Sir, Jenni Russell’s conversion from a defender to decrier of the Human Rights Act (“We should take back control of human rights”, Jun 6) sounds persuasive but it is based on a misconception. The Human Rights Act does not give Strasbourg power to override acts of parliament or give the British courts power to strike down any law that they find incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). On the contrary, unlike the European Communities Act that does have this effect in relation to the ECJ and EU law, the Human Rights Act specifically provides that acts of the UK parliament continue in force despite a finding of incompatibility with the Convention rights by the Strasbourg court or a British one. The government…

Source: The Times June 06, 2019 23:03 UTC