During the Second World War, just under two thousand British citizens were detained without charge, trial, or term set, under Regulation 18B of the wartime Defence Regulations. Most of these detentions took place in the summer of 1940, soon after Winston Churchill became Prime Minister, when belief in the existence of a dangerous Fifth Column was widespread. Churchill, at first an enthusiast for vigorous use of the powers of executive detention, later came to lament the use of a power which was, in his words, in the highest degree odious'.
This book provides the first comprehensive study...

Brian Simpson's new book addresses the phenomenon of the leading case--the judicial decision which acquires a timeless quality, coming the stand for some legal idea, or principle, or doctrine thought to be central to the casuistic tradition of the common law. How do such cases arise in the first place? Can we tell why they were decided as they were? How do they come to achieve their special status? By a detailed and meticulous investigation of their original historical context, and by tracing out their strange intellectual history, this book develops a highly original approach to the study of...

The European Convention on Human Rights of 1950 established the most effective international system of human rights protection ever created. This is the first book that gives a comprehensive account of how it came into existence, of the part played in its genesis by the British government, and of its significance for Britain in the period between 1953 and 1966.