The United Kingdom and Human Rights - College of Social ...

3. Constitutions, Values and Civil and Political
Liberties
The Themes
In this third Lecture I begin by explaining that all law is
the outcome of value choices and that these choices are
given effect by the machinery for making and applying
law, that is, the Constitution. The Constitution and the
legal system, which is a specialised sub-set of constitutional
arrangements, themselves reflect values and create
corresponding human legal rights, with varying constitutional
arrangements being less or more efficacious in
securing continuity for already-accepted values. If some
values are not accepted or are considered to be
inadequately implemented or protected, demands for
constitutional change or for other institutional arrangements
will surface. In that context, I touch on the
campaign for a new constitutional settlement and a Bill
of Rights, ending the Lecture with an account of the
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