The Legal Protection of Human Rights
Sceptical Essays

The value and legitimacy of using courts to limit the powers of governments in the domain of human rights is a significant ongoing debate. This book provides a critical review that explores the alternative means for protecting and promoting human rights.

Thus, contributors recount the failures of the Human Rights Act with regard to counter-terrorism; chart how the 'dialogue' model reduces parliaments' capacities to hold governments to account for human rights violations; consider which institutions best protect fundamental rights; and reflect on how the idea of human rights could be 'rescued' in Britain today. In addition, the book considers the historical human rights failures of courts during the Cold War and in Northern Ireland, the diverse outcomes of human rights judicial review, and aspects of the human rights regimes in a variety of jurisdictions, including Finland, Sweden, New Zealand, Australia, Scotland, Canada, Europe, and the United States.

1. Introduction
PART ONE: FAILURES OF JURIDIFICATION
2. Parliament, Human Rights and Counter-Terrorism
3. Governing Like Judges?
4. .

Human Rights at the Interface of State and Sub-State: the Case of Scotland
5. Inter-Institutional "Rights Dialogue" under the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act
6. Statutory Bills of Rights: You Read Words In, You Read Words Out, You Take Parliament's Clear Intention and You Shake It All About
7. Constitutionalism, the Rule of Law and the Cold War
8. The Cold War, Civil Liberties and the House of Lords
9. Lessons from the Past? Northern Ireland, Terrorism Now and Then and the Human Rights Act
10. Constitutional Law Meets Comparative Politics: Socio-Economic Rights and Political Realities
11. Business Rights as Human Rights
12. Constitutionalizing Labour Rights in Europe
13. Freedom, Security and Justice in the European Court of Justice: The Ambiguous Nature of Judicial Review
PART TWO: POLITICISING HUMAN RIGHTS
14. The Political Institutions of Rights Protection
15. Reclaiming the Political Protection of Rights: A Defence of Australian Party Politics
16. Messages from the Front Line: Parliamentarians' Perspectives on Rights Protection
17.
Human Rights and the Global South: Transformation from
Below?
18. Judicial Constitutional Review as a Last Resort: The Finnish Case
19. Preview the Swedish Way - The Law Council
20. Rights and the Citation of Foreign Law
21. Amateur Operatics: The Realization of Parliamentary Protection of Civil Liberties
22. Parliamentary Review with a Democratic Charter of Rights
23. Beyond the Human Rights Act