LECTURES - College of Social Sciences and International Studies ...

More documents

Recommendations

Info

The Free Individual and the Free Society What is going to make the coming years full of interest is that while the process of growth will occur within the historic compromise I have spoken of between Parliament, the executive and the courts, it is the courts which are being entrusted by Parliament with a role which is both creative and responsive. Nobody can say how it will turn out; but the task will include, whether we seek it or not, a continuing evaluation and a steady readjustment of the relationship between the two paragons we have inherited from the epoch-making conflicts of the seventeenth century—the free individual and the free society. not insignificant can be seen from the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in San Antonio School District v. Rodriguez 411 U.S. 1(1973) that equal protection of the law—applied in other cases to tabulated interests such as voting, access to the courts and interstate migration—did not apply to necessities of life like food and x shelter. 18
2. Public Power and Private Power English law is entering what is certainly a new phase, possibly a new era. By passing the Human Rights Act 1998 Parliament has not simply added another statute to an already crammed statute book. Rather it has called on the executive and judicial arms of the state, and has in effect pledged itself, to respect the norms set out in a treaty, the European Convention on Human Rights, to which the United Kingdom has been a party since its inception in 1950. Despite, however, being one of the prime movers in the drafting of the Convention, it was not until 1966 that the United Kingdom gave its citizens the right of individual petition to the European Court of Human Rights, and it is only now that the United Kingdom Parliament has made the Convention rights a part of its domestic law. Lord Denning, in one of the first judgments on the effect of the European Communities Act 1972, likened the Treaty of Rome in a striking simile to an incoming tide flowing into the estuaries and up the rivers of our geographical and political island. 1 The Human Rights Act deserves a different metaphor—perhaps that of a dye which will colour the fabric of our law except in those places where the fabric is impervious to it. This is because the Act, at least on the face of it, follows the New Zealand model of infiltrating rights to the extent that the statute book will tolerate them. We already have some experience under the European Communities Act 1972 of reshaping the language of domestic legislation—even mildly torturing it—to make it speak the words of European directives 2 ; and we may well find that the exercise of doing the same with Convention rights is not unduly casuistic or offensive to our linguistic sensibility in the great majority of cases. 3 For the common law, for delegated legislation, and for administrative policies and practices, there 1 Bulmer Ltd v. Bollinger SA [1974] Ch. 401 at 418. 2 See Pkkstone v. Freemans [1989] A.C. 66, per Lord Oliver at 125-128. 3 In a paper delivered in 1998 to the Franco-British Lawyers' Association in London, Roger Errera, Conseiller d'Etat, said that he had traced only two cases in which the French courts had been unable to make domestic legislation conform with the Convention. This may have in part to do with the laconic and open-textured mode of French legislative drafting. In Canada provincial and
Page 1 and 2: JOth HAML! LECTURES FREEDOM, LAW AN
Page 5 and 6: THE HAMLYN LECTURES FIFTIETH SERIES
Page 7 and 8: FREEDOM, LAW AND JUSTICE by THE RIG
Page 9 and 10: TABLE OF CONTENTS Contents The Haml
Page 11 and 12: The Hamlyn Lectures 1961 British Ju
Page 13 and 14: The Hamlyn Lectures 1991 Introducin
Page 15 and 16: The Hamlyn Trust Professor J.A. And
Page 17 and 18: Preface for two reasons. Firstly be
Page 19 and 20: 1. The Free Individual and the Free
Page 21 and 22: The Free Individual and the Free So
Page 35: The Free Individual and the Free So
Page 39 and 40: Public Power and Private Power stri
Page 41 and 42: Public Power and Private Power in t
Page 43 and 44: Public Power and Private Power Ther
Page 45 and 46: Public Power and Private Power of t
Page 47 and 48: Public Power and Private Power The
Page 49 and 50: Public Power and Private Power Conv
Page 51 and 52: Public Power and Private Power ther
Page 53 and 54: Public Power and Private Power tend
Page 55 and 56: Public Power and Private Power mon
Page 57 and 58: 3. The Lion and the Ox "One Law for
Page 59 and 60: The Lion and the Ox from rit. Nor d
Page 61 and 62: The Lion and the Ox seerrj to have
Page 63 and 64: The Lion and the Ox do parents have
Page 65 and 66: The Lion and the Ox tered^in findin
Page 67 and 68: The Lion and the Ox me" defence has
Page 69 and 70: The Lion and the Ox nated^ and baff
Page 71 and 72: The Lion and the Ox conclusions on
Page 73 and 74: The Lion and the Ox courts? ( In my
Page 75 and 76: INDEX Abuse of power, 8, 33, 38 Adm
Page 77: Index Minority shareholders, 26 Mob
Page 102:
Other Hantlyn Lectures The purpose
show all

LECTURES - College of Social Sciences and International Studies ...

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?