• Join over 1.2 million students every month
  • Accelerate your learning by 29%
  • Unlimited access from just £6.99 per month

What is a Bill of Rights

Extracts from this document...

Introduction

What is a Bill of Rights? A Bill of Rights is a statement of values and standards, of rights and responsibilities. It is a 'higher law' than those which Parliament passes, and a standard by which to judge these laws. It sets out our rights and responsibilities as individuals. Arguments for a Bill of Rights * a Bill of Rights gives you the chance to fight for your rights in court * if a Bill of Rights is 'entrenched', Parliament must make sure that laws take account of those rights included in it * a Bill of Rights can give protection to vulnerable minorities * human rights education is easier if there is a single document which ...read more.

Middle

* a Bill of Rights is inflexible. Once a right is included e.g. the right to bear arms in the US, it is difficult to remove it The present situation The UK does not currently have a Bill of Rights. However it does have the Human Rights Act, which came into force on the 2nd of October 2000. This Act incorporates the European Convention on Human Rights into UK law. It covers civil and political rights and freedoms. What could a Bill of Rights offer that the Human Rights Act does not? * the Human Rights Act only covers civil and political rights e.g. ...read more.

Conclusion

However, at the moment they are concentrating their efforts on work around monitoring the impact of the Human Rights Act, which these groups welcome as the first step towards a full Bill of Rights. The Act is very significant because it is the first time positive rights have been enshrined in UK law in such a comprehensive way. The question of whether there should be a Human Rights Commission, similar to the Human Rights Commission that has been set up in Northern Ireland as part of the peace process,is also under review. The Commission's role would be to educate people about the Human Rights Act and to help them take court cases for infringement of their rights under the Act where necessary. ...read more.

The above preview is unformatted text

This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our AS and A Level Sources of Law section.

Found what you're looking for?

  • Start learning 29% faster today
  • 150,000+ documents available
  • Just £6.99 a month

or


Not the one? Search for your essay title...
  • Join over 1.2 million students every month
  • Accelerate your learning by 29%
  • Unlimited access from just £6.99 per month

See related essaysSee related essays

Related AS and A Level Sources of Law essays

  1. Human Rights

    the Magistrate's decision did not adequately consider the cultural and language factors influencing the content and manner of the boys' evidence. Firstly, the court system failed to recognise the Australian court was a foreign environment, and the adversarial court system confused the child witnesses, therefore they appeared unreliable.

  2. How has the European Court of Human Rights contributed to the protection of children's ...

    In Z v. United Kingdom22 the Court held welfare authorities to be obliged to intervene to protect children from parental abuse, which follows Art. 19 UNCRC and is arguably more intrusive than A v. UK. Hopefully, this will build up UK, and other states, to abolish children's physical punishment, as was done in schools23.

  1. As a way for the English government to ensure that it attempted to certify ...

    nor can they declare that the Act is void. Nevertheless, under section 4 of the HRA, Parliament offers the courts an opportunity to make a declaration of incompatibility whenever they find that legislation is not acting in harmony with the Convention.

  2. HUMAN RIGHTS

    Thus, with the anthropological understanding of culture, cultural rights include the right to education, the right to participate in scientific progress and the right to information. It has been seen more recently in the World Summit for Social Development8 that the importance of recognition of culture cannot be established without implementation of cultural rights.

  1. In what ways does a Bolero Electronic Bill of Lading differ significantly from a ...

    Of course we live in the age of computerisation where everything is done by the push of a button. Technology has been evolved dramatically and still does moving aside traditional ways of negotiations and transactions since people involved in them demand less paper work, effectiveness, efficiency, security and fastness.

  2. Judicial Reform and Bill of Rights.

    The nine Supreme Court judges in the US were appointed by previous Presidents, and with seven favouring Republican ideology and only two opting for the Democrats, it is very unjust. An example of the possible unfairness could be the recent US presidential elections, where the supreme court voted Republican George

  1. The rights of cohabitees- time for a change?

    but had spent most of her time running the household and looking after the children of the marriage. Finlay CJ held that to extend the doctrine of the resulting trust to situations where the non-owning partner had made no financial contribution, would be to introduce a new doctrine and hence

  2. Describe and evaluate the impact of the children's rights perspective on social policy for ...

    From distinguishing the attitudes and views on children throughout British history. It can be clear that the rights of children were giving some form of importance and recognition within the late 1980s, when the Children Act 1989 was introduced and the United Nation Convention on the Rights of the child

  • Over 160,000 pieces
    of student written work
  • Annotated by
    experienced teachers
  • Ideas and feedback to
    improve your own work