The infringement of prisoners' right to vote : an analysis of intentions and general principles in due consideration of recent judgements

The right to vote is the most important and often even the only possibility of citizens to participate in a democracy’s governance. Generally accepted democratic principles like the electoral equality and the objective to include all citizens who have acquired their full age and are of sound mind in the decision-making process demand that disenfranchisement may - if at all - only occur in very exceptional cases. However, laws infringing prisoners’ right to vote are widespread and differ greatly among established democracies: While some states do not impose any restrictions on the right of prisoners to vote, others (like many states in the USA) exclude most or all of their detainees from taking part in elections, sometimes even after their release.1 Even though this phenomenon pertains to core issues of democratic principles as well as central human rights aspects, it has not been subject to noteworthy public debate for a long time. Due to several decisions of national constitutional courts and the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) within the last decade, felony disenfranchisement has gained more attention among legal academics. Still, most of this literature is limited to the specific arguments which have been brought forward in the particular court procedures. From my point of view, a holistic analysis which seeks to give a general recommendation whether or not to grant prisoners the right to vote – and if so, what restrictions may still be feasible – must not only focus on a national context, but has to consider legal philosophic and political issues, too. The long grinding debate which is going on in the British Parliament about the amendments demanded by Strasbourg’s European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) emphasises the practical necessity of such a study.

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

Department of Public Law

Year dc:date.issued

2012

Author dc:creator

• Seitz, Florian

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• De Vos, Pierre

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/11427/12663

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/12663