Westlaw UK

February 16 2007

Issued by Mattison Public Relations

UK courts see further decline in the use of Human Rights arguments

• But legal experts say Human Rights Act is still widespread and is being applied to a broader spectrum of cases

UK courts have seen a further 18% decline in the number of reported cases using Human Rights Act (HRA) arguments over the past year from 479 to 394, reveals figures taken from Sweet & Maxwell Online, the legal information providers. (Full table below)

The number of reported cases on Sweet & Maxwell’s Lawtel & Westlaw service employing Human Rights arguments peaked during 2002-2003 with 541 cases making use of the Act, but over the past three years there has been a gradual decline. (Only 140 cases used HRA arguments in the year prior to the introduction of the legislation but this increased by 248% the following year.)

Sweet & Maxwell, a Thomson business, (NYSE: TOC: TSX: TOC), has an archive of over 250,000 law reports and transcripts online via its Westlaw UK and Lawtel services.

Stephen Grosz*, Head of Public Law and Human Rights at Bindman & Partners comments: “We saw a huge surge in the number of cases implementing Human Rights arguments when this legislation was first introduced but there has been a gradual downturn over the past three years as the Act has been established by test cases.”

“Everyone is now aware of the legislation and organisations have become more careful about complying with human rights obligations; so the HRA has been successful on this account. On the other hand it certainly hasn’t opened the floodgates to litigation as some doom mongers warned.”

Despite a fall in the number of cases using the HRA legal experts say that the application of Human Rights arguments in court is still prevalent and the Act is being applied to a broader spectrum of legal cases such as property and employment law - a trend which they say is continuing to gather pace.

Stephen Grosz says: “What this trend does not take into account is the higher proportion of human rights cases reaching the Court of Appeal and the House of Lords. The HRA is still a very active part of the law and can be applied to a wide range of claims”

“The Human Rights Act is becoming central to more and more of the really important legal decisions that are being made in the UK.”

“It has managed to keep a check on some of the government’s more authoritarian instincts which in the post 9/11 world has been a considerable achievement.”

“More generally it is now regularly used to help police and improve the provision of public services.”

The Conservative Party has said that they would abolish the Human Rights Act.

“The HRA has certainly added some new dimensions to the law. Its application is not limited simply to what would traditionally be thought of as human rights abuses.” adds Grosz.

• Human Rights arguments have sparked an ongoing debate regarding the legality of control orders, which restrict the freedom of suspected terrorists who cannot be prosecuted due to restriction on the use of intercept evidence in court. These debates have become particularly heated following the escape of three suspected terrorists last summer.
• There have also been claims that the 2003 Extradition Act undermines the human right to respect for a family life, following the extradition of the Natwest Three. Ian Norris, the former chief executive of Morgan Crucible, is facing extradition to the United States after the High Court dismissed the claim that extradition would violate Mr Norris’s human rights because he has suffered serious health problems.
• Proposals to relax privacy laws in order to introduce a giant database containing the public’s personal details across Government departments have met with controversy, with claims that this would breach the human right to respect for private life.
• There have also been reports that the lawyers of Kate Middleton are considering using the Human Right Act to protect her from the attentions of the paparazzi, following Princess Caroline of Monaco’s victory against three German magazines in the European Court of Human Rights in 2004.
• The HRA has been used to argue for the right to wear religious dress. Following a three year battle Shabina Begum lost her appeal against Denbigh High School in the House of Lords, after claiming that her right to manifest her religion and her right to education were being violated when the school banned her from wearing the jilbab in class.

*Stephen Grosz is a leading human rights lawyer and co-author of “Grosz, Beatson and Duffy on Human Rights”, published by Sweet & Maxwell.