FULL HORIZONTAL EFFECT OF HUMAN RIGHTS AND VALUES IN UK LAW

FULL HORIZONTAL EFFECT OF HUMAN RIGHTS AND VALUES IN UK LAW

This book focuses on UK human rights and tort law; and on the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights. It provides detailed and comprehensive coverage of human rights and values in the private sphere.

An introductory chapter explains the book's overarching aim, structure and contents in a clear and simple language, which makes it easy for the reader to understand the key arguments advanced in subsequent chapters. In addition, each chapter contains a brief introduction, which outlines its specific purpose, structure, and the complex issues it seeks to address.

Each chapter also contains a conclusion that summarises all the main points in ways that make complex issues easy to understand. In addition, a concluding chapter collates all the key arguments advanced in the book, as a whole, which enables the reader to remember what matters. The book contains two main parts.

KEY FEATURES OF THE BOOK

The General Introduction

• Identifies the anodyne maxim that "all things are possible in UK law, even in human rights law, if the courts or the litigants try."

PART A

• Identifies a clear and sound justification to abandon the "classic constitutional theory" in UK law or elsewhere.
• Provides a detailed analysis of the moral and politico-legal philosophy underpinning human dignity and equality and therefore human rights.
• Makes it easy for the reader to understand why every human being has inherent equal dignity and rights, which deserve to be given full and effective protection in UK law against private individuals and public authorities alike.
• Posits an entirely novel ground for the first ever legal use of human dignity, as a juridical concept, in the world.
• Claims that several writers of eminence and character have contributed to the understanding of human dignity, but that none of them noticed that the first ever legal use of human dignity or "indignity" was made here in Britain over 300 years ago, not elsewhere.

PART B

• Clarifies the meaning of "full horizontal effect", given that some distinguished writers, interested in the concept, do not seem to understand its "proper" meaning and scope.
• Identifies six routes through which the ECHR rights and values have had, or can have, full horizontal effect in UK law.
• Provides a thorough analysis of each route, in ways that validate the maxim that all things are possible in UK law, if the courts or the litigants try.
• Relies on old and recent transformative tort cases, such as Robinson and Poole, to clarify the Caparo test, which was wrongly assumed to be tripartite in nature by some judges and previous writers.
• Identifies effective ways in which the UK courts can utilise ordinary principles of liability, such as third party liability and assumption of responsibility, to enjoin the police to stop domestic violence.
• Relies on recent HRA and European cases, such as Talpis and Kurt, to clarify that Osman has been radically relaxed in order to enjoin police officers, prosecutors and domestic courts across Europe to eliminate domestic violence or to restrain private individuals from violating Convention rights.
• Relies on latest cases, such as X and Others v Bulgaria, to demonstrate the apparent self-determination of some judges of the ECtHR to enjoin police officers, prosecutors and domestic courts to eliminate all forms of sexual abuse and violence against children.
• Analyses the "principle of complementarity" in a way that makes it easy for the reader to understand why it is necessary for common law principles and remedies and HRA/ECHR principles and remedies to complement each other in appropriate cases to achieve justice.