Democracy and human rights are bedding down well, says Roger Smith
Lady Justice Arden, tipped soon to join Baroness Hale on what will become the Supreme Court, has given a spirited defence of the Human Rights Act (HRA 1998). The “overarching” point of her address to a JUSTICE conference was that HRA 1998 has changed the way in which we think about democracy: “One of the byproducts of the Convention is that when it comes to qualified rights we are expressly directed to think about democracy …[and] much more thought … could usefully now be given to what is meant by ‘necessary in a democratic society’.”
This is a phrase used in the European Convention on Human Rights to qualify rights such as that of freedom of speech. Lady Arden speculated about how the creation of the Supreme Court might change the procedures of the House of Lords. The court will have, she acknowledged, the same powers as the existing appellate committee of the House of Lords. However, it was the “start of a new chapter” and it might be that the court would change the criteria
