Rights in Context

Magna Carta, 1215

Restrictions were imposed on the monarchy to stop the monarch from abusing power

Bill of Rights, 1689

Introduced more limits on the power of the monarchy, as well as the rights of parliament (e.g free elections and parliamentary free speech)

European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), 1953

UK government actions needed to be in compliance with the ECHR

European Court of Justice, 1973

After the UK joined the EEC, the ECJ protected the rights of UK workers

Data Protection Act, 1984

protects the personal information that public organisations hold

Human Rights Act, 1998

meant that ECHR became codified into British law

Freedom of Information Act

allows UK citizens to access some information held by public institutions, however national security info for examples cannot be accessed.

Equality Act, 2010

brought all UK anti-discriminatory measures into a single document to protect workers and the general public from discrimination.

Is the HRA 1998 effective? (YES)

means that rights became enshrined in a clear way, must be complied with by legislation, and has meant that citizens can ensure the protection of their rights through UK courts

Is the HRA effective? (NO)

HRA has not been entrenched and so can be replaced and does not offer sufficient protection, it cannot overturn legislations made in parliament, the government can set aside the HRA

Examples of HRA being ineffective

The conservative party has planned to replace the HRA with a British Bill of Rights, and the rights of terror suspects were set aside after 9/11

Why do people argue the UK has a rights-based culture?

All laws passed in the UK must comply with the HRA, and judges can use the HRA to declare existing laws unfit

Individual vs Collective rights

the HRA protects individuals rather than UK citizenship collectively.

Protecting individual rights is seen as positive because

it enables a free and fair society and protects individuals who may face oppression

If individual rights are protected at the expense of collective rights…

there can be restrictions on actions that can be taken to protect the public

Examples of rights conflicts

some UK criminals have not been extradited because of the HRA

After 9/11, the government wanted to detain terror suspects without trial, but this was ruled against by the Law Lords who saw it as discrimination