The UK should repeal HRA 1998 & withdraw from the European Convention, says Alec Samuels
We are all in favour of human rights. Some fear the Human Rights Act 1998 might be modified, or repealed, and possibly replaced by a Bill of Rights (see Geoffrey Bindman QC, “Defending our rights”, NLJ, 12 October 2012, p 1272). I submit that the Act should be repealed and the UK should withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights (the Convention).
All too often the human rights argument is a last resort, thrown in for good measure, scraping the bottom of the barrel, the case is otherwise a loser. Litigation becomes protracted and costly. The human rights argument usually fails. In the European Court of Human Rights it almost always fails. The Convention is expressed in vague terminology, and the rights are usually “qualified”. Strasbourg law and institutions are essentially continental, based on the civil law system.
Paradoxically, the Act says the Convention (in the schedule) is not binding but must be taken into account (s 2(1)), and may be found to be “incompatible” (ss 3 and
