ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of the book. The book sets out to assess the multitude of arguments against the HRA. Human rights were creatures of the eighteenth century European Enlightenment and the Declaration of the Rights of Man, approved by the National Assembly of revolutionary France in 1789, was probably the world's first piece of human rights law. The UK has an uncodified constitution which is rooted in statute, institutions and institutional doctrine, such as the doctrine of parliamentary sovereignty, which maintains that Parliament is free to make and unmake any law of its choosing. This position is complicated by the existence of 'constitutional statutes' identified by Lord Justice Laws, which are subject to a greater degree of entrenchment than normal statutes. The Conservative Party fought the 2010 general election with a specific commitment to replace the HRA with a British Bill of Rights.
