Human Rights Act 1998
Add an article Back to list
10 January 2010
The Human Rights Act 1998 came into force on 2nd October 2000
and implemented the European Convention on Human Rights which aimed to protect
rights to life and liberty.
The Act does not apply to criminal proceedings, so cannot assist
a reporter if he or she wants to challenge restrictions imposed by a court.
The interesting thing about the Act and the Convention behind it
is the concept of judge made law. The judiciary can use the Act to exercise what
is fundamentally there own take (known as judicial discretion) on the balancing
of the rights enshrined therein, arguably to a much larger extent than
previously. The law of England and Wales is part legislation and part
judge-made, particularly civil litigation ('tort' law primarily is
non-legislated). The Act could be seen to add judicial discretion to most legal
matters.
The two most pertinent Articles to media law in the Act are
Article 8 and Article 10, and it is the balancing act between these two that
exercises the courts most, and which bring to the area a great deal of
uncertainty, particularly for journalists.
It is in this balancing that some argue the judiciary is failing
in its alleged mission to formulate a new area of law. Judicial discretion in
the courts of England and Wales has a noble heritage, notably Denning, al-time
student favourite.
Tim Mount is a trainee solicitor, contactable at tim.mount@lawdit.co.uk
About the Author
Lawdit Solicitors offer services and
advice for litigation, commercial contracts, Intellectual Property and IT legal
agreements. We are experts in commercial law with a heavy emphasis on
Intellectual Property, Internet and e-commerce law. Lawdit is a member of the
International Trademark Association, the Solicitors' Association of Higher Court
Advocates and we are the appointed Solicitors to the largest webdesign
association in the world, the United Kingdom Website Designers Association.
