Tag: Human Rights Act Reform
-
Stefan Theil: Missing the Forest for the Trees – Deficits in Doctrinal Methods and How Data Can Help
Introduction Law and legal scholarship have a problem: a problem with digesting and analysing the sheer volume of decisions reached every year by domestic and international judicial bodies. From January to March 2021 alone, Her Majesty’s Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) recorded 72,000 receipts and disposed of as many cases, with an outstanding caseload of…
-
Richard Clayton QC: The Government’s New Proposals for the Human Rights Act Part 3: An Assessment
This post completes my analysis of the Government’s Proposals for reform of the Human Rights Act 1998, following Part 1 (outlining the proposals) and Part 2 (analysing the interaction with the common law, the UK Supreme Court, and the intention to sharpen the focus on fundamental rights). This post considers three final themes of the…
-
Richard Clayton QC: The Government’s New Proposals for the Human Rights Act Part 2: An Assessment
The Government explains its Proposals in its Human Rights Act Reform: A Modern Bill Of Rights: A consultation to reform the Human Rights Act 1998 (CP 588), which represent a radical departure from the HRA. The specific Proposals are developed in the context of broader themes: respecting our common law traditions and strengthening the role…
-
Richard Clayton: The Government’s New Proposals for the Human Rights Act; Part One – The Proposals in Outline
The Conservative Party has opposed the HRA root and branch ever since its enactment. Manifesto commitments to overhaul the HRA were made in 2010, 2015, 2017, and 2019. In 2015 Prime Minister, David Cameron, said he was open to the “nuclear option” of withdrawing from the European Convention on Human Rights (the ECHR) to ensure…
-
Florence Powell and Stephanie Needleman: How radical an instrument is Section 3 of the Human Rights Act 1998?
The operation of the Human Rights Act 1998 (the “HRA”) is currently being reviewed by the Government’s Independent Human Rights Act Review (the “Review”). One of the Review’s key themes is “the impact of the HRA on the relationship between the judiciary, the executive and the legislature”. In respect of this theme, the Terms of…
-
Daniella Lock, Fiona de Londras and Pablo Grez Hidalgo: Parliamentary Engagement with Human Rights during COVID-19 and the Independent Human Rights Act Review
As the deadline for submissions to Independent Human Rights Act Review (IHRAR) passes this week, the appropriate division of constitutional labour in respect of human rights protection continues to attract debate. The terms of reference for the IHRAR suggest a focus on the role of the courts in protecting rights under the Human Rights Act 1998 (HRA).…
-
Lee Marsons: The Independent Human Rights Act Review (IHRAR) – a welcome change of tone but with concerns ahead
As some readers may know, I have been involved in various modest ways with responding to the ongoing Independent Review of Administrative Law (IRAL). As part of an ESRC project with Maurice Sunkin and Theodore Konstadinides (University of Essex), I assisted The Law Society of England and Wales to produce its response to the panel,…
-
Bethany Shiner and Tanzil Chowdhury: The Overseas Operation (Service Personnel and Veterans) Bill and Impunity of the British State
The Overseas Operation (Service Personnel and Veterans) Bill was introduced in the House of Commons in March 2020 and is due its second reading on 23 September 2020. In short, the Bill aims to limit prosecution and civil proceedings against military personnel, as well as to enable the UK government to derogate from the European…
-
James Bevan: Anti-HRA Rhetoric and the Conservative Party 2019 Manifesto: Are the Proposals for a British Bill of Rights and Repeal of the Human Rights Act “Dead in the Water”?
The ECHR was incorporated into UK domestic law through the Human Rights Act 1998 (HRA), which came into effect in October 2000 and has been hailed as a “constitutional statute” enjoying limited protection from implied repeal which this status brings (see Thoburn v Sunderland City Council). It has been further referred to as a “higher…
-
Helen Fenwick: The Conservative stance in the 2015 election on the UK’s relationship with the Strasbourg Court and its jurisprudence – bluff, exit strategy or compromise on both sides? (Part II)
This is the second in a two-part contribution. Part I is available here. Moves towards repairing relations with the Conservative government by the Strasbourg Court? I have argued elsewhere (on this blog) that the Court has recently adopted an ‘appeasement’ approach towards the UK government. Various judgments could be categorised as reflecting a dialogic approach…