Justice minister Michael Gove set to unveil plans to scrap the Human Rights Act
The Sunday Times reported yesterday that it had seen leaked Government proposals to scrap the Human Rights Act and replace it with a British bill of rights.
According to the Sunday Times, the radical shake-up of human rights law will see judges told they will not have to follow rulings from the European Court of Human Rights, but instead would be able to rely on the common law or rulings by courts in other Commonwealth countries such as Australia and Canada.
"We would make clear that the domestic courts are not automatically bound to follow Strasbourg and will be free to reference other sources of law such as common law and rulings from other Commonwealth countries when formulating judgments," the Independent quoted the Government's draft proposal as saying.
The Independent notes that the draft proposals indicate, however, that the UK will remain a signatory to the European Convention on Human Rights.
According to the Independent, justice minister Michael Gove is set to unveil plans for the British bill of rights before Christmas.
You can read the Conservatives' earlier 2014 proposals for a British bill of rights here.
The Guardian reported yesterday that the Ministry of Justice declined to comment about the latest speculation over the bill of rights.
The Guardian also reported that a poll by Amnesty International UK found that only 3% of British adults said scrapping the Human Rights Act should be the most important priority for the Government, and just 11% ranked repealing the Act within their top three priorities.
Kate Allen, the director of Amnesty International UK, said: "The government should abandon its ill-advised plans to repeal the Human Rights Act. There's simply no appetite for their proposals among the British public.
"The British people clearly want the government to get on with their proper business of the day-to-day running of the country, and abandon these destructive plans."
Meanwhile, the Financial Times reported today that a new report by Thomson Reuters says the Human Rights Act is being deployed more frequently in legal disputes, including business and tax cases.
Tom Hickman, a barrister at Blackstone Chambers, told the Financial Times that the Act has proved "particularly important when it comes to challenging overreaching decisions taken by regulatory bodies.”