The Human Rights Act 1998 has had a profound impact on the UK legal system. Blackstone's Human Rights Series provides expert, practical advice for lawyers to meet this challenge, focusing on the implications of the Act in particular areas of practice.Human rights law has always been of particular importance to immigrants and asylum seekers where, outside European Community law, there is little left of a statutory right to enter the country for a particular purpose. The landmark decisions of the European Court of Human Rights in Abdulaziz v United Kingdom and Chahal v United Kingdom, and the recognition that it was not just that claimants should have to wait years to obtain just satisfaction in Strasbourg when UK courts were powerless to act, were an important part of the political background to the passing of the Human Rights Act.This book reviews the Strasbourg case law relating to the rights of aliens and their families, and examines the first 15 months' experience of the working of the Human Rights Act in the domestic immigration context. The book is an invaluable adjunct to the basic textbooks on immigration law.A number of core problems for immigration practitioners are considered: how far are human rights under the Act extra-territorial, in the sense that they prevent expulsion of certain immigrants and asylum seekers? When is a deportation order a proportionate interference with the right to respect for family life? What does respect mean in this context? What is the jurisdiction of the courts to review executive policy relating to immigration, and what deference should be afforded to such policy? What is the impact of the anti-terrorism legislation enacted in response to the 11 September attacks?The book begins with an overview of human rights in the context of the Immigration and Asylum Acts, and goes on to discuss: the prohibition on torture and inhuman and degrading treatment; issues relating to detention of asylum seekers; the right to family life; the right to a fair hearing and an effective remedy; and the relevance of Article 14 prohibiting discrimination in conjunction with other rights.
