6.) Current Debates about the Extent of Rights and the Effectiveness of Recent Legislation Flashcards
Give arguments for the UK constitution protecting rights?
-Constitutional culture values civil liberties and government formally supports human rights
-Strong legal protection through current legislation
-Strong institutions to protect rights
Give examples for how the UK constitution protects rights?
-All Acts of Parliament declare they’re HRA-compliant
-HRA and ECHR are incorporated into UK law
-Human Rights Commission, which brings cases under the Equality Act
Give arguments for the British constitution not protecting rights?
-Weak political consensus about protecting rights
-Brexit removing safety net of certain EU protections
-UK governments introducing laws which weak human rights legislation
Give an example of the UK constitution not protecting human rights?
-Tory attempts to replace HRA + media attacks on courts for upholding human rights
What did a 2012 British Academy report state about the UK government and human rights?
Between 1966-2010, there had been 14,000 applications to the European Court of Human Rights against the UK government, only 1.3% of the cases found the UK government to be breaching human rights
Give arguments for the UK constitution being codified?
-Greater clarity on what is and isn’t lawful
-Remove vagueness and increase modernisation
-Constitution would entrench rights instead of leaving it up to Parliament
-Conventions can be broken, a codified constitution would stop this
Give arguments against the UK constitution being codified?
-Uncodified constitutions are more flexible E.G early elections
-Parliament would struggle with consensus on codified constitution
-Lack of demand for codified constitution
-Would give unelected judges too much power to decide what is and isn’t constitutional
-It would undermine parliamentary sovereignty
