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COMMON LAW RIGHTS: BALANCING DOMESTIC AND INTERNATIONAL EXIGENCIES

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 May 2016

Eirik Bjorge
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Abstract

The protection of human rights through common law principles and values has a greater potential than has been recognised hitherto. First, the adoption at common law of the proportionality test of interferences with rights shows that, when human rights are at issue, the courts will apply an exigent test, allowing interferences only if, amongst other things, a less intrusive measure could not have been used. Secondly, the principle of legality, along with common law constitutionalism as developed recently by the Supreme Court, now means that there is a common law pendant to the rule in s. 3(1) of the Human Rights Act 1998. Thirdly, in cases where the protection offered by the Act is displaced by obligations under the Charter of the United Nations, there is no displacement of common law rights, which continue to operate. Fourthly, common law rights are more open to the influences of the customary international law of human rights than are Convention rights. These factors combine to mean that the future of common law rights is an auspicious one.

Keywords

common law rightsautochthonyproportionalityprinciple fundamental to the rule of lawimplied abrogationHuman Rights Act 1998Charter of the United Nationscustomary international law
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Articles
Information
The Cambridge Law Journal , Volume 75 , Issue 2 , July 2016 , pp. 220 - 243
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Copyright © Cambridge Law Journal and Contributors 2016 

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153 LAFICO (1991) 96 I.L.R. 279, 313.

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