Critically Examining the Case Against the 1998 Human Rights Act

Since its inception in 1998 the Human Rights Act (HRA) has come in for a wide variety of criticism on legal, constitutional, political and cultural grounds. More recently, this criticism escalated significantly as politicians have seriously considered proposals for its abolition. This book examines the main arguments against the HRA and the issues which have led to public hostility against the protection of human rights. The first part of the book looks at the legal structures and constitutional aspects of the case against the HRA, including the criticism that the HRA is undemocratic and is used by judges to subvert the will of parliament. The second part of the book looks at specific issues, such as immigration and terrorism, where cases involving the HRA have triggered broader public concerns about the protection of human rights. The final section of this book looks at some of the structural issues that have generated hostility to the HRA, such as media coverage and the perception of the legal profession. This book aims to unpick the complex climate of hostility that the HRA has faced and examine the social, political and legal forces that continue to inform the case against the HRA.

Frederick Cowell is a Lecturer in Law at the School of Law, Birkbeck College, University of London

Introduction - Defining and understanding the case against the Human Rights Act FREDERICK COWELL PART I: The Historical Roots of the case against the Human Rights Act - The Magna Carta's Tainted Legacy: Historic Justifications for a British Bill of Rights and the case against the Human Rights Act COLIN MURRAY - England's terror of the French Revolution: the historical roots of resistance to the rights of man and the case against the Human Rights Act BILL BOWRING PART II: Sovereignty - An Ingenious Failure? The Human Rights Act and Parliamentary Sovereignty STEPHEN J. DIMELOW - Dialogue or Dictat?: The nature of the interaction between national courts and the European Court of Human Rights and how it influences criticism of the Human Rights Act KANSTANTSIN DZEHTSIAROU - Taking Sovereignty Seriously ADAM TUCKER PART III: Controversial Claimants under the Human Rights Act - Terrorist threats, Anti-Terrorism and the case against the Human Rights Act CONOR GEARTY - Deportation and the Human Rights Act: Debunking the Myths SIOBHAN LLOYD - Welfare, Anti-austerity and Gender: New territory and new sources of hostility for the Human Rights Act LAURA LAMMASNIEMI PART IV: The structural basis of hostility to the Human Rights Act - Moving away from common sense: the impact of the juridification of human rights NICOLAS KANG-RIOU - 'Why should criminals have human rights?': The underserving rights holder and the case against the Human Rights Act FREDERICK COWELL - The failure of the Human Rights Act to construct a 'rights culture' in the UK TRUDY MORGAN