This new paper for Policy Exchange’s Judicial Power Project shows how the Human Rights Act has had a major, negative impact on how the UK is governed – and on the way in which many important questions about public policy have been resolved. The paper contributes to the study of the impact of the Human Rights Act by picking out, from each year of the Act’s operation, one striking case that illustrates some of the problems to which the Act gives rise.  The 25 cases examined by Policy Exchange touch on a wide range of policy areas, including criminal justice, sentencing and parole; migration and asylum; welfare, housing and rights of non-citizens; counter-terrorism; lawfare against UK forces and legacy cases; assisted suicide; press freedom; policing and prisons; health; and foreign affairs.

In a foreword to the paper, former Home Secretary and Conservative Party Leader Lord (Michael) Howard KC argues that what the Human Rights Act “… introduced into Britain was a new, uncertain and open-ended ground for challenging the lawfulness of Government policy and for questioning – undermining – other Acts of Parliament … for the reasons given in this powerful paper, it is past time for Parliament to take seriously its responsibilities and to restore the constitution.”