ABSTRACT
The Human Rights Act explicitly denotes that courts and tribunals are themselves public authorities.1 Important consequences flow from this.
First and most obviously, a court must itself act in a way that is compatible with Convention rights. It must respect the Convention rights of those that appear before it as parties, witnesses, defendants (and even advocates!). Thus, for example, if a court official made an unauthorised disclosure to the press of a litigant’s personal information there would arguably be a violation of the right to respect for private life under Art 8. In addition, since the court is a ‘pure’ public authority it must act compatibly with Convention rights even in areas that would normally be viewed as private relationships such as employment and other contracts.
