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A. AND OTHERS v. THE UNITED KINGDOM JUDGMENT
II. RELEVANT DOMESTIC LAW AND PRACTICE
A. Detention pending deportation before the passing of the 2001 Act
87. Under section 3(5) of the Immigration Act 1971 (“the 1971 Act”) the
Secretary of State could make a deportation order against a non-national, on
the ground that the deportation would be conducive to the public good, for
reasons of national security, inter alia. A person who was the subject of a
deportation order could be detained pending deportation (the 1971 Act,
Schedule 3, paragraph 2). However, it was held in R. v. Governor of
Durham Prison, ex parte Hardial Singh [1984] 1 WLR 704 that the power
to detain under the above provision was limited to such time as was
reasonable to enable the process of deportation to be carried out. Detention
was not, therefore, permissible under the 1971 Act where deportation was
known to be impossible, whether because there was no country willing to
take the person in question or because there would be a risk of torture or
other serious ill-treatment to the proposed deportee in his or her country of
origin.
B. The Terrorism Act 2000
88. In July 2000 Parliament enacted the Terrorism Act 2000. As Lord
Bingham noted in his judgment in the present case, “this was a substantial
measure, with 131 sections and 16 Schedules, intended to overhaul,
modernise and strengthen the law relating to the growing problem of
terrorism”. “Terrorism” was defined, in section 1 of the Act, as:
“... the use or threat of action where –
(a) the action falls within subsection (2);
(b) the use or threat is designed to influence the government or to intimidate the
public or a section of the public; and
(c) the use or threat is made for the purpose of advancing a political, religious or
ideological cause.
(2) Action falls within this subsection if it –
(a) involves serious violence against a person;
(b) involves serious damage to property;
(c) endangers a person’s life, other than that of the person committing the action;