One of the most important contributions of the New Labour government elected in 1997 was to enshrine the European Convention on Human Rights into British law. Up to that point, the concept of rights - let alone human rights - was not not one our legal system found easy to cope with. The irony was that the European Convention was actually devised by British lawyers as a contribution to the democracies emerging out of the wreckage of the Second World War. Now we find the legal system beginning to apply this new jurisprudence but not always clearly or perfectly. Afghan assylum seekers who hijacked a plane to Britain have been allowed to stay rather than be deported. Sometimes, too, the balance of freedom has tilted towards the criminal rather than the victim. The depressing response has been a tabloid press campaign to get the Act overturned (some argue because of its protections for privacy). There are signs that the Government is listening. And yet, if there are any faults they lie in the interpretation rather than the Act itself. Why do we find rights so difficult?
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