The Human Rights Act

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses the Human Rights Act of 1998, which was passed in Great Britain in order to bring British law into compliance with parts of the European Convention on Human Rights. The paper explains that the Human Rights Act seems to be a simple statement that all public authorities must adhere to all provisions of the Convention. The paper examines what constitutes public authorities and presents several court cases to illustrate the point.

From the Paper:

"The Human Rights Act of 1998 made it illegal for any public body to create rules incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights. The law also allows British citizens who believe their rights have been violated to defend their rights in a British court, where before this they would have been able only to turn to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. This latter option still remains as a last resort. The Act applies only to the government of the United Kingdom, while stronger provisions exist for the devolved Scottish administration under the Scotland Act OF 1998, providing that the Scottish Executive and the Scottish Parliament have no power to do anything contrary to the European Convention on Human Rights."

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