Open call for contributions

Welcome to the website of the Human Rights in Action (HRiA) project.

The UK government recently launched the Independent Human Rights Act Review, which aims to “consider how the Human Rights Act is working in practice and whether any change is needed”. The Independent Review is considering two main issues: 1) the relationship between domestic courts and the European Court of Human Rights, and 2) the impact of the Human Rights Act on the relationship between the judiciary, the executive and the legislature (see terms of reference of the Independent Review).

In light of the work of the Independent Review, we have decided to set up the Human Rights in Action (HRiA) project. The aim of HRiA is to make a comprehensive assessment, drawing on a wide range of expertise, of the positive impact of the Human Rights Act in the UK. 

We want to make this comprehensive assessment available to the Independent Review to inform their work.

 

Our objective in HRiA is to collect written contributions, from the foremost experts in their fields, on how the Human Rights Act has shaped UK law and UK courts over the last two decades. 

 

We are seeking contributors to the HRiA project. If you would like to make a contribution we would love to hear from you. Please see details below on how to contribute.

If you would like to contribute, please email us (at silvia.falcetta@york.ac.uk) to discuss your contribution. We are very open to contributions, so if you already have an idea about what aspect of the Human Rights Act you would like to focus on, that's great! Otherwise, we are happy to discuss ideas with you. 

We are also very open to a contribution in terms of style and shape, and welcome whatever format you choose. We would ask, however, that:

 

1) your contribution be no more than 1500 words (a much shorter contribution would also be welcome),

2) your contribution include a reflection on

(i) how the duty on UK courts to “take into account” the case law of the European Court of Human Rights has shaped the development of human rights in the UK, and

(ii) the extent to which the Human Rights Act has allowed the UK courts to hold the executive and legislative branches of government to account in the protection of human rights. 

 

We will, with your consent, publish your contribution on this website, and then we will collect it together with other contributions that we receive in a report to be published. We will promote both the website and published report as widely as possible, drawing on our established networks, to maximise the impact of the collective contributions on public understandings of the Human Rights Act.

 

We will also draw on your contribution, with your consent, to produce a submission of evidence to the Independent Human Rights Act Review. With your consent, we will include your name as a co-author of this submission. 

In terms of a deadline for producing your contribution, we would like to receive something, if possible, by 15th February 2021, to give us time to incorporate it, with your consent, into any submission to the Independent Review. If you can produce it earlier, that would be helpful.  

 

We very much hope that the widest range of contributors will lend their insights to this project. Together, and collectively, we can highlight the value of the Human Rights Act in the UK.

We look forward to hearing from you!

Kanstantsin Dzehtsiarou (Professor of Human Rights Law, University of Liverpool),

Dimitrios Giannoulopoulos (Professor of Law and Head of the Department of Law, Goldsmiths, University of London),

Paul Johnson (Professor and Head of the Department of Sociology, University of York),

Silvia Falcetta (Research Associate in the Department of Sociology, University of York).

Please email us at: silvia.falcetta@york.ac.uk