Monitoring the Government's response to court judgments finding breaches of human rights

Monitoring the Government's response to court judgments finding breaches of human rights
Author: Great Britain: Parliament: Joint Committee on Human Rights
Publisher: The Stationery Office
Total Pages: 158
Release: 2007-06-28
Genre: Law
ISBN: 0104011068

In the UK's institutional arrangements for protecting human rights, both Parliament and the judiciary have a central role. When the courts give a judgement finding that a law, policy or practice is in breach of human rights, it is for Parliament to scrutinise the adequacy of the Government's response and in some cases decide if there needs to be a change in law. An important part of the role of the Committee is to help Parliament in this function. This report brings together all their monitoring work in relation to both judgements of the European Court of Human Rights and declarations of incompatibility given by UK courts under the Human Rights Act.

Monitoring the Government's Response to Human Rights Judgments

Monitoring the Government's Response to Human Rights Judgments
Author: Great Britain. Parliament. Joint Committee on Human Rights
Publisher: The Stationery Office
Total Pages: 116
Release: 2008
Genre: Law
ISBN: 9780104013687

This is the Committee's second annual report monitoring the Government's response to human rights judgments in the European Court of Human Rights. The Committee criticises the Government for its failure to respond to many of its recommendations in its previous report (17th report session 2006-07, HL 128/HC 728, ISBN 9780104011065). The Committee believes the Government should take a consistent and transparent approach across departments to the way in which it responds to declarations of incompatibility and judgments fro the European Court, with the Ministry of Justice co-ordinating the response to adverse judgments. This report also examines a number of issues arising from outstanding judgments: access to artificial insemination for prisoners and their partners; controlling membership of trade union; prisoners' voting rights; investigations into cases involving the use of lethal force; security of tenure for gypsies and travellers, and the corporal punishment of children.

Parliaments and Human Rights

Parliaments and Human Rights
Author: Murray Hunt
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 735
Release: 2015-04-30
Genre: Law
ISBN: 1782254382

In many countries today there is a growing and genuinely-held concern that the institutional arrangements for the protection of human rights suffer from a 'democratic deficit'. Yet at the same time there appears to be a new consensus that human rights require legal protection and that all branches of the state have a shared responsibility for upholding and realising those legally protected rights. This volume of essays tries to understand this paradox by considering how parliaments have sought to discharge their responsibility to protect human rights. Contributors seek to take stock of the extent to which national and sub-national parliaments have developed legislative review for human rights compatibility, and the effect of international initiatives to increase the role of parliaments in relation to human rights. They also consider the relationship between legislative review and judicial review for human rights compatibility, and whether courts could do more to incentivise better democratic deliberation about human rights. Enhancing the role of parliaments in the protection and realisation of human rights emerges as an idea whose time has come, but the volume makes clear that there is a great deal more to do in all parliaments to develop the institutional structures, processes and mechanisms necessary to put human rights at the centre of their function of making law and holding the government to account. The sense of democratic deficit is unlikely to dissipate unless parliaments empower themselves by exercising the considerable powers and responsibilities they already have to interpret and apply human rights law, and courts in turn pay closer attention to that reasoned consideration. 'I believe that this book will be of enormous value to all of those interested in human rights, in modern legislatures, and the relationship between the two. As this is absolutely fundamental to the characterand credibility of democracy, academic insight of this sort is especially welcome. This is an area where I expect there to be an ever expanding community of interest.' From the Foreword by the Rt Hon John Bercow MP, Speaker of the House of Commons

Parliaments and the European Court of Human Rights

Parliaments and the European Court of Human Rights
Author: Alice Donald
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 419
Release: 2016-08-18
Genre: Law
ISBN: 0191093165

The European system of human rights protection faces institutional and political pressures which threaten its very survival. These institional pressures stem from the backlog of applications before the European Court of Human Rights, the large number of its judgments that remain unimplemented, and the political pressures that arise from sustained attacks on the Court's legitimacy and authority, notably from politicians and jurists in the United Kingdom. This book addresses the theme which lies at the heart of these pressures: the role of national parliaments in the implementation of judgments of the Court. It combines theoretical and empirical insights into the role of parliaments in securing domestic compliance with the Court's decisions, and provides detailed investigation of five European states with differing records of human rights compliance and parliamentary mobilisation: Ukraine, Romania, the United Kingdom, Germany, and the Netherlands. How far are parliaments engaged in implementation, and how far should they be? Do parliaments advance or hinder human rights compliance? Is it ever justifiable for parliaments to defy judgments of the Court? And how significant is the role played by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe? Drawing on the fields of international law, international relations, political science, and political philosophy, the book argues that adverse human rights judgments not only confer obligations on parliamentarians but also create opportunities for them to develop influential interpretations of human rights and enhance their own democratic legitimacy. It makes an authoritative contribution to debate about the future of the European and other supranational human rights mechanisms and the broader relationship between democracy, human rights, and legitimate authority.

Enhancing Parliament's role in relation to human rights judgements

Enhancing Parliament's role in relation to human rights judgements
Author: Great Britain: Parliament: Joint Committee on Human Rights
Publisher: The Stationery Office
Total Pages: 150
Release: 2010-03-26
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9780108459771

Enhancing Parliament's role in relation to human rights Judgments : Fifteenth report of session 2009-10, report, together with formal minutes and written Evidence

The UK and European Human Rights

The UK and European Human Rights
Author: Katja S Ziegler
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 815
Release: 2015-10-22
Genre: Law
ISBN: 1509902007

The UK's engagement with the legal protection of human rights at a European level has been, at varying stages, pioneering, sceptical and antagonistic. The UK government, media and public opinion have all at times expressed concerns about the growing influence of European human rights law, particularly in the controversial contexts of prisoner voting and deportation of suspected terrorists as well as in the context of British military action abroad. British politicians and judges have also, however, played important roles in drafting, implementing and interpreting the European Convention on Human Rights. Its incorporation into domestic law in the Human Rights Act 1998 intensified the ongoing debate about the UK's international and regional human rights commitments. Furthermore, the increasing importance of the European Union in the human rights sphere has added another layer to the relationship and highlights the complex relationship(s) between the UK government, the Westminster Parliament and judges in the UK, Strasbourg and Luxembourg. The book analyses the topical and contentious issue of the relationship between the UK and the European systems for the protection of human rights (ECHR and EU) from doctrinal, contextual and comparative perspectives and explores factors that influence the relationship of the UK and European human rights.

The European Court of Human Rights

The European Court of Human Rights
Author: Helmut P. Aust
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
Total Pages: 296
Release: 2021-04-30
Genre: Law
ISBN: 1839108347

This insightful book considers how the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) is faced with numerous challenges which emanate from authoritarian and populist tendencies arising across its member states. It argues that it is now time to reassess how the ECHR responds to such challenges to the protection of human rights in the light of its historical origins.

Protecting the right to freedom of expression under the European Convention on Human Rights

Protecting the right to freedom of expression under the European Convention on Human Rights
Author: Bychawska-Siniarska, Dominika
Publisher: Council of Europe
Total Pages: 124
Release: 2017-08-04
Genre: Political Science
ISBN:

European Convention on Human Rights – Article 10 – Freedom of expression 1. Everyone has the right to freedom of expression. This right shall include freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority and regardless of frontiers. This article shall not prevent States from requiring the licensing of broadcasting, television or cinema enterprises. 2. The exercise of these freedoms, since it carries with it duties and responsibilities, may be subject to such formalities, conditions, restrictions or penalties as are prescribed by law and are necessary in a democratic society, in the interests of national security, territorial integrity or public safety, for the prevention of disorder or crime, for the protection of health or morals, for the protection of the reputation or rights of others, for preventing the disclosure of information received in confidence, or for maintaining the authority and impartiality of the judiciary. In the context of an effective democracy and respect for human rights mentioned in the Preamble to the European Convention on Human Rights, freedom of expression is not only important in its own right, but it also plays a central part in the protection of other rights under the Convention. Without a broad guarantee of the right to freedom of expression protected by independent and impartial courts, there is no free country, there is no democracy. This general proposition is undeniable. This handbook is a practical tool for legal professionals from Council of Europe member states who wish to strengthen their skills in applying the European Convention on Human Rights and the case law of the European Court of Human Rights in their daily work.

Responding to Human Rights Judgments

Responding to Human Rights Judgments
Author: Great Britain. Ministry of Justice
Publisher: The Stationery Office
Total Pages: 64
Release: 2009
Genre: Law
ISBN: 9780101752428

On 31 October, 2008 the Joint Committee on Human Rights (the Joint Committee) published its report Monitoring the Government's Response to Human Rights Judgments: Annual Report 2008 (HL 173/HC 1078). This title sets out the Government's position on the implementation of human rights judgments.