Using Human Rights in the United Kingdom Courts

Quiz Content

not completed
. The Human Rights Act 1998 was designed with the single aim of improving people's ability to enforce human rights obligations.

not completed
. 'It is course open to member states to provide for rights more generous than those guaranteed by the Convention, but such provision should not be the product of the interpretation of the Convention by national courts, since the meaning of the Convention should be uniform throughout the states party of it. The duty of the courts is to keep pace with the __________ jurisprudence as it evolves over time: no more, but certainly no less.'

not completed
. Which statement best describes the comments made by Lords Kerr and Mance in D v Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis (Liberty and others intervening) v Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis [2018] UKSC 11 on expanding rights set out in the ECHR?

not completed
. Match the source of the quote on s.3 of the Human Rights Act 1998 to the relevant quote.

The courts will be required to interpret legislation so as to uphold the Convention rights unless the legislation itself is so clearly incompatible with the Convention that it is impossible to do so.

not completed
.

The intention of Parliament in enacting s.3 was that, to an extent bounded only by what is 'possible', a court can modify the meaning, and hence the effect, of primary and secondary legislation. Parliament, however, cannot have intended that in the discharge of this extended interpretative function the courts should adopt a meaning inconsistent with a fundamental feature of legislation. That would cross the constitutional boundary s.3 seeks to demarcate and preserve.

not completed
.

It is my view not open to the courts to foreclose them by adopting an interpretation of the existing legislation which it not only does not bear but which is manifestly inconsistent with it.

not completed
.

Interpretation under s.3 brings about significant changes in the traditional role of Parliamentary intention in statutory interpretation. It shifts the interpretive focus away from what Parliament originally intended, towards fulfilling the overriding goal of achieving compatibility with the Convention. When interpreting under s.3, judges can detach legislative meaning from its original contextual setting.

not completed
. Which of the following statements about s.4 of the Human Rights Act are correct? Please select all that apply.

not completed
. In R (Steinfeld and Keidan) v Secretary of State for International Development [2018] UKSC 32, the Supreme Court declined to issue a s.4 declaration of incompatibility because the government had already agreed to amend the Act in question to make it compatible.

not completed
. The Human Rights Act 1998 is said to have more than one form of legal effect. Which of the following are correct? Please select all that apply.

not completed
. What is a 'hybrid' public authority?

not completed
. The standing requirement under s. 6(1) is broader than it is for judicial review proceedings.

not completed
. Match the author to their quote on the issue of judicial deference.

'The question of whether something is "in the interests" of national security is not a question of law. It is a matter of judgment and policy.'

not completed
.

'They (the judiciary) should guard against a presumption that matters of public interest are outside their competence and be ever aware that they are now the ultimate arbiters (although not ultimate guarantors) of the necessary qualities of a democracy in which the popular will is no longer always expected to prevail.'

not completed
.

'The structure of the ECHR (the qualified rights) makes clear that an interference with the relevant Convention right is only justifiable if it is in accordance with the law necessary in a democratic society, criteria upon which the view of the executive cannot possibly be conclusive. Indeed it is the very ethos of the ECHR that the courts will be the arbiters of these criteria.'

not completed
. First and foremost, it (the decision of the Court of Appeal in the Denbigh High School case) rests on a basic mistake. Proportionality is a test to be applied by the _____ when reviewing decisions of public authorities after they have been made. It is not a test which ought to mean that public authorities should themselves adopt a proportionality approach to the structuring of their decision making.

not completed
. What were the three major consequences for the United Kingdom of the European Court of Human Right's decision in Chahal? Please select all that apply.

not completed
. In A v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2004] UKHL 56 the majority agreed with Lord Hoffmann's position on the question of whether there was a public emergency that threatened the life of the nation.

not completed
. What does Mary Arden argue is the significance of the Belmarsh case?

not completed
. Match the quote on control orders to the person or body that said it.

'The effect of the 18-hour curfew… meant that the controlled persons were in practice in solitary confinement for this lengthy period every day for an indefinite duration.'

not completed
.

'(the decision of the Grand Chamber) establishes that the controlee must be given sufficient information about the allegation against him to enable him to give effective instructions in relation to those allegations.'

not completed
.

'I agree that the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights requires these appeals to be allowed. I do so with my very considerable regret, because I think that the decision of the ECHR was wrong and that it may well destroy the system of control orders which is a significant part of this country's defences against terrorism.'

not completed
.

'We continue to have very serious concerns about the human rights compatibility of both the control orders regime itself and its operation in practice.'

not completed
. On the control orders/TPIMs saga, Professor Helen Fenwick wrote that this saga 'thus not only provides no support for the _____ of the HRA, but also underlines the folly of giving serious consideration to withdraw from the ECHR.'

Back to top