ABSTRACT
In the Brind case, decided in 1991, the House of Lords held that public authorities, acting in the exercise of administrative discretion, were free to violate human rights guaranteed in the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) because the ‘treaty, not having been incorporated in English law, cannot be a source of rights and obligations’. English lawyers receive less by way of higher education than do their counterparts anywhere else. It is hard to see how a three year university education can possibly prepare the next generation of lawyers with the intellectual tools necessary to enable the full potential of the Human Rights Act to be realised. Acts of Parliament and those of any person working in connection with proceedings in Parliament are specifically excluded, but not the decisions of the House of Lords sitting in its judicial capacity. Clearly, the incorporation of the ECHR into UK law is an event of great constitutional and political significance.
