Dr Dimitrios Giannoulopoulos, senior lecturer in the Brunel Law School has written a full-page Comment article on Human Rights law for the Solicitors Journal, this week.
He argues against the government’s reported proposals to replace the Human Rights Act with a Bill of Rights.
The draft plans were reportedly leaked to the Sunday Times in which it was claimed that under the proposed Bill of Rights, UK judges would not have to “slavishly” follow the ruling of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg any more.
Dr Giannoulopoulos, who is also Associate Dean (Student Welfare), in the College of Business, Arts and Social Sciences, explains why the new government blueprint, which advocates following common law or legal rulings in other Commonwealth countries instead, fails to fully understand the European Convention on Human Rights.
“The debate on the British Bill of Rights is promising to be highly controversial. The reforms contemplated can gravely affect the future of human rights standards in Britain,” the article concludes.
His Comment piece follows the recent launch of the Britain in Europe Research Network, an independent thinktank composed of academics, legal practitioners and representatives from non-governmental organisations that Dr Giannoulopoulos has established in response to the government’s stated intentions to replace the rulings from Strasbourg.
The new group will appraise UK and European law from different viewpoints and publish their findings with the intention of making a contribution to public policy on human rights matters.
You can read the full article in the Solicitors Journal here:
http://www.solicitorsjournal.com/comment/bill-rights-leak-shows-draft-plans-are-plainly-flawed