Human Rights and the Rule of Law - Richard Ekins KC (Hon)

The lecture, which I had the pleasure to hear delivered in January this year, was a tour de force, illuminating both the idea of human rights and also the ideal of the rule of law, and helping to showcase the continuing appeal of the common law constitutional tradition to which Lord Atkin himself was firmly committed. [...] It is also on display in the approach taken by the European Court of Human Rights, which treats the ECHR as a “living instrument”, jettisoning the traditional lawyerly concern for policyexchange.org.uk | 5 Human Rights and the Rule of Law close analysis of the text, the context of its adoption, and the travaux préparatoires. [...] In Liversidge, the majority of the Court misread the legislation because of its view about wartime conditions; in Belmarsh, the Court misread the legislation, perhaps because of the Attorney General’s litigation tactics and the temptation to stand in judgement over the government’s policy. [...] J Finnis, “Judicial Law-making and the ‘Living’ the intention of the lawmaker, as reflected in the language it chose to Instrumentalisation of the ECHR” in NW Bar- ber, R Ekins and P Yowell (eds), Lord Sumption enact, was entirely consistent with the common law’s proud history of and the Limits of the Law (Hart Publishing, protecting the fundamental right of liberty. [...] policyexchange.org.uk | 19 Human Rights and the Rule of Law forceful than earlier versions, which provided simply that the President of the plenary Court could “bring to the attention of the Parties any interim measure the adoption of which seems desirable.” Importantly, the text of the ECHR itself makes no provision for the whole Court or any group of judges, let alone a single judge, to provide.