Recommendation 4

Clause 3 of the Bill of Rights would replace the sensible, balanced approach to interpretation of the Convention set out in section 2 HRA with a more complex and less effective alternative. Emphasis on the original text of the Convention, and the absence of direct reference to the case law of the European Court of Human Rights, puts at risk the development of domestic human rights protection consistent with that provided by the Strasbourg Court. Restricting UK courts’ ability to go further than the European Court of Human Rights in protecting Convention rights obstructs the creation of domestic human rights case law and damages the current positive judicial dialogue between our courts and Strasbourg. This could reduce the ‘margin of appreciation’ currently afforded to the United Kingdom by the European Court of Human Rights.