The Brighton Declaration: Where Now for the Human Rights Act and the Bill of Rights Debate?
United Kingdom Constitutional Law Group Blog, 2012
University of Cambridge Faculty of Law Research Paper No. 11/2012
6 Pages Posted: 28 Apr 2012 Last revised: 4 Oct 2012
Date Written: April 26, 2012
Abstract
Following a Council of Europe intergovernmental conference in April 2012, the Brighton Declaration on the future of the European Court of Human Rights was issued. This paper considers the implications of the Declaration from the particular perspectives of the United Kingdom's Human Rights Act and the presently ongoing debate in the UK concerning the possible adoption of a Bill of Rights. The paper argues that the final text of the Brighton Declaration – in contrast to a much more radical draft that was leaked prior to the conference – leaves the role of the European Court largely intact, and that it therefore offers little solace to those in the UK arguing in favor of both a looser relationship with the Court and a degree of domestic dejuridification in the human rights sphere.
Keywords: human rights, European Convention on Human Rights, European Court of Human Rights
JEL Classification: K10, K19, K30, K33
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation