Tag: European Convention on Human Rights
-
Sanjit Nagi: The Stranglehold of New Labour and Lord Irvine’s Rights-based Constitution
Last year’s Supreme Court decision in R (AAA) v Home Secretary – which found the British government’s Rwanda policy to be unlawful – has reignited broader debates about the position of a government which commands a majority in Parliament vis a vis the judiciary, the separation of powers, the extent to which legislating against judicial…
-
Jeevan Hariharan: The Changing Face of Horizontal Effect
On 10 March, Lord Sales delivered the Cambridge Freshfields Annual Law Lecture on the topic of ‘constitutional values in the common law of obligations’. The lecture, which has not been discussed so far on this blog, seeks to explain how constitutional values familiar from the world of public law (such as freedom of expression, liberty…
-
James Robottom: The State’s Legal Duty to Hold an Independent Inquiry into the Mass Disappearance of Asylum Seeking Children in its Care
The disappearance of hundreds of asylum seeking children out of Home Office run hotels is an issue of acute national concern. After the Observer reported on 21 January 2023 that “[d]ozens of asylum-seeking children ha[d] been kidnapped by gangs from a Brighton hotel run by the Home Office in a pattern apparently being repeated across the south…
-
Karolina Szopa: Triumph for Abortion Rights, or a Trojan Horse? The Abortion Services (Safe Access Zones) (Northern Ireland) Bill and Proportionality Assessment
Introduction On the 7 December 2022, the judgment of the UK Supreme Court in the Reference by the Attorney General for Northern Ireland – Abortion Services (Safe Access Zones) (Northern Ireland) Bill (‘SAZ’) affirmed the legality of a measure aimed at strengthening the exercise of the right to abortion in Northern Ireland (NI). The case concerned a…
-
Daniella Lock: UK Government Assessments of Risk to Refugees and ECHR Constraints on UK Immigration Policy in the Rwanda Ruling
This post examines the High Court’s December ruling on the lawfulness of the UK Government’s Rwanda scheme. The Rwanda scheme allows people to be removed to Rwanda to have their asylum claims determined, where that claim is considered inadmissible in the UK. The lawfulness of the scheme partly turned on its compatibility with the UK’s…
-
Roger Masterman: The Convention Rights in the Human Rights Act and under a Bill of Rights: Domestic, European or Both?
*Editors’ note: This post is part of a series on ‘The Human Rights Act After 22 Years’, following the SLS Annual Seminar held in November 2022. You can read the first post in the series here. The extent of the interpretative space which exists to accommodate ‘the domestic’ within the meaning of the Convention rights under the Human Rights Act…
-
Hélène Tyrrell and Conall Mallory: Interpretive Space: The Human Rights Act 1998 v the British Bill of Rights Bill
*Editors’ note: This post is part of a series on ‘The Human Rights Act After 22 Years’, following the SLS Annual Seminar held in November 2022. You can read the first post in the series here. Repeal and replacement of the Human Rights Act 1998 (HRA) has been on and off the political agenda for years. The latest initiative is the Bill…
-
Brice Dickson: The HRA and Legacy Issues in Northern Ireland
*Editors’ note: This post is part of a series on ‘The Human Rights Act After 22 Years’, following the SLS Annual Seminar held in November 2022. You can read the first post in the series here. Generally speaking, the Human Rights Act (HRA) has played a marvellous role in helping the Northern Ireland peace process to…
-
Michael Foran: Interpretation after the Human Rights Act? The Principle of Legality and the Rule of Law
Last week Liz Truss’s cabinet decided to shelve the proposed British Bill of Rights. Quite a lot has been said about the Bill since it was announced and many have welcomed the quiet demise of what was perceived by some to be a dangerous inroad into our human rights protection. Others have suggested that the…
-
Stuart Wallace: Human Rights Claims and Overseas Military Operations: Will Clause 14 of the Bill of Rights Bill Really Limit Victims’ Access to British Courts?
Clause 14 of the Bill of Rights Bill, currently progressing through the UK parliament, introduces a total ban on individuals bringing a human rights claim, or relying on a Convention right, in relation to overseas military operations. As I have argued elsewhere, this is a retrograde development in the law. Thankfully, the clause may never…