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Human Rights Act of 1998

Decent Essays

The aim of this essay is to critically evaluate the statement 'The European Convention on Human Rights exists to guarantee legal protection to fundamental rights'. It will examine how rights are protected in law and the way the UK approaches the protection of these rights. Explanation will be made of the way that the UK addresses the implementation of the rights in the English legal system. Issues such as conflicting rights and legal limitations will also be considered. An evaluation will be made of whether or not The Human Rights Act 1998 protects the fundamental rights of UK citizens as contained in the European Convention on Human Rights.

Before the Human Rights Act 1998 was passed by parliament it had been considered unnecessary to incorporate the Convention directly into UK law as it was thought that the UK already provided adequate protection for its citizens. However, a number of infringements were identified and this eventually led to the start of the legislative process which resulted in the Human Rights Act 1998.

Arguments that were put forward for the incorporation of The European Convention on Human Rights into UK law were partly based on the costs and time considerations involved in taking cases before the European Court in Strasbourg. The Human Rights Act 1998 gave the citizens of the United Kingdom the right to bring proceedings for the infringement of these rights before the UK courts. Other lines of reasoning concluded that the incorporation would

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