In article 01c4e6ec$ba3f56c0$LocalHost@default,
"Michael R N Dolbear" wrote:
Mait001 wrote in article
...
My law Degree is almost 20 years old now! I got it at a time when
jury trial was sacrosanct, innocence till found guilty, no
dentention without trial, Cabinet government, no restrospective
legislation .... How old-fashioned all of this now seems!

2004 - 19 = 1985, was there a "Modern developments" (ie since 1924)
exam ?

no-jury Diplock Courts from 1972 (and the Special Court in Dublin),

Never mind that, what about the introduction of criminal offences
which were summarily triable only? That was some time in the 1980s;
before then, a defendant could insist on a jury trial for literally
anything.

Sir Oswald Mosley interned 1940-1943

One of about 2,000 UK citizens interned under Defence Regulation 18B.
There was internment under Defence Regulation 14B in World War I and
before then when Habeas Corpus was suspended. There were many more
enemy aliens interned during WWII using Royal Prerogative powers -
at least 18B was approved by the Privy Council.

and various IRA suspects in Northern Ireland after 1964.

NI Internment 1971-1975; previously existed during the Irish Civil
War.

Doubt has been cast on whether Cabinet government really exists from
"Parkinson's Law" at least. Retrospective legislation in civil matters
since before 1914, in criminal matters see the Nuremburg trials but
(with a special exception for this) now forbidden by the ECHR.

A good example of a really appalling piece of clearly retrospective
legislation is the Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1968. Thousands of
people retrospectively stripped of UK citizenship and absolutely the
worst thing ever done by a Labour government.

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"The guilty party was the Liberal Democrats and they were hardened offenders,
and coded racism was again in evidence in leaflets distributed in September
1993." - Nigel Copsey, "Contemporary British Fascism", page 62.