A Bill of Rights is not to be messed with: Michael Zander on the Tory plan to scrap the Human Rights Act
The government’s plan to replace the Human Rights Act with a British Bill of Rights was explained in Protecting Human Rights in the UK: The Conservatives’ Proposals for Changing Britain’s Human Rights Laws (October 2014).
The British Bill of Rights, like the Human Rights Act, it said, would be based on the European Convention on Human Rights (the Convention): “There is nothing wrong with that original document, which contains a sensible mix of checks and balances alongside the rights it sets out, and is a laudable statement of the principles for a modern democratic nation”.
But, the proposals stated, while the Convention would be put into primary legislation: “The use of the new law will be limited to cases that involve criminal law and the liberty of an individual, the right to property and similar serious matters”.
Lost causes?
Where, one asks, does that leave Art 3 (torture and inhuman or degrading treatment), Art 4 (slavery and forced labour), Art 6 (the right
