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legislatures. Quite possibly, he submitted, their effect may even be to lead the Court of Justice to go further than Strasbourg case-law by prohibiting on a more extensive basis any limitations on the democratically based universal suffrage to which the Treaties refer. 47. If Mr Southey’s wider submission with regard to the wholesale importation into European Community or Union law of the Strasbourg jurisprudence regarding the right to vote were valid, it would be surprising to find no hint of this in any Court of Justice judgment. That is particularly so with regard to Case C-145/04 Spain v United Kingdom [2006] ECR I-7917 and Case 300/04 Eman and Sevinger v College van Burgemeester en Wethouders van den Haag [2006] ECR I-8055, despite the difference in the actual issues. Mr Southey’s submission would also mean that a case such as Matthews v United Kingdom (1999) 28 EHRR 361 could, now at least, be pursued in either of two parallel forums. Spain v United Kingdom and Eman and Sevinger 48. The judgments in Spain v United Kingdom and Eman and Sevinger were both issued on the same day (12 September 2006) following an opinion of Advocate General Tizzano (dated 6 April 2006) which had covered both cases. The judgments contain discussion of the scope and effect of European Treaty law which bears on both Mr Southey’s wider and Mr O’Neill’s narrower submissions. In Spain v United Kingdom the first issue was whether it was legitimate under European law for the United Kingdom to extend the franchise in European Parliamentary elections to qualifying Commonwealth citizens, as well as European Union citizens, registered in the Gibraltar register. The Court held (para 78) that, in the then current state of Community law “the definition of the persons entitled to vote and to stand as a candidate in elections to the European Parliament falls within the competence of each Member State in compliance with Community law, and that Articles 189 EC, 190 EC, 17 EC and 19 EC do not preclude the Member States from granting that right to vote and to stand as a candidate to certain persons who have close links to them, other than their own nationals or citizens of the Union resident in their territory.” 49. In the course of its reasoning, the Court said: Page 27

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Chester v. Secretary of State for Justice

Judgment

Alleged Acts: Two plaintiffs claimed their rights were infringed based on their disenfranchisement. The first plaintiff served the entirety of his sentence and filed suit under the United Kingdom’s Article 3 of Protocol No. 1 claiming that his right to vote in the European Parliamentary Elections was infringed. The second plaintiff finished his sentence, but had several intervening violent offenses and filed his suit under the European Union law exclusively claiming that his right to vote municipal and Scottish Parliamentary elections was infringed.

Procedural history: The lower courts dismissed both claims. The first plaintiff’s claim was dismissed because the court found that it was not their role to sanction the government for delay in implementing the European Court of Human Rights ruling Hirst v. United Kingdom. The second plaintiff’s claim was dismissed because the included the Scottish Parliamentary which were not considered municipal elections and the EU law required the right to vote in municipal elections in member states where the citizen is residing but not citizen. Therefore, the local municipal elections also did not apply. The second plaintiff was denied the opportunity to amend the complaint to include European Parliamentary Elections.

Summary: The court determined that the law does not incorporate any additional voting rights as those outlined in the European Court of Human Rights. If there were relevant provisions that engaged a right to vote beyond the European Court of Human Rights, the court here could merely declare the two inconsistent with the United Kingdom’s laws. Further, the court may not create laws to bring any alleged compatibility, that role would be reserved for Parliament.

Conclusion: Both appeals for infringing voting rights are dismissed are dismissed.

Legal Issue(s)

Judicial Independence
Voter Registration

Region: Europe and Eurasia

Country: United Kingdom

Language of Decision

English

Court: Supreme Court

Election Type: Review of law

Date of decision: Oct 16, 2013

Geolocation

Latitude: 51.58405438621691

Longitude: -0.152343750002267

: Geolocation

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Chester v. Secretary of State for Justice.pdf
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Election Judgments - IFES

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Chester v. Secretary of State for Justice

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