One of the first issues to be decided by the Northern Ireland courts under the new Human Rights Act could be the right of the Orangemen at Drumcree to walk down the Garvaghy Road, according to the former chairman of the Bar Council of Northern Ireland, Mr Brian Fee QC.
Mr Fee is chairman of the Human Rights Committee of the Northern Ireland Bar.
The Human Rights Act came into force in Northern Ireland, England and Wales yesterday. It incorporates the European Convention on Human Rights into British law, which means its provisions can now be used in the local courts.
Mr Fee said he expected the marchers at Drumcree to use the right to peaceful assembly guaranteed by Article 11 of the Convention as the basis for establishing their right to march down the Garvaghy Road.
However, this could be countered by the Garvaghy Road residents seeking to uphold their rights to privacy, guaranteed by Article 8, and their right to liberty and security of person, guaranteed under Article 5. He said the Act was expected to lead to an increase in litigation for the first few years, but this was likely to ease off. He said this was the experience when a similar charter was introduced in Canada.
"The Act opens up scope for a whole range of issues to be raised in our courts," he said, For example, while there was no right to privacy in common law, he cited the woman police officer who successfully brought a case to Strasbourg under Article 8 challenging the tapping of her phone by senior officers. "That's the kind of issue that could now be raised here," said Mr Fee.
The actions of the security forces could also come under scrutiny using the Act, he said. He pointed out that the Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg had already condemned the shooting dead of three members of the IRA in Gibraltar.
Some lawyers doubted whether the Northern Irish judiciary would be sympathetic to the new human rights legislation, he said, but he did not share their fears. "People will still be able to go to Strasbourg if they fail here. Judges here would not want their judgments overturned there."
The compatibility of emergency legislation with the convention was also likely to be tested. "It applies retrospectively. It will be possible to look at existing law and ask if it is incompatible. If it is found incompatible it won't be struck down, but it will have to be remedied by parliament. Also each minister will have to look at each new law and say it is compatible."
Meanwhile, the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission, which was set up over a year ago under the Belfast Agreement, is seeking a judicial review of the refusal of the coroner at the Omagh inquest to let it give him the benefit of its views on relevant international human rights standards.
Its chief commissioner, Prof Brice Dickson, pointed out that the High Court in Belfast had already allowed the Commission to intervene in four other cases.