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		</div><p><a href="http://londonglossy.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/prisoners-lose-voting-legal-bid.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-full" title="The High Court has blocked a compensation bid by prisoners barred from voting in last year's general election" src="http://londonglossy.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/min-prisoners-lose-voting-legal-bid.jpg" alt="The High Court has blocked a compensation bid by prisoners barred from voting in last year's general election"/></a></p>
<p>The High Court has blocked a compensation bid by prisoners barred from voting in last year&#8217;s general election.</p>
<p>Claims have been launched in county courts nationwide by 585 serving prisoners, with another 1,000 potential cases in the pipeline, Mr Justice Langstaff was told in London.</p>
<p>Jason Coppel, for the Ministry of Justice, said the cases should be struck out as they were &#8220;misconceived and bound to fail&#8221;.</p>
<p>&#8220;Any remedy is to be sought in Strasbourg and not the domestic courts,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>Convicted prisoners are excluded from the franchise by the Representation of the People Act 1983, which has been held as incompatible with Article 3 of the European Convention.</p>
<p>This has given rise to litigation on a number of fronts &#8211; in Strasbourg where 2,500 UK claims are pending, in Scotland and Northern Ireland, and previously in the High Court in the case of convicted murderer Peter Chester.</p>
<p>Giving his ruling, Mr Justice Langstaff said: &#8220;The case was heard a day before Parliament debated whether it should introduce legislation to amend the 1983 Act. Though the subject matter of each is the same &#8211; the enfranchisement of prisoners &#8211; the role of the courts and of the legislature are distinct.</p>
<p>&#8220;It is no part of the court&#8217;s function to express any view as to the nature of legislative change, if any: merely to rule on that which the laws as currently enacted by Parliament require.</p>
<p>&#8220;This judgment is to the effect that, applying those laws, including the Human Rights Act 1998, a prisoner will not succeed before a court in England and Wales in any claim for damages or a declaration based on his disenfranchisement while serving his sentence.&#8221;</p>
<p>The judge said the fact that the 1983 Act was incompatible with a prisoner&#8217;s Convention rights arose because of the blanket nature of the ban, as previous cases made clear.</p>
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