Human Right Act 1998 English Law

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Evaluate the contributions made by the Human Right Act 1998 to the development of English law. Human Rights were formed for the protection of the fundamental civil and political liberties in societies, committed to the rule of law. The European Convention of Human Rights was drawn up by the European Council, which was established after the Second World War, in 1953. It has now over 40 signatories, including the United Kingdom. In the United Kingdom the Human Rights Act 1998 (HRA 1998) came into force in October 2000. The scope of the HRA in the UK was to give further legal effect to the fundamental rights and freedoms contained in the European Convention of Human Rights. These rights don’t have to do only with matters of life and death. We have the right to express our opinion, trust our beliefs, marry and start a family and other similar entitlements. Many of these rights are not absolute, however we don’t have only rights but also responsibilities like to respect the rights of other people and not exercise our rights with intention to prevent them from being able to exercise theirs. Some of the human rights are: the right to life, freedom from slavery and forced labour, the right to liberty, freedom of expression, the right to an education and the right to participate in free elections. In any case that we believe our rights and freedoms are breached, we have the faculty to bring the case to the court in order to find our right . The last right I mentioned above was the right that everyone has to participate in free elections. That right wasn’t fully enforceable in UK because prisoners didn’t have the right to vote. John Hirst, a prisoner, who spent 25 years in prison after killing his landlady with an axe, began his legal battle in order to change that situation. He lost the first round, at the High Court in London, but on 6th of October 2005 the seven –
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