Public law after the Human Rights Act - Tom Hickman

What is the UK's Human Rights Act? What is its relationship to the common law? Is there a need to invent new doctrines of UK public law to accommodate the Act? Will it lead to the extinction of established doctrines? What should be the effect of the Act on the structure of public law as a whole? Remarkably, 10 years after the Act came into effect, these questions remain unanswered. Public Law After the Human Rights proposes an understanding of the Act's constitutional status and its effect on public law that answers each of them. Unlike other books on the Human Rights Act, the book looks beyond the Act itself to its position in public law as a whole. In novel ways, the book explains and articulates the relationship between the Act and administrative and constitutional law. It suggests that the Act builds on the common law constitution both theoretically and in terms of the mechanics of how public law works. The book draws together a practical understanding of public law and a close attention to the case law, with a broader historical and theoretical approach to the subject area. The discussion focuses on core topics in modern UK public law: the constitutional status of the Human Rights Act * its effect on central doctrines of public law such as reasonableness, proportionality, and process review (each of which have a separate chapter) * the structure of public law after the Act * derogation and emergencies * the right of access to a court. In December 2011, the author won the 2011 Inner Temple Book Prize for Young Authors .