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

Human Rights
need to be considered in every aspect of current systems and
procedures". 45 The Lord Chancellor's Department, for instance,
has a Project Board to oversee the work of implementation,
chaired by a senior LCD official and, interestingly, including
judicial representation in the persons of Lord Justice Brooke and
Lord Justice Sedley. Departments have drawn up plans for
training programmes both in terms of general awareness for all
staff and more detailed training for staff with a particular
interest such as Bill teams. In some cases (including that of the
Crown Prosecution Service) training is to be on the basis of
detailed internal guidance material. Departments have been
encouraged to pin-point issues on which challenges under the
ECHR are more likely—and legislation and other appropriate
action is already being brought forward to deal with some of
these issues pre-emptively. 46
(Some of these initiatives, it has to be said, are not particularly
welcome. The new rule that cases in the small claims court must
be heard in public, a response to the Article 6 requirement that
in the determination of his civil rights everyone is entitled to a
public hearing, risks making such hearings less welcoming to
the ordinary citizen. The same requirement may play havoc
with some of the major ombudsman systems in allowing parties
to demand an oral hearing where previously the ombudsman
would have dealt with the complaint perfectly satisfactorily
much more speedily and cheaply by himself. One can imagine
banks and insurance companies, for instance, claiming a right to
an oral hearing to the great disadvantage of the complainant. It
seems that that is a price one has to be prepared to pay.)
All this activity on so many fronts and at so many levels is
producing a huge increase in knowledge about the ECHR which
will translate into far greater impact of the Convention. Lawyers
who never thought of taking a case to Strasbourg are already
gearing up to use the Act. The trickle-down effect will gradually
extend wider and wider—to newspapers and the media generally,
to politicians and other opinion formers, to universities and
schools and to an extent to the general public. In 1978, summarising
the arguments for a Bill of Rights, the House of Lords
45 Minutes of the Second Meeting of the Interdepartmental Task Force (March 9,
1999), para. 4.1.
46 For further details see Amanda Finlay, "The Human Rights Act: The Lord
Chancellor's Department's Preparations for Implementation" [1999]
E.H.R.L.R. 512-518.
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