Human Rights Unit 4

Question 1

Intro

Answer 1

Fundamental freedoms everyone should have including right to privacy.
Inalienable as cannot be taken away; universal as apply to everyone and interdependent as each right relies on the others to contribute to a person’s dignity.
The Human Rights Act 1998 (HRA) incorporates from European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) into UK law to argue Human rights in domestic courts.

Question 2

Before HRA

Answer 2

Limited protection.
Traditionally in the UK people benefitted from residual freedoms.
What not allowed to do set out in law, but what you are allowed to do is not set out in law.
Difficult to enforce as in Malone v MPS where the tight to privacy was not recognised by English and Welsh law.

UK signatory to ECHR only able to argue Human rights cases in the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in Strasbourg.
Right of individual petition was not granted until 1966 and only available when all domestic remedies exhausted.
Protection by ECHR was inaccessible to many as limited time and money for a long and expensive process in the ECtHR.

Answer 3

Convention not binding in UK courts as a source of law (R v Secretary