Leading academics and practitioners examine how the Human Rights Act influences private law cases in theory and practice.

The Human Rights Act 1998 has had a profound effect in numerous private law decisions and has been the subject of extensive academic debate, in particular on the issue of the extent to which it has horizontal effect and its application in disputes between individuals. With contributions from a variety of academics and practitioners, this volume covers and contributes to the academic debate on horizontal effect and considers how theory matches up with case law; the limits of the Act for private law; and its impact on key areas including privacy, defamation, negligence, nuisance, property, commercial law and employment. Together, the book provides a practical critique of the areas discussed, which will be of academic interest to theorists and of practical benefit to lawyers and judges who wish to understand how the academic debates can be brought to bear in particular cases.

Leading academics and practitioners examine how the Human Rights Act influences private law cases in theory and practice.

By giving further effect to the European Convention on Human Rights,the Human Rights Act 1998 has had a significant effect on property law. Article 1 of the First Protocol to the Convention is particularly important, as it protects against the interference with the enjoyment of possessions. Compulsory acquisition, insolvency, planning, taxation, environmental regulation, and landlord and tenant laws are just some of the fields where the British and European courts have already had to assess the impact of the Protocol on private property. The Human Rights Act 1998 also restricts the scope of property rights, as some Convention rights conflict with rights of private property. For example, the Article 8 right to respect for the home has been used to protect against environmental harm, in some cases at the expense of property and economic rights. This book seeks to provide a structured approach to the extensive case law of the European Court of Human Rights and the UK courts on these issues, and to provide guidance on the direction the law is likely to take in future. Chapters cover the history and drafting of the relevant Convention rights, the scope and structure of the rights (especially Article 1 of the First Protocol), and how, through the Human Rights Act 1998, the Convention rights have already affected and are likely to affect developments in selected areas of English law.

In this book the expansion of human right legislation in national and international law is examined from theoretical and comparative perspectives.

Judicial Reasoning under the UK Human Rights Act is a collection of essays written by leading experts in the field, which examines judicial decision-making under the UK's de facto Bill of Rights. The book focuses both on changes in areas of substantive law and the techniques of judicial reasoning adopted to implement the Act. The contributors therefore consider first general Convention and Human Rights Act concepts – statutory interpretation, horizontal effect, judicial review, deference, the reception of Strasbourg case-law – since they arise across all areas of substantive law. They then proceed to examine not only the use of such concepts in particular fields of law (privacy, family law, clashing rights, discrimination and criminal procedure), but also the modes of reasoning by which judges seek to bridge the divide between familiar common law and statutory doctrines and those in the Convention.

Part Part I: Introduction -- chapter PART I: INTRODUCTION Human Rights and the Private Sphere - the Scope of the Project -- part Part II: National Jurisdictions European Convention on Human Rights -- chapter 1 Denmark Drittwirkung and Conflicting Rights - Viewed from National and International Perspectives -- chapter 2 England and Wales The Human Rights Act and the Private Sphere -- chapter 3 France Horizontal Application and the Triumph of the European Convention on Human Rights -- chapter 4 Germany Drittwirkung in Germany -- chapter 5 Greece Taking Private Law Seriously in the Application of Constitutional Rights -- chapter 6 India Protection of Human Rights against State and Non-State Action -- chapter 7 Ireland Irish Constitutional Law and Direct Horizontal Effect - A Successful Experiment? -- chapter 8 Israel Human Rights in Private Law - The Israeli Case -- chapter 9 Italy The Protection of Constitutional Rights in the Private Sphere -- chapter 10 New Zealand Taking Human Rights into the Private Sphere -- chapter 11 South Africa From Indirect to Direct Effect in South Africa: a System in Transition -- chapter 12 Spain A Jurisdiction Recognising the Direct Horizontal Application of Human Rights -- chapter 13 The United States and Canada: State Action, Constitutional Rights and Private Actors -- chapter 14 The European Convention on Human Rights The European Court of Human Rights.