UK Politics: Rights and Democracy Lecture Notes

A comprehensive set of vocabulary flashcards covering rights, legal milestones, and the roles of the judiciary and parliament in the UK political system, based on the provided lecture transcript.

Rights (Civil Liberties)

Legally protected freedoms that are absolute, universal, and fundamental, meaning they apply to everyone and cannot be compromised or removed.

Negative Rights

Permissions to do anything that is not explicitly prohibited by law; the primary way rights existed in the UK prior to the Human Rights Act 1998.

Rights-based Culture

A political environment developed since the Human Rights Act where all new legislation must be compliant with the act and judges can declare acts of parliament incompatible with it.

Civic Responsibilities

Legal obligations such as obeying the law, paying taxes, and performing jury service, as well as moral responsibilities like voting.

Active Citizenship

An extension of civic responsibility that involves offering voluntary community service.

Social Rights

Contentious rights including the right to education, employment, healthcare, and welfare support.

Magna Carta (1215)

The oldest statement of rights in the UK, originally intended to limit royal power under King John and regarded as establishing the right to trial by jury.

The Bill of Rights (1689)

An act that further restricted the power of the monarch and increased the power of Parliament.

European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) (1950)

An international treaty drawn up by the Council of Europe, establishing the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

Human Rights Act (1998)

Legislation passed by New Labour that enshrined the ECHR into UK law, allowing rights to be defended in UK courts starting in 2000.

Joint Committee on Human Rights

A parliamentary committee that scrutinizes bills to ensure they are compatible with human rights standards.

Declaration of Incompatibility

A ruling by a judge stating that an earlier act of parliament does not comply with the Human Rights Act, though it cannot legally compel parliament to change the law.

Freedom of Information Act (2000)

Legislation that allows opposition MPs, journalists, and the public to access information held by public bodies.

Equality Act (2010)

An act that consolidated earlier legislation to outlaw discrimination based on nine protected characteristics.

Protected Characteristics

The nine grounds identified by the Equality Act 2010: age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage/civil partnership, pregnancy/maternity, race, religion/belief, sex, and sexual orientation.

Judicial Review

A court proceeding where a judge reviews the lawfulness of a decision or action by a public body to ensure it is not 'ultra vires'.

Ultra Vires

A legal term meaning 'beyond the law' or acting beyond the authority granted by legislation.

Refoulement

The act of forcibly returning refugees or asylum seekers to a country where they are likely to face persecution.

Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill

Legislation receiving Royal Assent in April 2024 stating Rwanda must be considered a safe country, effectively setting aside international law for deportations.

Stonewall

An LGBT rights charity that transitioned from an outsider group in 1989 to an insider group under New Labour, before returning to outsider status in 2022.

Care4Calais

An outsider cause pressure group that uses legal challenges to campaign for refugee rights in the UK.

Liberty

A pressure group that campaigns to protect civil liberties through courts, parliament, and public campaigns to engender a 'rights culture'.

Howard League for Penal Reform

An outsider causal pressure group that advocates for the rights of prisoners.

Policing, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022

Legislation giving police greater powers to restrict 'unacceptable protests' based on noise or proximity to parliament.

Public Order Act 2023

An act response to groups like Just Stop Oil that introduced new offences such as 'locking-on' and interfering with national infrastructure.

Locking-on

A protest tactic of attaching oneself to objects or other people to cause serious disruption, criminalized by the Public Order Act 2023.

Voter ID Laws

Regulations implemented in May 2023 requiring voters to present specific forms of photo identification at polling stations.

Control Orders

A system introduced in 2005 to monitor terror suspects through electronic tagging and restricting phone/internet access, following a 2004 ruling against indefinite detention.

Terrorism Prevention and Investigation Measures (TPIMs)

The modified version of control orders introduced by the coalition government in 2011.