QUESTION:

To what extent has the Human Rights Act 1998 fully implemented the European

Convention on Human Rights into the UK legal system?

OBJECTIVE:

The objective of this written assignment is for the candidate to provide a

comprehensive description of the extent to which rights granted under the European

Convention on Human Rights, (“the ECHR”), have been incorporated into UK law by

virtue of the Human Rights Act 1998, (“HRA 1998”).

TASKS:

You should provide a comprehensive description of the ECHR. In particular you

should provide a descriptive analysis of the nature of human rights provided by the

Convention. It might be helpful to explain the difference between absolute, limited

and qualified rights. Your assignment should mention at least three of the

Convention rights – There is no need to provide details of all the rights indicated in

the Convention and indeed you should be aware of the overall word count

parameters of the assignment. It might also be helpful to provide a brief description

of how the ECHR came into existence, the role of the Council of Europe and the

function of the European Court of Human Rights, (“the ECtHR”). However, you

should remember that this is a law assignment and not a historical and/or political

assessment. You should therefore avoid providing a detailed historical description

and you should avoid political analysis.

You should also provide an analysis of the HRA 1999. It would be helpful to provide

a description of the main provisions of this statute and how the HRA 1999 has

implemented Convention rights into UK law. You should provide a description of the

impact of the statute on domestic law and in doing so you should also provide

examples from the numerous case law that is available. You are additionally

expected to provide a conclusion which addresses both parts of the question and

assesses whether the Convention has been fully implemented into UK law.