Abstract
The Security Service Act of 1989 cannot readily be attributed to any external pressure, parliamentary demands, or major scandal. It is a measure that has more to do with internal governmental calculations than with the nature of public debate. Although there had been public discussion of reform and expressions of disquiet over the legal, constitutional, and parliamentary position of the Security Service for some decades, there did not appear to be any irresistible pressure for change. Why then did the government, for the first time in British history, place MI5 in the public, legal, domain?
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Reference
Lord Denning, The Resignation of Mr Profumo, (London: HMSO, 1963).
I. Leigh and L. Lustgarten, ‘The Security Service Act 1989’, Modern Law Review, November 1989, pp. 802–3.
Peter Wright, Spycatcher (New York: Viking Penguin, 1987) p. 54.
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© 1999 K. G. Robertson
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Robertson, K.G. (1999). Defending the Realm: MI5. In: Secrecy and Open Government. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230513020_9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230513020_9
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
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