On 23 June 2016 the United Kingdom voted in a referendum to leave the European Union. Turnout was high, 72.2% and the result close but decisive: 51.9% for Leave as against 48.1% for Remain.
In this Preface I set out some of the consequences of this decision and how it may affect the Human Rights Act for years to come.
The sudden surge of human rights talk since the Second World War takes some understanding but without it we cannot be confident we know why the Human Rights Act took the shape that it did. Read more in Chapter 4.
The common law is not the great liberal guarantor of freedom that it is cracked up to be. Indeed to the extent that it has improved at all on the dark days of old this is largely due to the positive impact of the Human Rights Act. Read more in Chapter 3.