By providing enforceable remedies for breaches of Convention Rights in domestic courts, and in allowing judges to scrutinise parliamentary legislation on human rights grounds, the United Kingdom's Human Rights Act 1998 marked a sea-change in the relationships between the individual and the state, and between the courts and the political branches of government, as they had been traditionally understood. Despite the undeniable practical importance of the Human Rights Act, widespread political and popular scepticism over the nature of rights adjudication and the relationship between human rights laws and-for instance-measures designed to combat terrorism and crime, has prevented the Human Rights Act from being seen as an established and essential part of our constitutional structures. This uncertainty has not however prevented the Human Rights Act from exerting significant constitutional influence within the United Kingdom, within the framework provided by the European Convention and European Court of Human Rights, and beyond. This edited collection of essays therefore seeks to chart the lasting constitutional impact of the Human Rights Act at a point when its political future is far from assured. To that end, chapters examine the relationships between the Human Rights Act and domestic constitutional doctrine, with the Convention's enforcement bodies at Strasbourg and with statutory bills of rights in other common law jurisdictions. Further, the collection goes on to examine the permanence of changes initiated in domestic legal reasoning and process-including to judicial technique and in advocacy-before finally turning to examine how the experience of the Human Rights Act might influence the future development of a Bill of Rights for the United Kingdom.

The United Kingdom's Statutory Bill of Rights: Constitutional and Comparative Perspectives (Proceedings of the British Academy)

Leigh, Ian

Masterman, Roger

Legal Theory & Systems

British Academy

How, in a democratic state, can the competing interests of the need for national security and the demand for open government be reconciled? Should Security Services have a legal obligation to report their activities and should their members be held liable for exceeding the powers bestowed upon them by Parliament? These questions have taxed governments and academic commentators for generations until now. The early 1990s have witnessed an unprecedented change in public opinion and governmental attitude away from the extreme levels of secrecy and mystery which have traditionally enshrouded the Security Services. In this searching analysis, two leading constitutional lawyers shed light on the legal powers and basis of this murky area of government, comparing the accountability of Britain's Security Services with the very different situations in Canada and Australia. The authors question whether we still need, or should tolerate, the level of secrecy together with all the possibilities for misuse and abuse of power which accompany it in this authoritative study of the constitutional and legal position of the Security Services in Britain.

In From the Cold: National Security and Parliamentary Democracy

Science & Math

Lustgarten, Laurence

Biological Sciences

Oxford University Press

To what extent should states accommodate religious liberty claims? Can the pluralist state be neutral between religions and secularism? This book explores contemporary legal controversies regarding the protection of religious liberty from a theoretical and comparative perspective, looking at issues such as family and parenting, medical treatment, education, employment, religious group autonomy, and freedom of expression.

Religious Freedom in the Liberal State

Ahdar, Rex

Examining the law and public policy relating to religious liberty in Western liberal democracies, this book contains a detailed analysis of the history, rationale, scope, and limits of religious freedom from (but not restricted to) an evangelical Christian perspective. Focussing on United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and EU, it studies the interaction between law and religion at several different levels, looking at the key debates that have arisen. Divided into three parts, the book begins by contrasting the liberal and Christian rationales for and understandings of religious freedom. It then explores central thematic issues: the types of constitutional frameworks within which any right to religious exercise must operate; the varieties of paradigmatic relationships between organized religion and the state; the meaning of 'religion'; the limitations upon individual and institutional religious behaviour; and the domestic and international legal mechanisms that have evolved to address religious conduct. The final part explores key subject areas where current religious freedom controversies have arisen: employment; education; parental rights and childrearing; controls on pro-religious and anti-religious expression; medical treatment; and religious group (church) autonomy. This new edition is fully updated with the growing case law in the area, and features increased coverage of Islam and the flashpoint debates surrounding the accommodation of Muslim beliefs and practices in Anglophone nations.

More than five years after the commencement of the UK's Human Rights Act 1998, it is timely to evaluate the Act's effectiveness. The focus of Making Rights Real is on the extent to which the Act has delivered on the promise to 'bring rights home.' The book considers how the judiciary, Parliament, and the executive in the UK have performed in the new roles that the Human Rights Act requires them to play. This account cuts through the rhetoric and controversy surrounding the Act, generated by its champions and detractors alike, to reach a measured assessment. The true impact on public law, civil law, criminal law, and on anti-terrorism legislation are each considered.

Making Rights Real: The Human Rights Act in its First Decade (Human Rights Law in Perspective)

Constitutional Law

Hart Publishing

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Books by Leigh, Ian

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Leigh, Ian. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The United Kingdom's Statutory Bill of Rights: Constitutional and Comparative Perspectives (Proceedings of the British Academy)

In From the Cold: National Security and Parliamentary Democracy

Religious Freedom in the Liberal State

Religious Freedom in the Liberal State

Making Rights Real: The Human Rights Act in its First Decade (Human Rights Law in Perspective)