IIRC, Habeus Corpus in England goes right back to King Edward I, aka "Edward the Lawgiver" or good ole "Longshanks". I'm not sure of the date it was introduced, but his reign was 1272 to 1307.
Today, it is being 'stretched' in Britain, thanks to "The War on Terror", a term the British government interestingly stopped using this year. The present 'stretching' of this core right relates to the amount of time an individual can be detained by the state without charge. Currently, one can be detained for up to 28 days without charge.
The last Home Secretary under Tony Blair, John Reid, was a campaigner for pushing this 28 day limit up to 90 days, and some high ranking police officials even called for indefinite detention without charge. When the 90 day proposal was contested in Parliament, in 2005, Tony Blair's government was defeated. Our new Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, also called for an extension, up to 56 days. But this was rejected by The Joint Human Rights Committee on the grounds that there was not enough evidence provided by the government to support their proposal.
These calls to extend the time were of course purportedly to deal with the threat of terrorism and were built upon the Anti-Terror legislation passed by Tony Blair's government. However, just this summer, we saw these powers being used on climate change protesters, who are plainly not terrorists. These protesters were locked up, without charge, signaling to the British people for the first time that anyone is fair game, simply if you call them a terrorist or say they are connected with terrorism. And, without any charges, how can this ever be tested?
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The right of Habeus Corpus is one of the most, if not the most, fundamental of human rights granted to individuals. It is essential to a citizen's liberty. Without it there is no safeguard against unwarranted, unexplained, and unjustified detention by the state.
lol
