The UK government will introduce new legislation on Tuesday, one of the most significant in the UK since the Westminster parliament introduced a Bill of Rights for England in 1689. The plans for a new Bill of Rights come just a week after a European Court of Human Rights blocked the first deportation flight to Rwanda.
A new British Bill of Rights aims to position the UK Supreme Court in London as the ultimate decision-maker on human rights issues and will enshrine in law the idea that British courts do not always have to follow the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.
The Justice Secretary, Dominic Raab, has said the plan to replace the Human Rights Act, will clarify the primacy of British law and curb bogus human rights claims.
Before one can take a case to court in Strasbourg on human rights grounds, they will need to prove they have suffered significant damage.
The UK government says the new Bill of Rights will restrict the ability of foreign-born people convicted of crimes to argue that their right to family life trumps public safety.
The Law Society said the proposed bill is a “lurch backwards for British justice,” adding it will create an acceptable class of human rights abuses in the UK by introducing a bar on claims deemed not to cause “significant disadvantage.”
The justice secretary, Dominic Raab, said the reforms would reinforce freedom of speech, enable the UK government to deport more foreign offenders, and better protect the public from dangerous criminals.
