The Human Rights Act: A Success Story? Introduction

Abstract

The Human Rights Act 1998 is still an infant: a child whose first five years have been marked by momentous ± and potentially damaging ± experiences. The papers in this volume seek to assess its health and prospects for a full and well balanced development. Sir Stephen Sedley introduces the collection with a wide ranging review of the progress and pitfalls that have marked these early years. In his opinion there is much positive to report concerning this `historic constitutional project' although much inevitably remains to be done. The Act is but one strand of a constitutional reform programme that includes devolution and the reform of the Lord Chancellor's role. As to devolution, Professors Tom Mullen, Jim Murdoch, and Alan Miller, and Sarah Craig report on their research concerning the use of Convention law in the Scottish courts. Professor Christine Bell and Johanna Keenan then take the analysis across the water to gauge the post-Belfast Agreement Northern Irish experience through a case study on the right to life. The Welsh perspective is provided by Ruth Costigan and Professor Philip Thomas with an account of their research at the `coal face' in the deprived south Wales valleys' communities. Their conclusions are bleak: that the area is largely an `HRA-free zone', not least as a consequence of the restructuring of legal aid. Roger Smith describes the process by which the reform of the Lord Chancellor's role has surfaced as a key constitutional issue. He considers the `appallingly handled' upheavals that led to the decision to abolish the LCD and the challenges that are yet to be addressed. Foremost amongst these is the establishment of a Commission with power to enforce the fundamental provisions of the Act. The need for such an institution is considered by Anthony Lester (Lord Lester of Herne Hill, a principal architect of the Act) and Lydia Clapinska. Two issues above all others have dominated the public's perception of the Act: terrorism and asylum. Professor Conor Gearty analyses the extent to which the laudable aims of the Act have been subverted by the government's response to the September 11 attacks. As to the latter, Shami Chakrabarti