Development of rights and formal equality in the UK

early rights

• first set of civil liberties to uk = magna carta 1215, first attempt to limit power of monarch and ensure protection vs arbitrary rule, included right to trial by jury and monarch only impose tax w consent of ppl.

• 1689, parl drafted bill of rights, another set of civil liberties designed to protect the ppl of E from potential military dictatorship when offer throne to william of orange, ensure monarch couldn’t take E into foreign war without its agreement and that ppl were free from “cruel and unusual punishment”

common law rights

• traditional status of rights in UK has been that every citizen was assumed to have rights unless were prohibited by law, these rights were sometimes referred to as residual or negative rights, eg- was assumed that ppl had freedom of movement unless there was some legal obstruction like if a person was convicted of a crime

• rights were sometimes specifically stated as a result of court case when rights were in dispute, judge decided what was normal or traditional way in which disputed be settled, then declare war understood rights to be- common law

• eg- Donoghue drank ginger beer found decomposed snail, sue manufacturer even tho didnt buy product herself, judge= neighbour principle estab manufacturers owe duty of care to consumers.

HRA 1998

• brought into effect European Convention on HR, estab by council of Europe 1950

• HRA, came in force 200 making ECHR statute law

• HRA estab wide range of rights to replace patchwork of statute n common law rights in uk, binding on all public bodies other than UK parl, also enforced by all courts in UK, so that laws passed at any level should conform to requirements.

Freedom of info act 2000

• historically citizens x right to see info held by public bodies whether it related personally to them or not, clear UK out of step w much of modern democ

• labour gov came to power UK 1997- Freedom of info act 2000

• since act passed proved invaluable tool for social and political campaigners for MP and media allowing them to discover info that wasn’t available in past, help improve services like health, police, civil service.

Equality act 2010

• two parl statutes prior to equality act that estab formal equality in the uk, race rs act 1965, outlawed discrimination of most kinds on ground of persons race or ethnicity. equal pay act 1970, required employers to offer equal pay to men n women doing same job. failed to estab equality in full sense of word and missed out important groups in society who suffered discrimination.

• → equality act passed 2010, requires all leg and all decision making by gov at any level, must take into acc formal equality for diff sections of society

• equality is required and discrimination outlawed on- age, diversity, disability, gender reassignment, marriage, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation.

• in theory any kind of discrimination is unlawful under act, in practice applies to- employment n pay, gov services, healthcare, housing, education, financial services, policing and law enforcement