Tag: the Registration Appeal Court had the power to issue a declaration of the incompatibility of Westminster legislation with Convention rights

 

In Smith v Scott 2007 CSIH 9, accessible at http://www.scotcourts.gov.uk/opinions/2007CSIH9.html,  the Court of Session as the Registration Appeal Court found that section 3(1) of the Representation of the People Act 1983 (A convicted person during the time that he is detained in a penal institution in pursuance of his sentence … is legally incapable of voting at any parliamentary or local government election“) was incompatible with Article 3 of the First Protocol of the European Convention of Human Rights (“The High Contracting Parties undertake to hold free elections at reasonable intervals by secret ballot