its own, autonomous, courts, answerable to the people of Scotland alone and not to other jurisdictions in London and Strasbourg.

Randolph Murray

Rannoch

Perthshire