Introduction

Lord Justice Laws, speaking judicially, said of the Human Rights Act: 'Its structure, as has more than once been observed, reveals an elegant balance between respect for Parliament's legislative supremacy and the legal security of the Convention rights'. The Human Rights Act brought constitutional review to the United Kingdom, which is to say made it possible for courts to review primary legislation for compliance with published constitutional or human rights. The reconciliation or balance sought in the Human Rights Act addressed a fundamental tension in modern constitutional thought that arises whenever a system of constitutional review is created to protect fundamental rights. The Human Rights Act is structured so as to neither wholly accept nor wholly reject faith in Parliament nor fear of what it might do. The Act was drafted keeping in mind competing worries about 'majority tyranny', and 'the counter-majoritarian effect'.