How the Human Rights Act 1998 gives domestic effect to Convention rights — the framework through which UK courts protect, interpret and enforce them.
The Act works as an interlocking scheme, and grasping how each mechanism connects to the next is what makes the whole subject manageable. This chapter starts with the Act's purpose, its relationship with the Convention and the section 2 duty to take account of Strasbourg case law, before classifying rights as absolute, limited or qualified and setting out the three conditions — legality, legitimate aim and proportionality — that must be met to justify interfering with a qualified right. It then turns to who is bound under section 6, distinguishing core from hybrid public authorities and explaining horizontal effect and positive obligations, and to how a claim is brought under section 7, including standing, time limits and the approach to damages. The final sections cover the interpretive obligation in section 3, declarations of incompatibility and their effect, remedial orders and statements of compatibility, and the particular treatment of free expression under Article 10 and discrimination under Article 14.
