Likely 5 mark questions on Human Rights paper.

1. Explain some sources of rights or liberties in the UK before Convention Rights existed.

Pre ECHR there were a few major sources of human rights. the first of these was the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, drawn up by Eleanor Roosevelt shortly after WWII, it
chartered the fundamental rights of every living human being. However, there was no legal
way to enforce them, and they were too vague to be appropriately used as law. they were,
nevertheless, largely incorporated into the ECHR

The second was the Magna Carta, a document from 1215 which was among the first
documents to list the individual rights of a human. it is from this that principles such as
Habeus Corpus derive, a principle also present in the ECHR.

2. Explain the difference between Rights and Liberties.

How are Human Rights different from other Rights.

3. What does the term Margin of Appreciation mean. Give examples.

Margin of Appreciation is the phrase often used in human rights law which allows a country
to decide how far an article might extend. for example, the right to marry is included in the
convention, but a country is not legally required by the convention to allow gay marriage.
issues which are inherently controversial as well, the court rarely takes a side on these cases.
For example, Iceland's decision to ban circumcision, while meeting with outrage from
religious groups, was within the country's margin of Appreciation and the court refused to
take a stance.

4. What does it mean that the Convention is “a living instrument”

5. What was the position of the Convention in UK law before it became part of UK law with the
Human Rights Act 1998. Was it still useful ?
 before the Human Rights Act, when the convention was incorporated in its entirety into
English law, it was necessary, in order to plead against a violation of human rights, to attend
court in Strasbourg. this means that there are examples of cases where claimants didn't
recieve justice as they couldn't fly to Strasbourg to appeal, for example, in Hill, the woman
could have pleaded that the police were negligent and caused the loss of her daughter's life
and would have won, despite the police not being liable in English law.

6. How did incorporating the Convention into UK law with the HRA 1998 strengthen Human
Rights law in the UK.

as it became easier

7. Why is Human Rights law sometimes controversial? Think about who makes the decisions.
Link this to Parliamentary Supremacy.