Twenty five years after coming into force, the Human Rights Act has embedded itself in UK law, strengthening rights without unsettling the constitution, writes Alistair Mills
- Considers the methods used in the Human Rights Act 1998 to secure the protection of rights.
- Notes that the Act largely uses existing and recognised legal techniques, easing the adoption of human rights standards.
In the run-up to the passing of the Human Rights Act 1998, some saw a codified set of rights as something foreign to the common law method—and all the more foreign when it came from an instrument entitled the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). On this conception, the Act acted like an organ transplant, importing something from the outside into domestic law.
There are reasons to doubt the appropriateness of this metaphor. There were important ways in which the ECHR reflected the principles of the common law, and was therefore not foreign to the UK’s legal system. Further, technically, the Human Rights Act did not make the ECHR part of UK
