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21 Liverpool L. Rev. 1 (1999)

handle is hein.journals/lvplr21 and id is 1 raw text is: THE LORD FALCONER OF THOROTON QC THE ROLE OF THE COURTS IN THE DEVOLUTION AND HUMAN RIGHTS ARRANGEMENTS The Scotland Act which completed its Parliamentary passage in November, the Government of Wales Act, which received Royal Assent in July, and the Northern Ireland Act which also completed all its Parlia- mentary stages in November lay down a new constitutional framework for the governance of the UK. The focus of each of the measures is legislative and executive devolution. However, in each of the Acts the courts are given a role in determining the limits of the devolution, and the powers of the devolved bodies. The Human Rights Act completed its parliamentary stages on the 29th October, receiving Royal Assent on 9 November 1998. It gives effect to the Government's Manifesto commitment to incorporate the European Convention on Human Rights into UK law.1 For the first time, citizens will be able to enforce their Convention rights in our own courts and the courts will be able to protect them from breaches of the Convention by the executive and other public bodies. Primary and secondary legislation is to be interpreted compatibly with Convention rights as far as possible. Where this is not possible, the courts will - subject to a specified exemp- tion - be able to disapply secondary legislation where incompatible, as they can now with secondary legislation that is ultra vires. Where primary legislation is incompatible, the senior courts will be able to declare that it is incompatible. If they make such a declaration, the legislatures can fast-track legislation to remove the conflict. I want to talk tonight about the effect of devolution and the Human Rights reforms on the courts, and, in particular, to address the following main issues: - What will these new acts mean for the courts? 1 A founder member of the Council of Europe in 1949, the UK ratified the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms that came into force in 1953. A Commission on Human Rightswas established in 1954 prior to the European Court of Human Rights, at Strasbourg, in 1959. The UK accepted the Court's jurisdiction as compulsoryin 1965. A Liverpool Law Review 21: 1-16, 1999. O ( 1999 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands.

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