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The Human Rights Act: Bastion of Freedom Or Bane of Good Government?

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The Human Rights Act: Bastion of Freedom Or Bane of Good Government? The Human Rights Act: Bastion of Freedom or Bane of Good Government? Rt Hon Lord Howard of Lympne CH QC PC With Edward Garnier QC MP Policy Exchange is an independent think tank whose mission is to develop and promote new policy ideas which will foster a free society based on strong communities, personal freedom, limited government, national self-confidence and an enterprise culture. Registered charity no: 1096300. Policy Exchange is committed to an evidence-based approach to policy development. We work in partnership with academics and other experts and commission major studies involving thorough empirical research of alternative policy outcomes. We believe that the policy experience of other countries offers important lessons for government in the UK. We also believe that government has much to learn from business and the voluntary sector. Trustees Daniel Finkelstein (Chairman of the Board), Richard Ehrman (Deputy Chair), Theodore Agnew, Richard Briance, Simon Brocklebank-Fowler, Robin Edwards, Virginia Fraser, Edward Heathcoat Amory, David Meller, George Robinson, Robert Rosenkranz, Andrew Sells, Tim Steel, Rachel Whetstone, Simon Wolfson. © Policy Exchange 2012 Published by Policy Exchange, Clutha House, 10 Storey’s Gate, London SW1P 3AY www.policyexchange.org.uk Printed by Heron, Dawson and Sawyer Designed by SoapBox, www.soapbox.co.uk Contents About the Authors 4 About Christopher Kingsland 6 Acknowledgements 8 1 Introduction 9 Edward Garnier 2 Kingsland Memorial Lecture – The Human Rights Act: 12 Bastion of Freedom or Bane of Good Government? Lord Howard 3 Further Reading 24 About the Authors The Rt. Hon. Lord (Michael) Howard of Lympne QC (Conservative) is a former leader of the Conservative Party, having served as a Member of Parliament in the House of Commons for nearly three decades. Lord Howard served as Secretary of State for Employment, Secretary of State for the Environment and Home Secretary in the Conservative government before taking the front-bench opposition roles of Shadow Chancellor, Shadow Foreign Secretary and leader of Her Majesty’s Official Opposition. He was elected to Parliament in 1983 and served as an MP until April 2010 before being appointed a Conservative Life Peer. Prior to his career in government, Lord Howard practised as a barrister for over 20 years, achieving the rank of Queen’s Counsel in 1982. Edward Garnier QC MP was appointed Solicitor General by Prime Minister David Cameron on 13 May 2010. Mr Garnier has been Member of Parliament for Harborough since 1992. He was appointed Queen's Counsel in April 1995, a Crown Court Recorder in 1998 and a Bencher of the Middle Temple in 2001. He was the Hon Secretary of the Foreign Affairs Forum 1988-92, and has been a Vice-Chairman since 1992. He was Secretary of the Conservative House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee from 1992-94 and a member of the Home Affairs Select Committee between 1992 and 1995. He was Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Rt Hon Alastair Goodlad MP and David Davis MP, Ministers of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office from 1994-95. In October 1995 Mr Garnier was appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Rt Hon Sir Nicholas Lyell QC MP, Attorney General and PPS to Sir Derek Spencer QC MP, Solicitor General and PPS to the Rt Hon Roger About the Authors | 5 Freeman MP, and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster in November 1996. He was the Opposition Front Bench Spokesman for the Lord Chancellor's Department from 1997 to June 1999. He was a Visiting Parliamentary Fellow at St Anthony's College, Oxford, from 1996- 97. From June 1999 to September 2001, he was Shadow Attorney General. In May 2005, he was appointed as a Shadow Minister for Home Affairs. In July 2007, he was appointed as a Shadow Minister for Justice and in September 2009 was appointed Shadow Attorney General. Mr Garnier was born in 1952. He was educated at Wellington College, Berkshire, Jesus College Oxford (Modern History) and the College of Law, London. He is married to Anna Garnier and they have a daughter and two sons. About Christopher Kingsland Christopher James Prout, Baron Kingsland TD QC PC (1942-2009) was educated at Sevenoaks school and from 1960, went on to obtain three economics degrees from Manchester University, Queen’s College, Oxford, and Columbia University in New York. His early career was spent working for the United Nations as an economist in Washington DC before he took up law. He served as a lecturer at Sussex University, and was called to the bar in 1972. He worked as a lawyer at Middle Temple and was a Bencher there from 1996, where he specialised in competition law. He was an expert on planning and environmental law and was made a QC in 1988. His legal career included time as a member of the judiciary, becoming an assistant recorder on the Wales and Chester circuit in 1997, a recorder in 2000 and in 2005, a deputy high court judge. He contributed to three volumes of Halsbury's Laws of England. His political life was long and varied. He was elected MEP for Shropshire and Stafford in 1979 and served for 15 years. He won election to be leader of the Conservative Group in the European Parliament in 1987, a position he held for 7 years, and for a period he was also Leader of the wider European Democratic Group (EDG) at Strasbourg. He was knighted in 1990 and raised to the peerage as a life peer in 1994, as Baron Kingsland of Shrewsbury, and became a Privy Counsellor. In 1997 he was appointed Shadow Lord Chancellor, and served as a member of the Official Opposition for a total of 11 years. During this time he shadowed Lord Irvine of Laing, and after 2008, he was Shadow Minister for Legal Affairs. He spent several decades in the Territorial Army, serving with the 16/5 The Queen’s Royal Lancers and on headquarters staff of the 3rd About Christopher Kingsland | 7 Armoured Division, rising to the rank of Major. In 1987 he was awarded the Territorial Decoration (TD). He was a vice-chairman of the law reform group Justice, and Master Gardener at Middle Temple. He was appointed Deputy Lieutenant for Shropshire in 1997. Lord Kingsland died in 2009 at the age of 67. His legacy is preserved by an annual legal competition for aspiring barristers – the Kingsland Cup and Prize Moot – established by his old chambers, Francis Taylor Building, and through the dedication of the Lord Kingsland Research Fellowship at Plymouth Marine Laboratory, where he was the founding Chairman. His widow, Carolyn Kingsland, gave permission for the think-tank Policy Exchange to host an annual legal lecture series in Christopher’s memory, beginning in 2011. Acknowledgements Policy Exchange would like to thank Michael Howard and Edward Garnier for their speeches, and to Carolyn Kingsland for the kind permission to inaugurate this annual lecture series in memory of Christopher Kingsland. Research support for the lecture was kindly provided by Dr Michael Pinto-Duschinsky, Henry Newman, and Dr Robert Kaye. Thanks go to the staff at Policy Exchange who helped with the media for the event. 1. Introduction Edward Garnier, QC MP Tonight we are doubly fortunate. First, we have through this inaugural lecture an opportunity to celebrate the life and work of one this country’s foremost legal and political thinkers of recent times, the Rt Hon the Lord Kingsland QC, with the blessing and in the presence of his widow, Carolyn. It is delightful to see you here and thank you for allowing us to name Lord Howard is like Lord these lectures after Christopher. “ The second reason for our good fortune is Kingsland in many respects: that Michael Howard is the first to give the a brilliant planning Silk before Christopher Kingsland Memorial Lecture. I he came to Parliament with the can think of no better subject than the Human ability to get to the very centre Rights Act as the subject of a lecture by which of any legal issue and to present to remember Christopher and no better his case with clarity, lucidity and qualified person to give this first lecture than determination Michael Howard. Lord Howard is like Lord ” Kingsland in many respects: a brilliant planning Silk before he came to Parliament with the ability to get to the very centre of any legal issue and to present his case with clarity, lucidity and determination. And like Christopher he is not a lawyer’s lawyer. He speaks English in a way that you can understand. He brought that skill to his work as a Conservative politician, as a member of parliament, as a minister and a Cabinet minister holding some of the highest offices of state including as Home Secretary and Leader of the Opposition. To listen to Michael Howard getting to grips with an argument, to watch him drive home his points is to see one of our most effective political lawyers at work although I think it fair to say that 10 | The Human Rights Act he has concentrated rather more on the practice of politics than the law over the last 30 years. I suspect it will not be controversial to say that he and Christopher took a slightly different approach to our Party’s and our country’s political relationship to Europe, but not to the role of the ECtHR in our own jurisdiction. Both were and are keen supporters of the rights of the oppressed, of human rights generally, and of the benefits of the rule of law and parliamentary democracy, so it is fitting that Michael Howard should be the first Kingsland Memorial lecturer.
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