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

Objections Because of the Judicial System 159
judiciary has developed criteria to invoke when deciding
against upholding a freedom alleged to be applicable and
instead giving effect to other interests, such as public
safety, public order, or public morality, or when
deciding that the rights and freedoms of other persons
must prevail. Statutes regulating and creating rights
incorporate similar criteria, such as that the action taken
be in the interests of public health or of good town
planning. Yet criteria themselves are not decisive as they
too require interpretation and application.
Every Operating Legal System has to Choose between
Priorities
Every legal system that recognises rights, whether in
some form of Bill of Rights or in ordinary law, has to
decide what rights to accord, how to adjust competing
rights, whether to give particular rights priority, and
whether to treat some as absolute. In making such
decisions the justifications for according certain rights
more weight will require evaluation in light of the
political theory on which that state is built. Some of the
rights will be accorded on an individualist basis, in that
it is believed that the human individual is entitled to
certain enforceable benefits, needing space to develop
his personality and to protect himself with power to
invoke those rights. Other rights accorded to individuals
can be justified as being in the collective interest,
because their recognition will bring about a particular
public culture which is for the public good. Indeed, both
justifications can apply to the same rights. In any event,
whatever the justification and whatever the legal system,
the recognition of rights is a political choice and so is