Rights and Freedom under United Kingdom Constitutions

This essay discusses the various rights and freedoms provided by the UK Constitution, including the sovereignty of Parliament and the Human Rights Act. It also explores the limitations of these constitutional provisions and how they protect individual rights in the UK.

Rights and freedom under United Kingdom constitutions 1
RIGHTS AND FREEDOM UNDER UNITED KINGDOM CONSTITUTIONS
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Rights and freedom under United Kingdom constitutions 2
RIGHTS AND FREEDOM UNDER UNITED KINGDOM CONSTITUTIONS
Introduction
In the 15th century, United Kingdom faced a lot of challenges of mistreatment of people
as their basic rights and freedom was denied. As a result of this, the government and other
stakeholders stabled common law known as the English Bill of Rights 1689 in England and
Scottish Claims of Rights Act 1689. This Acts helps in restoring and reduction of mistreatment
of humankind. Later, it led to the established of the now Human Rights in the United Kingdom
of 1998 which is currently protecting the rights of a citizen of British (Pratt, 2016.). The essay
will discuss, several freedom and rights provided by the British Constitution, how several
constitutional provisions have protected individual rights in the United Kingdom, and later will
discuss the extent to which the constitutional provision protects individual rights in the United
Kingdom.
Rights and freedom enjoyed by British citizens, their provision
Several rights and freedom have been provided by the United Kingdom Constitution that has
helped the British citizen to live in peace and in harmony. These freedoms include and are not
limited to the following.
The sovereignty of the Parliament
In the United Kingdom, the parliament is the most powerful body according to the UK
Constitution. It is the supreme legal authority which is mandated by the constitution of the land
to make or amend any law. The United Kingdom constitution allows its citizen to actively take
part in the political process like voting so as to enable them to vote their representatives in the
parliament (Campbell, 2017). Through voting them for representation in the parliament. In

Rights and freedom under United Kingdom constitutions 3
parliament, bills and laws are passed through the process of voting. The decision arrived after
voting cannot be changed by any other body except the parliament which is elected by the people
of United Kingdom. The parliament through their supremacy exercises the freedom of the citizen
indirectly. This means that the decision of the parliament is the decision of the people and
therefore, it should be respected and not changed by any other body except the parliament itself.
Parliament on behave of the people who voted them repeals any law either from the judiciary,
executive or any other mandated body (Spano, 2014).
The constitutional provision for parliamentary supremacy
The United Kingdom sovereignty of the parliament is provided in the following
provisions in the constitution. First, the constitution recognizes that the parliament is the only
supreme body mandated to make and enact laws in the UK. Second, according to the
constitution, no one, institution or even body that can question any Act of Parliament. Lastly,
parliament is legally allowed to enacts any laws that it members who represent the people in the
parliament chooses (Maddex, 2014).
Limitation of this freedom
The parliament is not allowed to enact any Act or even laws that bind its successor. Their
powers to this area are limited. Also, the Human Rights Act 1998 gave judiciary political powers
to challenge the parliament decisions (Pratt, 2016).
The Human Rights Act
It is an Act of the United Kingdom which aimed at incorporating the Human rights laws
in the UK laws which are found in the European Convention on Human Rights. In this Human
Rights Act, British citizens have been given several rights that are protected in this Act

Rights and freedom under United Kingdom constitutions 4
(Kavanagh, 2015). These rights include freedom of expression, liberty, right to life, freedom to
equality and equal treatment before the law, freedom of association among other freedoms and
rights. In case these individual rights are violated, the victims are allowed to seek justice in
courts for the perpetrators to be judged if found guilty (Dzehtsiarou, et al, 2015).
The constitutional provision for the Human Rights Act
This Human Rights Act is protected in several constitutional provisions. First, it is
protected by the Europeans Convention of Human Right which enacted these rights. Secondly is
that the UK constitution adopted and incorporated the Europeans Convention of Human Rights
Act. As a result of this, British citizen can, therefore, seek justice from the EU court in case of
violation of their freedom and rights by the government (Harris, et al, 2014).
Limitation of the Human Rights Act constitutional provision
The Human Rights Act is generally provided to all people in the UK but it is limited
when its intention is to change government plans and policies which are beneficial to the
government. When this happens, it no longer remains to be human rights but an enemy of United
Kingdom progress (Donnelly and Whelan, 2017).
Conclusion
In conclusion, therefore, people naturally require their rights and freedom to be protected
by the law that governs them. The government in returns ought to ensure that these rights and
freedom are implemented and protected so as to ensure peaceful living that results to State and
individual economic and social development. Also, British citizens need to understand their
rights and also the extent to which their rights are provided.

Rights and freedom under United Kingdom constitutions 5
References
Campbell, D., 2017. Marbury v. Madison in the UK: Brexit and the Creation of Judicial
Supremacy. Cardozo L. Rev., 39, p.921.
Donnelly, J. and Whelan, D.J., 2017. International human rights. Hachette UK.
Dzehtsiarou, K., Lock, T., Johnson, P., de Londras, F., Greene, A. and Bates, E., 2015. The legal
implications of a repeal of the Human Rights Act 1998 and withdrawal from the European
Convention on Human Rights.
Harris, D.J., O'Boyle, M., Bates, E. and Buckley, C., 2014. Harris, O'Boyle & Warbrick: Law of
the European convention on human rights. Oxford University Press, USA.
Kavanagh, A., 2015. What’s so weak about “weak-form review”? The case of the UK Human
Rights Act 1998. International Journal of Constitutional Law, 13(4), pp.1008-1039.
Maddex, R.L., 2014. Constitutions of the World. Routledge.
Pratt, J., 2016. Risk control, rights and legitimacy in the limited liability state. British journal of
criminology, 57(6), pp.1322-1339.
Spano, R., 2014. Universality or diversity of human rights? Strasbourg in the age of subsidiarity.
Human Rights Law Review, 14(3), pp.487-502.