The Human Rights Act 1998 and Parliamentary Sovereignty

The Human Rights Act
1998 and
Parliamentary
Sovereignty

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY ..................................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
The human Rights Act, 1998 is a very important part of the constitution of United
Kingdom (UK). This act impact many of the laws that governs UK. This act works as a checker
which is crucial on the executive powers and also provide openness and transparency for the
government which helps them make decisions. These laws are worldwide accepted and
recognised in other jurisdictions (Roznai, 2020). This act helps the government to know the
operations of its practices. The act provides with the rights of the people and also the
responsibility of the parliament, courts and other authorities while exercising their duties with
respect to the said law. This report explains the European Conventions on Human Rights and
The Human rights act, 1998. it also explains the threat which the parliament sovereignty have
due to the provisions of the HRA 1998. The report also helps to know about the powers which
are given to the unelected judiciary under the act which is in access and above to that of the
parliamentary sovereignty.
MAIN BODY
The European Convention on Human Rights i.e. ECHR was adopted just after the two
years of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that stated the need for the protection of the
rights of humans and their dignity (Loveland, 2018). ECHR is an international convention which
was introduce to grant political freedom and protection of the rights of the individuals. The
United Kingdom (UK) played the major role in the drafting of the ECHR and the same was
adopted by the country in 1950 after it was signed by the state on 4th of November. UK was the
first state the ratify the made convention in 1951 on 8th of March.
The Human Rights Act. 1998 i.e. HRA 1998 is an act which was introduced in UK as the
result of the ECHR. This act provides with the fundamental rights and freedom in UK to
everyone. This law is the made in accordance with the provisions specified to be implemented in
the domestic laws of the country by ECHR. The bill for the said act was introduced and
presented before the parliament in 1977 on 23rd October and the act received royal assent in 1998
on 9th March. The HRA came into effect in UK on 2nd October, 2000. The act has provided with
fifteen rights out of which few are absolute like: prohibition on torture, slavery, etc. which
cannot be changed but few rights are limited in few of the circumstances like: right to liberty,
marry, education, free elections, etc. The act specifically provides in its section 17 that, rights