An introduction to the nature of rights and liberties

Fenwick, Helen and Fenwick, Daniel (2016) An introduction to the nature of rights and liberties. In: Fenwick on Civil Liberties & Human Rights (5th ed). Routledge, Abingdon, UK, pp. 7-27. ISBN 9781138837935, 9781138837942, 9781315734767

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Abstract

In many Western democracies the rights of citizens are enshrined in a constitutional document usually known as a Bill or Charter of Rights. As Chapter 3 will explain, the rights protected under such a constitutional document are often given a special status; in a number of countries they are entrenched. Until the inception of the Human Rights Act 1998 (HRA), the UK had no similar charter of rights. The Magna Carta 1215, while influential as a very early statement of rights, is not comparable to a modern Bill of Rights in terms of extent or impact on current law. In 2000, the HRA afforded further domestic effect to the European Convention on Human Rights, as discussed in Chapter 4. But even under the HRA, the rights are not entrenched, meaning that the HRA or parts of it could be repealed just as any other statute can be. However, as Chapter 1 explains the inception of the HRA means that protections previously recognised as liberties are now recognised as rights.

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