MI5, the Cold War, and the Rule of Law

by Keith Ewing, Joan Mahoney, Andrew Moretta

Overview

This book explores the powers, activities, and accountability of MI5 from the end of the Second World War to 1964. It argues that MI5 acted with neither statutory authority nor statutory powers, and with no obvious forms of statutory accountability. It was established as a counter-espionage agency, yet was beset by espionage scandals on a frequency that suggested if not high levels of incompetence, then high levels of distraction and the squandering of resources.

The book addresses the evolution of MI5's mandate after the Second World War which set out its role and functions, and to a limited extent the lines of accountability, the surveillance targets of MI5 and the surveillance methods that it used for this purpose, with a focus in two chapters on MPs and lawyers respectively; the purposes for which this information was used, principally to exclude people from certain forms of employment; and the accountability of MI5 or the lack thereof for the way in which it discharged its responsibilities under the mandate.

As lawyers the authors' concern is to consider these questions within the context of the rule of law, one of the core principles of the British constitution, the values of which it was the duty of the Security Service to uphold. Based on extensive archival research, it suggests that MI5 operated without legal authority or exceeded the legal authority it did have.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780198818625
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	07/21/2020
Pages:	528
Product dimensions:	9.30(w) x 6.40(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

Keith Ewing, Professor of Public Law, King's College London, Joan Mahoney, University of Southampton, Andrew Moretta, postgraduate research student, University of Liverpool

Keith Ewing is professor of public law at King's College London. He is co-editor of the Oxford Labour Law series and author of numerous books and articles, including Bonfire of the Liberties (OUP 2010) and The Struggle for Civil Liberties (OUP 2001).

Joan Mahoney now teaches at the University of Southampton, having taught for many years in the United States where she was Dean of Wayne State University Law School.

Andrew Moretta is a postgraduate research student at the University of Liverpool. He received his LLM from King's College London in 2012.

Table of Contents

List of Abbreviations xi

1 Introduction 1

2 The Stewart Report 16

3 The Security Service Mandate 33

4 Surveillance Targets 53

5 Surveillance Methods 93

6 Democracy under Surveillance 130

7 The Rule of Law under Surveillance 168

8 The Guilty Secret 205

9 Surveillance and the Purge 230

10 Vetting and the Secret Blacklist 269

11 Surveillance and the Industrial Purge 305

12 Purging the Trade Unions 343

13 The Ubiquitous Lord Radcliffe 374

14 Lord Denning Takes Over 411

15 Conclusion 448

Appendix 475

Bibliography 485

Index 493

Editorial Reviews

"Ewing, Mahoney and Moretta have done a great service to the discipline in demonstrating what can be achieved in the domain of national security law notwithstanding the various obstacles which exist on standard doctrinal and socio-legal research in that field." — Paul F Scott, University of Glasgow, The Edinburgh Law Review

"This book examines the constitutional position of MI5 and how far its practice conforms to its constitutional role. It is a work of immense value for anyone wishing to comprehend the historical role of the secret services and their impact on British life and politics over more than a century. This is an invaluable work of legal history and gives us an understanding of the past, helping us to assess problems of the present and the continued abuse of surveillance powers by the state." — John Green, Theory and Struggle

"Though much of MI5's post-war history remains shrouded in secrecy, the authors have performed a forensic analysis of the available evidence. They reach disturbing conclusions about the overreach of Britain's secret state." — Richard Toye, Aspects of History

"It is a superbly structured work of scholarship which examines a range of topics in depth and rounds off each chapter (and the book itself) with a definitive conclusion." — Kevan Nelson, Morning Star

From the Publisher