Responding to the MoJ consultation, ’Human Rights Act reform: a modern Bill of Rights’, which closed this week apart from an extension for respondents with a visual impairment, the Law Society said it does not believe there is a case for the reforms, and expressed its concern that the reforms do not recognise the significant benefits achieved through the Act. It said it believes the proposed reforms will damage the rule of law, prevent access to justice, remove or reduce rights, lead to more cases being taken to the European Court of Human Rights, impact devolution, damage the UK's international reputation, reduce legal certainty and increase costs and complexity.
In its response, the Society of Labour Lawyers (SLL) said creating a permission hurdle for bringing human rights claims in the UK courts would be a retrograde step and would have a ‘chilling effect’, deterring potential claimants.
Catherine Atkinson, chair of SLL, said: ‘Some of the proposals in the government’s consultation on the Human Rights Act are thinly veiled attempts to avoid being held to account.
‘The Human Rights Act 1998 brought rights home so that claimants could bring their claims in our courts. Far from taking back control, the government proposals are likely to force people to travel to Strasbourg in order to get justice.’
Read the consultation here.
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