Bill of Rights Falls
Right from the word ‘go’, the Bill of Rights looked like a doomed project. For a long time we weren’t even sure if the legislative proposal should be called the ‘Bill of Rights Bill’ or just ‘Bill of Rights’.
Despite criticism of the human rights regime from across government, this Bill always felt like Dominic Raab’s personal project that had sympathy (but not enthusiastic support) from his colleagues. Raab advocated for a Bill of Rights in his 2010 book, The Assault on Liberty, but now its author has gone from the Ministry of Justice and so too has his ill-fated reform.
The fundamental problem with the Bill was that it was always going to have to sit alongside the European Convention on Human Rights. Pulling out of the Convention has been advocated by other Conservative MPs such as Suella Braverman but would, in reality, be a threat to the Good Friday Agreement that keeps the peace in Northern Ireland. Any Bill of Rights would therefore only serve to re-work or re-define existing rights.
Even within that limited context the Bill of Rights was a mess from start to finish. Ironically on the same day that it was announced that the proposals would be dropped, the Human Rights Committee heard evidence about the Bill. Unsurprisingly the experts were almost in complete agreement that the whole thing just did not really cohere into sensible legislation.