Breaking curfew: yobs beat labour.

• Author: Koffler, Daniel
• Position: Child curfew rule - Brief Article

WHEN BRITAIN'S Labour Party was re-elected in May with a majority large enough to conduct the business of government without bothering to consult the opposition, Prime Minister Tony Blair had little reason to expect any obstacles to expanding his crackdown on "yobbish antisocial behaviour." (Yob means a rude or thuggish young male, for those of you who don't speak British.) But only two months into Blair's third term, a 15-year-old boy, known only as W, managed to do what Britain's feeble Tories have not been able to accomplish since Labour came to power in 1997: overturn a Blair policy.

At issue are the U.K.'s child curfew laws, which permit police to forcibly send home anyone under the age of 16, whether behaving socially or anti-socially, who is caught outside after 9 p.m. without an adult. Citing the European Convention on Human Rights, W brought...