The Rule of Law and the so-called “Bill of Rights” Bill
The Bingham Centre is monitoring and responding to the Government's plans to repeal the Human Rights Act 1998 (HRA) and replace it with a so-called "Bill of Rights".
In December 2020, the Government established an Independent Human Rights Act Review to consider the operation of the HRA and whether any change is needed. The Independent Review's final report was published on 14 December 2021, and mostly recommended maintaining the status quo with no major reforms to the HRA. The Government has not yet published a response to the Independent Review's report.
On the same day, 14 December 2021, the Government announced its intention to repeal the HRA and replace it with a so-called "Bill of Rights". A public consultation on these changes ran from December 2021 to April 2022, and the Government's consultation response was published on 22 June 2022. Many of the current Bill's provisions embody proposals that were strongly opposed by respondents to the consultation. Nonetheless, the Government continues to seek the repeal of the HRA, and on 22 June 2022 introduced its so-called "Bill of Rights" Bill in Parliament.
Publications and briefings
- Katie Lines, Q&A: Explaining the UK Government's proposals to replace the Human Rights Act 1998 and the implications for Europe (Bingham Centre briefing, April 2022)
Submissions and parliamentary evidence
- Murray Hunt, Oral evidence on 'Parliament and human rights' to the Joint Committee on Human Rights (6 July 2022) (available here)
- Murray Hunt, The Independent Human Rights Act Review: Response to Call for Evidence (2021) (available here, under individual responses M to Z)
Related project
International principles for domestic bills of rights processes (joint project with the Bonvero Institute of Human Rights at the University of Oxford, and the Centre for the Study of Human Rights Law at the University of Strathclyde)
Blogs
- Lucy Moxham, The UK's new "Bill of Rights" and the implementation of ECtHR judgments, Strasbourg Observers (8 July 2022)
- Katie Lines, Invoking Subsidiarity to Weaken ECHR Protection in the UK, ECHR Blog (14 June 2022)
- Katie Lines, What are the implications for Europe of the UK Government's proposals to replace the Human Rights Act 1998?, RECONNECT Blog (29 April 2022)
- Katie Lines, Developments in the UK's uneasy relationship with the European Convention on Human Rights, RECONNECT Blog (1 March 2022)
