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⁸ This association has also been given emphasis in the wider comparative literature. See F. Morton and R. Knopff, The Charter Revolution and the Court Party, Peterborough, OT, Broadview Press, 2000; and R. Bork, Coercing Virtue: The Worldwide Rule of Judges, Toronto, Vintage Canada, 2002. A different strand of this literature, of which Ran Hirschl is the most prominent exponent, argues that economic neoliberals have been the key social interest behind Bill of Rights genesis. See R. Hirschl, Towards Juristocracy, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press, 2004. Empirical evidence of such involvement, however, is largely lacking not only in the UK but also elsewhere in the Westminster world ( Erdos, David, ‘Aversive Constitutionalism in the Westminster World: The Genesis of the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act’, International Journal of Constitutional Law, 5: 3 (2007), p. 343–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁹ In 1987, Harman and Grant were among only 26 Labour MPs who were willing to back the call for a Bill of Rights made by the Constitutional Reform Centre (an important precursor organization to Charter 88). See File 1/24, Constitutional Reform Centre Archives, London School of Economics.Google Scholar

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²⁵ P. Mandleson and R. Liddle, The Blair Revolution, London, Faber & Faber, 1996, p. 196. Nevertheless, some modernizers in relation to economic policy, notably Roy Hattersley (Labour deputy leader 1984–92), remained vocal and active opponents of legal innovations such as a Bill of Rights. See Minkin, The Contentious Alliance, p. 477.Google Scholar

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³³ More specific to Britain, such actors may be more influenced by a political tradition arguably characterized by a normative belief in strong leadership by the executive and hostility to the growth of alternative power centres. See Marsh, D. and Hall, M., ‘The British Political Tradition: Explaining the Fate of New Labour's Constitutional Reform Agenda’, British Politics, 2 (2007), pp. 215–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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⁴⁰ See e.g. R. v. Lambert (2001) UKHL 37, (2002) 2AC 545 (‘reading down’ a provision reversing the burden of proof in relation to defence under the 1975 Misuse of Drugs Act so as to require only the defence to produce some evidence that aided its case (a so-called ‘evidential burden’) upon which the burden of proof would return to the prosecution); and R. v. Offen (2001) 1 WLR 253 ('reading down’ mandatory life sentences in 1997 Crime (Sentences) Act so as to ensure that such sentences were only imposed when the offender was judged to constitute a significant risk to the public).Google Scholar

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⁴⁵ Quoted in Verkaik, R., ‘Asylum System Flawed, Rules High Court’, Independent, 20February 2003.Google Scholar

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⁴⁷ Thus, whilst the government's constitutional White Paper of 2007 mooted the possibility of a British Bill of Rights it stressed that ‘if specifically British rights were to be added [to the Human Rights Act]…we would need to be certain that their addition would…not restrict the ability of the democratically elected Government to decide upon the way resources are to be deployed in the national interest’ (Department for Constitutional Affairs, The Governance of Britain, London, HMSO, 2007, p. 61).Google Scholar

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⁵² Lester, interview, 18 May 2005. According to Charter 88 documents, Irvine became converted to the idea of a Bill of Rights while working on the Labour Party's Policy Review in the late 1980s (‘Charter 88 and Labour’, Box 69, Charter 88 Archives, University of Essex). According to S. Weir, co-founder of Charter 88, Smith was also committed to a Bill of Rights prior to the 1990s (Weir, interview, 27 June 2005).Google Scholar

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⁵⁴ Due to party policy the MP had not taken his seat. The ban explicitly excluded reporting dealing with Parliament and elections. See P. Thornton, Decade of Decline: Civil Liberties in the Thatcher Years, London, Liberty, 1989, p. 12.Google Scholar

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⁶⁶ In addition, a reduction in ideological support for the Bill of Rights within the leadership following the rise of ‘New Labour’ cannot be entirely discounted. In particular, it should be noted that many figures within New Labour were committed to an approach that appeared to place significantly more emphasis on individual ‘responsibilities’ rather than ‘rights’, arguably in a way that sat in tension with commitments to a Bill of Rights and social liberalism more generally. See, for example, the conspicuous addition of responsibility references in the Labour Party's 1996 consultation document on ECHR incorporation (Blackburn, Towards a Constitutional Bill of Rights, p. 960).Google Scholar

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