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Politics (UK ideas) > Rights and civil liberties > Flashcards

Rights and civil liberties Flashcards

1. Milestones in development of rights 2. Rights-based culture

1
Q

What are human rights?

A

Rights an individual possesses by virtue of being human

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2
Q

What are civil liberties?

A

Rights provided by the government to protect citizens from arbitrary state action

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3
Q

What is the difference between human rights and civil liberties?

A

Human rights are universal whilst civil liberties vary based on the constitution of each country

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4
Q

What are positive rights?

A

Rights that are explicitly written in statute law

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5
Q

What are negative rights?

A

Rights that exist due to the absence of a law illegalising it

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6
Q

What are the developments of rights in the UK?

A
  1. Magna Carta 1215
  2. Bill of Rights 1689
  3. European Convention of Human Rights 1950
  4. European Court of Justice
  5. Human Rights Act 1998
  6. Freedom of Information Act 2000
  7. Equality Act 2010
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7
Q

What did the Magna Carta do? (3)

A
  1. Limited the power of the monarch in the judiciary (could not decide if accused was guilty - trial by jury)
  2. Trial by ordeal abolished
  3. Habeus Corpus - right to a fair trail
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8
Q

What did the Bill of Rights do?

A
  1. Further limited the monarch’s power in the judiciary

2. Established key civil liberties, including parliamentary privilege, free speech and regular elections

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9
Q

What is European Convention of Human Rights?

A

An international convention of human rights (not part of the EU)

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10
Q

What are the limitations of the European Convention of Human Rights? (2)

A
  1. It is not binding on national governments

2. Can only be tried in European Court of Human Rights (inaccessible)

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11
Q

What is an example of the UK not following the ECHR?

A

UK does not allow prisoner voting, breaching the right to vote

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12
Q

What is an example of ECHR upholding human rights?

A

The deportation of Abu Qatada was delayed by 8 years as he would have been trailed in Jordan using evidence obtained through torture, a breach of the ECHR freedom from torture. His deportation was only secured after an agreement with Jordan not to use the evidence in the trail against him.

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13
Q

How has the European Court of Justice upheld human rights?

A

Workers’ can appeal for cases regarding EU social policy

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14
Q

What is the Human Rights Act?

A

An act which enshrined the provisions of the ECHR into statute law

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15
Q

What are the pros of the HRA? (2)

A
  1. Binding on virtually all public bodies

2. Can be tried in domestic courts (more accessible)

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16
Q

What are the limitations of the HRA? (3)

A
  1. Not binding on Parliament (judiciary can only issue a declaration of incompatibility, up to Parliament to amend or repeal the offending legislation)
  2. Parliament can repeal HRA at any time
  3. Parliament can seek derogations to the provisions of the HRA
17
Q

How many times has Parliament ignored a declaration of incompatibility?

A

8 out of 20 times

18
Q

What is an example to support Parliament’s favour to repealing the HRA?

A

Conservatives wanted to repeal the HRA and replace it with a British Bill of Rights, but this was delayed due to the coalition and Brexit

19
Q

What is an example of Parliament derogating provisions of the HRA?

A

Parliament derogated the righto liberty in order to detain foreign suspected terrorists without trail after 9/11

20
Q

What is the Freedom of Information Act?

A

An act that grants the public the right to view information held by public bodies

21
Q

What is the Equality Act?

A

An act that codified all anti-discriminatory legislation into one document

22
Q

What are the provisions of the Equality Act?

A

8 areas of social groups, including sex, sexual orientation, disabilities and age

23
Q

What are the limitations of the Equality Act?

A

It lacks sufficient provision for transgender rights (eg. the right to use bathroom facilities of one’s preferred gender; female trans prisoners in male prisons)

24
Q

What is a rights-based culture?

A

A culture where the rights of criminals and terrorists are protected at the expense of the security of the state

25
Q

How does the judiciary protect rights?

A

Judicial review, makes declarations of incompatibility, upholds the rule of law and establishes common law rights

26
Q

What are common law rights?

A

Rights that are originate from legal precedence set by previous rulings of judges

27
Q

What is an example of the judiciary establishing common law rights?

A

Murder is common law

28
Q

What are the limitations of the judiciary protecting rights?

A

Places too much power in the hands of undemocratic and unaccountable judges.
Eg. Judges effectively created a privacy law by placing greater emphasis on the right to privacy of the ECHR than the freedom of the press. This was highlighted in the Max Mosely case in which he won substantial damages after press reported on his sex life. However, subsequent action at the ECrtHR ruled that press did not have to inform individuals before reporting about their private lives

29
Q

Why is there an increase in conflict between the judiciary and Parliament? (3)

A
  1. HRA gives the judiciary greater power to challenge the government
  2. Public can appeal to domestic courts regarding their human rights (previously could only appeal to ECrtHR)
  3. Governments have increasingly been sacrificing civil liberties to ensure the security of the state
30
Q

What are the three areas that warrant most disputes between the judiciary and Parliament?

A

Deportation, detention, and anti-terrorism laws

31
Q

How has the number of judicial reviews changed over the years?

A

Over 4,000 in 2000, increased to over 16,000 in 2013, however decreased to over 4,000 in 2017

32
Q

What is an example that highlights the extent of UK’s rights-based culture?

A

Tony Blair’s attempt to extend the period of time a foreign terror suspect can be detained without trail to 90 days was blocked in the HoC

33
Q

What are two examples of limitations to the extent of UK’s rights-based culture?

A
  1. After judges ruled that detaining foreign terror suspects was discriminatory, Parliament passed an that allowed for them to be electronically tagged and to restrict their mobile and internet usage
  2. GCHQ can legally listen to phone conversations three links away from the terror suspect (eg. terror suspect and mum, mum and friend, friend and friend)
34
Q

What are collective rights?

A

Rights pertaining to society as whole or a group of people within society

35
Q

What are individual rights?

A

Rights pertaining to a single person

36
Q

What are three examples of conflict between collective rights and individual rights?

A
  1. Right to privacy VS freedom of press (eg. Max Mosely case)
  2. Right to privacy VS right to security (eg. GCHQ tapping into conversations 3 links away from a terror suspect)
  3. Right to strike VS right to quality public goods (eg. university lecturer strike)
37
Q

What is a judicial review?

A

When the judiciary investigates if Parliament has acted unlawfully

38
Q

What are two examples of pressure groups trying to defend rights? (1 successful 1 failure)

A
  1. Campaign for Freedom of Information
    - prosed and drafted 5 successful Private Members’ Bills, including the full FoI Act
    - led the amendments for the FoI Act through its parliamentary passage
  2. Liberty
    - failed to abandon the Snoopers’ Charter which obliged internet companies to store information about user’s browsing history for intelligence services despite raising over £50,000 to take legal action
39
Q

How well does the judiciary protect rights in the UK? (2 + 2)

A

YES:
- independent and neutral
- conducts judicial reviews, HRA and established common law rights
NO:
- not entirely independent or neutral
- not able to strike down legislation if non-HRA compliant

Politics (UK ideas) (5 decks)

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