The Human Rights Act: A View from Below

Abstract

The paper is based on survey work undertaken in the Cynon valley, south Wales, an area of high social deprivation. We interviewed local solicitors to establish their understanding and usage of the Human Rights Act (HRA). Outside of south Wales there is evidence of growing awareness and involvement of specialist practitioners in human rights actions. This we call a top‐down process. Our work starts at the other end: a bottom‐up account of high‐street, small‐practice solicitors.

The Impact of the Human Rights Act 1998 on Policing in England and Wales

“…However, it does suggest that the HRA has been unsuccessful in creating new forms of reflection on human rights among officers. This is unsurprising, since previous research on solicitors and courts suggests that the HRA is hardly used in the criminal justice process and has had very little influence on English due process in the lower courts (Costigan and Thomas 2005). Research has also demonstrated that, more broadly, public service workers have limited awareness of the HRA or how human rights principles relate to their dayto-day activities (Donald et al 2008).…”

‘Are we there yet?’: measuring human rights sensibilities

“…Conversely, other research, done by Ruth Costigan and Philip Thomas in the United Kingdom, showed that generalist solicitors working in a socially deprived community in Wales had only patchy knowledge of the UK human rights legislation and minimal awareness of its possible relevance to their work (Costigan and Thomas 2005). Costigan and Thomas (2005) do not mean to criticise the solicitors, since the reasons for their lack of knowledge and interest are perfectly understandable.…”

“…Conversely, other research, done by Ruth Costigan and Philip Thomas in the United Kingdom, showed that generalist solicitors working in a socially deprived community in Wales had only patchy knowledge of the UK human rights legislation and minimal awareness of its possible relevance to their work (Costigan and Thomas 2005). Costigan and Thomas (2005) do not mean to criticise the solicitors, since the reasons for their lack of knowledge and interest are perfectly understandable. It is, nevertheless, obvious that the aims of human rights legislation cannot be fully realised if those who provide legal services lack familiarity with the issues and are unable to bring them before the courts; in that vein, remarks have been made in the ACT about 'the lack of understanding by the legal profession of the provisions of the HRA, and their potential application' (Australian National University 2008).…”

<i>Celebrity Big Brother</i>, Human Rights and Popular Culture

“…For a discussion of this topic see Morgan (2002)). Early indications are that the benefits for individual citizens have been rather modest (Clements 2005;Costigan and Thomas 2005) but what about the effect of the HRA on collective legal consciousness? While incompatibilities between " universal" human rights and minority cultures have attracted considerable attention in academic literature (Carens 2000;Cowan, Dembour and Wilson 2001;Benhabib 2002), there has been less focus on the tensions between human rights and dominant culture.…”