The European Conversion for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (“the Convention”) is an international treaty of the Council of Europe. It was adopted in 1950, ratified by the UK in 1951 and entered into force in 1953. The unsual feature of the Convention, as an international human rights instrument, is that it provides a mechanism for individuals to enforce their Convention rights against state parties.

What is the law other than a collection of rules intended to guide human coexistence and to govern society? Some of society's rules derive from an earnest desire to improve the lot of the public. Others simply atempt to constrain antisocial behaviour or codify exixting customs, some good, some bad. So in a few modern Muslim societies, ancient rules about the proper form ofdress for women are enforced as strictly as those intended to prevent and punish criminal behaviour. And until quite recently, although not imposed so strictly, similar customs applied here: wearing of hats in Church, medieval dress for nuns and 17th century wigs and gowns in court. Other laws regulate without a moral imperative: traffic regulations and limits on noise spring to mind. Some laws attempt to control commerce and are a mix of the regulatory and moral.

The Human Rights Act 1998 (the Act) incorporates the European Convention on Human Rights (the Convention) into English domestic law for the first time since the Convention was signed in 1951. It does this by imposing a duty on public authorities to act in a manner which is consistent with Convention rights, unless legislation prohibits them for doing so.

UK and International case materials, news updates and commentary. This service includes

Current awareness. News and Updates on Human Rights.

Cases. Includes relevant cases from All England Next-Day Case Digests, Butterworths Human Rights Cases, European Court of Human Rights, All Englans Law Reports and Law Reports of the Commonwealth.

Commentary. Lester & Pannick: Human Rights Law and Practice

Human Rights Act 1998

Links. A Selection of links useful to practitioners affected by the Human Rights Act 1998

Catalogue

E-mail Alterter. Allows the user to recieve tailored daily or weekly updates Containing the development appearing in Human Rights Direct.

Since May 1997, the constitutional structure of the United Kingdom has been transformed. A developed Parliment in Scotland and a devolved Assembly in Wales have been established. After a false start in December 1999 which lasted only 11 weeks before suspension in February 2000, the Northern Ireland Assembly was reconvened in May 2000. In England, Regional Development Agencies and Regional Chambers are up and running in each of the English regions and the Government is strengthening the Government Offices of the Regions. Campaigns for directly elected regional assemblies are becoming increasingly active in some of the english regions. In May 2000 Ken Livingstone was elected London's first directly elected Mayor. In elections of the Greater London Assembly the Labour amd Conservative parties won 9 candidates each, the Liberal Democrats 4 and the Green 3. Devolution has also brought about changes in the centre, with a reduction in the number of Scottish and the Welsh ministers and changes in Parlimentary procedures.

The Scotland Act 1998 which established the Scottish Parliament confers on that Parliament the power to make laws which are known as Acts of the Scottish Parliament. However, the legislative competence of the Parliament is restricted. The main restriction relates to reserved matters, that is those matters which the UK Parliament has not devolved to the Scottish Parliament. These are listed in sch 5 to the Act and cover such matters as defence, taxation, social security and macro-economics. Other significant restrictions on the Parliament's legislative competence are that an Act of the Scottish Parliament cannot make any provision which is incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) or with European Community law, nor can an Act of the Scottish Parliament modify certain “protected enactments” - including most provisions of the Scotland Act 1998 itself and the Human Rights Act I 998. Finally, an Act of the Scottish Parliament cannot have effect outside Scotland, nor can it remove the Lord Advocate from his position as head of the systems of criminal prosecutions and investigation of deaths in Scotland. An Act of the Scottish Parliament is not law so far as any provision of it is outside the Parliament's legislative competence

These are divided into three categories: Excepted Reserved and Transferred Matters. Excepted Matters are those which are always the responsibility of the United Kingdom Government. They include such matters as external defence, foreign policy and coinage and are listed in full in Sch 2 to the Northern Ireland Act 1998. Reserved Matters are those which, while remaining the responsibility of Westminster, could be devolved in the future. They include taxation and policing and Sch 3 to the 1998 Act lists them in full. Transferred Matters are all other functions of Government which are devolved to an Assembly.

Following its General Election victory in 1997, the new Labour Government set out its plans for devolution in Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland. The proposals for a National Assembly for Wales were outlined in A Voice for Wales, published as a White Paper in July 1997. A referendum on the proposals was held on 18 September and, as many people know, the result was very close, with the outcome not known until the very last result was declared. In the end, however, the people of Wales said “Yes” to the Assembly by a margin of just 0.6% – 50.3% voting in favour of the Assembly, with 49.7% rejecting the proposals.

Since the set-up of the Scottish Parliament, brought into being by the Scotland Act 1998, there are a number of areas of “legislative competence” within which the devolved Parliament has had the remit to legislate. This has resulted in the publication of a whole new series of statutes, statutory instruments and official publications which has made the sourcing of Scottish material more complex than previously.

The adjacent quotation is from Gwyn Thomas (1913–1981), the Anglo-Welsh novelist and playwright, who fulminated against the revival of Catalan with a force which is scarcely comprehensible, despite the fact that Spanish, or perhaps one should say Castilian, was his preferred choice of language both to learn at school and at Oxford, and later to teach. The force of his invective becomes explicable however when one remembers that he lived at a time when the Welsh language was starting to be just the sort of ‘first-class nuisance’ which he chided Catalan for being, and was about to commence a similar sort of revival.

BIALL hosted a winter regional meeting at the Signet Library in Edinburgh in December.This event gave members who are not able to attend the annual study conference June an opportunity to get together and discuss current professional issues. Local librarians who are not BIALL members were also invited to attend, and there was a good turnout from the Scottish and North of England law librarians groups. The Signet Library, a private subscription library for members of the Society of Writers to the Signet in Scotland, provided a wonderful setting for the talks, discussion sessions and the Friday evening dinner: many us envied Audrey Walker and her team coming to work each day in such elegant surroundings.

“It's so easy to find information on the Internet”; “it's impossible to find information on the Internet”. Both these statements are heard frequently, sometimes in the same breath, but which is true.