Scottish Human Rights Law Group

The majority of the House favoured the complete abolition of a court advocate’s immunity from suit for negligence, a decision reached in part from considerations derived from the European Court of Human Right’s interpretation of Article 6 as mandating a general right of access to the courts.  The right of access to the court has, however, been expressly relied upon …

The Human Rights Act and Constitutional Dialogue
The Human Rights Act was consciously drafted on the basis of the model provided by the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act.    Like the New Zealand Act its primary concern was to preserve the central constitutional concept of the sovereignty of Parliament while allowing for an enhanced degree of legal protection under domestic law …

A claim that the grant of search warrant by justice of the peace without clerk of district court being present was invalid because contrary to Article 6 fair trial rights was rejected.  The High Court of Justiciary held that an application under section 23(3) of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 for a search warrant did not constitute judicial proceedings …

A church body or an association with religious and philosophical objects is capable of possessing and exercising the rights contained in Article 9 ECHR, but in Glasgow City Council v McNab   the Employment Appeal Tribunal refused to allow the Catholic Church to intervene in a dispute concerning a claim by an individual

The House of Lords rejected the argument that the prohibition of fox-hunting was an interference with fox hunters’ right to manifest their beliefs, as guaranteed by Article 9.  The belief in the utility, morality and cultural value of fox hunting was a sincere one but was not protected by Article 9.
Aidan O’Neill
Link to Bailii for case report: