Human rights campaigners have attacked Jack Straw's law and order legislation announced in the Queen's Speech on Wednesday.

The government is set to make law and order the central issue of this session, with bills planned to seize the assets of criminals, reform the jury trial system and introduce new measures to clamp down on Britain's "yob culture".

John Wadham, the Director of Liberty, said: "The government continues to confuse being tough on crime with being tough on civil liberties and human rights. Eroding rights does not crack crime. The proposals in the draft bill on the confiscation of financial assets will undermine the presumption of innocence, create a system in which accusations by the police will be enough to force people to disclose all their private financial affairs first to the police and then in public at the trial."

Wadham says the government will make more criminals rather than reduce crime by its measures. "Creating new criminal offences will not make crime disappear. Penalising young people for rowdy behaviour makes more criminals but does little else," he said. "The right to jury trial is a crucial safeguard at the heart of our criminal justice system. Juries ensure that the criminal justice system is not dominated by professionals. Instead ordinary people to decide on guilt or innocence."

Labour MP Paul Flynn, who has signed 12 early day motions to create a Queen's Speech of his own, said: "Legislation of this kind wins votes and I'm in favour of any legislation that wins votes ahead of a general election - but I wouldn't put my praise any higher than that. Elder abuse is one thing that has to be sorted out. I'm not just talking about restoring the earnings link. Elder abuse will be in this decade what child abuse was in the last."