Votes for Prisoners? Democracy and the European Convention on Human Rights

Decisions of the European Court of Human Rights holding that the UK's blanket ban on voting by convicted prisoners violates Article 3 of Protocol 1 to the European Convention on Human Rights have caused controversy in the UK.
Professor David Feldman discusses the judgements of the European Court, and considers the principles behind allowing prisoners to vote.
Professor Feldman is Rouse Ball Professor of English Law, Honorary Bencher of Lincoln's Inn, and Fellow of the British Academy. He has acted as advisor to a number of Government Joint Select Committees, and was Judge of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina 2002-10. For more information about Professor Feldman, please refer to his profile at www.law.cam.ac....
Law in Focus is a collection of short videos featuring academics from the University of Cambridge Faculty of Law, addressing legal issues in current affairs and the news. These issues are examples of the many which challenge researchers and students studying undergraduate and postgraduate law at the Faculty.
Russian subtitles supplied courtesy of Anton Burkov.

[@andrewgray2213]

I shall state the obvious " Do you want the same guy who killed,burgled,groomed,assaulted,sold people, commit GTA & burned places down like Tottenham to be given the same rights that we lawful people have been born lived & died for to keep ourselves free & democratic from those persecutions I humbly say WE DO NOT ALLOW such a thing to occur, imprisonment is supposed to be a punishment not a picnic in the park.

[@LordSandwichII]

andrew gray How would allowing prisoners the right to vote make prisons "a picnic in the park?"

[@biffa28]

Yes, I would think that voting would be more of a duty, than a right, as an offender would have the same choices as a non offender as to who would legislate. They are not excluded from the census, why be excluded from electing?

[@PelczarTomasz]

Let's Cambridge ...

[@Iolis]

A clear and lucid exposition. Many thanks.

[@hillarycurtis2181]

What was the case against Belgium he mentioned? I can't get it

[@MinoKingasLT]

What countries allow their prisoners to vote?

[@steadmanuhlich6734]

Here is a PARTIAL list of countries that allow prisoners to vote. List of countries that allow prisoners to vote while incarcerated: Canada Croatia Czech Republic Denmark Finland France Germany Ireland Israel Kenya Latvia Lithuania Macedonia Montenegro Netherlands Norway Peru Poland Romania Serbia Spain Sweden Ukraine Zimbabwe List of states in the US that allow it Maine Vermont U.S. Territories Puerto Rico

[@TheAb636]

and now with Russian transcripts!