Retrospective law and release from prison

This article draws out two injustices to which retrospective criminal legislation may give rise: undermining accessibility of law and challenging equality before the law. It is argued that the censuring function of the criminal law exacerbates both wrongs. This sets the stage for an analysis of delaying prisoners' release. It is suggested that retrospective reform in this context threatens the same values as those threatened by retrospective criminalisation. Yet the safeguards against retrospective reform of release provisions are weak due to two important strands of case law, one concerning which penalty was ‘applicable at the time’ of the offence and the other which draws a distinction between penalties and their execution. Both strands of case law are in need of fundamental reconsideration if article 7 of the European Convention on Human Rights is to realise its purposes of upholding rule of law values and providing practicable safeguards.

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Rights

Attribution 4.0 International

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Collections

School of Law (Scholarly Articles)