London - In what has been described as the most important change to British law since the Bill of Rights in 1689, the new Human Rights Act was introduced in England, Wales and Northern Ireland yesterday amid fierce political argument over whether it would increase the power of the judiciary, Rachel Donnelly reports.
Insisting the courts derived their power from parliament, the Home Secretary, Mr Jack Straw, dismissed Conservative claims that the Act gave judges political influence and the legal system would grind to a halt because of "nonsense" human rights claims. At a celebratory event in London to highlight the new laws, which incorporate the European Convention on Human Rights into British law, Mr Straw said: "If parliament doesn't like the way the courts are behaving then they can change it."
In Wales, the First Secretary of the Welsh Assembly, Mr Rhodri Morgan, said the effect of the Act on domestic law would be "profound, fundamental and far-reaching".
Reaching back into Welsh history for a comparable piece of legislation, Mr Morgan said that just like Hywel Dda, a legal code introduced in Wales in the Middle Ages, the new Act would protect the rights of ordinary citizens in law. The Act has been operating in part in Scotland for over a year.