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12 August 2010
Issue: 7430 / Categories: Blogs , Public , Human rights
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Book review: Public Law after the Human Rights Act

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Published 10 years after the Human Rights Act 1998 (HRA) came into force, Tom Hickman’s recent book is an impressive critique of the complex relationship between public law and the HRA.

BOOK REVIEW

Public Law after the Human Rights Act
Author: Tom Hickman
Publisher: Hart Publishing (May 2010)
ISBN: 978-1841139692 Price: £45.00

The complexity of that relationship is particularly evident from the book’s contrasting emphasis on the centrality of the Act to the legal system as a whole, and on the fraught relationship resulting from its position within the context of the well established principles of public law.

Key questions

Throughout the book, Hickman grapples with a number of key questions, such as the function of public law, the status and nature of the HRA, and the HRA’s relationship with common law. In doing so, he provides a well-measured assessment of different arguments, heavily drawn from relevant case-law and academia. Having analysed these differing views, he presents convincing, albeit far from universally accepted, conclusions. The author reaches a number

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