"Baroness Helena Kennedy is one of the most powerful voices in legal circles in Britain today. Here she challenges the record of modern governments - even, or especially, 'benign' democracies - with regard to essential democratic rights, and insists that we return to the fundamental values of equality, fairness and respect for human dignity. She argues that in the last twenty years we have seen a steady erosion of civil liberties, culminating today in extraordinary legislation which undermines long established freedoms."--BOOK JACKET.