Proposed British Bill of Rights

The Proposed British Bill of Rights is a proposal of the Conservative Government, included in their 2015 election manifesto, to replace the Human Rights Act 1998 with a new piece of primary legislation. The proposed reform is being overseen by the current Conservative Lord Chancellor, Michael Gove.

Background

Prior to the 2010 general election, Conservative party leader David Cameron proposed replacing the Human Rights Act with a new "British Bill of Rights". After forming a coalition with the Liberal Democrats, these plans were shelved and reinstated only after the Conservative party won an overall majority in the 2015 general election. Prime Minister David Cameron then vowed to put right what he termed the "complete mess" of Britain's human rights laws, on the 800th anniversary of the passage of the Magna Carta by one of the UK's predecessors, the Kingdom of England.[1] Tensions have arisen between those on the political right in the UK, and the European Court of Human Rights, over issues such as prisoner voting.[2]

Differences from the Human Rights Act

Specific details on the specific legislation at this point are unknown, due to sparse information being published as of yet, however, some proposed differences between current legislation and a "British Bill of Rights", have already been made apparent, due to the way in which the Westminster system operates.

Currently, in order to change the text of the European Convention on Human Rights, there must be broad to unanimous agreement between member states of the Council of Europe. With a "British Bill of Rights", however, rights would be set forth by the UK parliament or by another body directly on its behalf, operating under the principle of parliamentary sovereignty. The ability to alter what constitutes a "right" would thus ultimately rest with the current parliament of the time, even if had previously delegated that authority to another body.

As a result of this difference, European courts, such as the European Court of Human Rights, would not be able to impose their decisions on the UK over the objections of the UK parliament. However, because under UK law, no parliament may bind the actions of any future parliament, such a bill would give a sitting UK government the power to make any Human Rights Bill comply with their actions, rather than their actions being bound by a Human Rights Bill.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "David Cameron: I'll fix human rights 'mess'". BBC News.
  2. ↑ Myers, Rupert. "Rupert Myers: A British Bill of Rights should let some prisoners vote". The Telegraph. Retrieved 25 June 2015.

External links

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