Human Rights Act 1998 Essay

Protecting individuals’ reputation is taken seriously in the English legal system hence the law of defamation was put in place. What needs to be considered is looking at whether the law contradicts Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights Act. This essay would be focusing on how the Human Rights Act 1998 has made an impact on several areas of tort mainly focusing on defamation and trying to see if the Human Rights Act goes in line with the law of defamation or contradicts it. A brief history would be given showing how the Human Rights Act slowly progressed into the English law as it didn 't have much recognition in its early stage. The essay would then conclude with an overview of how the Human Rights Act has impacted on defamation giving personal thoughts and opinions. …show more content…
The Human Rights Act 1998 was put in place to protect these individual rights. The Act came into force in the United Kingdom in year 2000 and it marks how the conceptualisation of the individual rights in British law shifted dramatically due to the fact that it’s incorporated in the European Convention of Human Rights. The main purpose of the Human Rights Act is to seek the rights of individuals in the society, rights such as rights such as rights to life, freedom of thought, religion and belief, freedom of expression, right to fair trial and punishment before the law and so on. The Human Rights Act makes it unlawful for public or private bodies to act without accordance to the general rule or principle of the Human Rights Act as seen in the case of Wainwright v Home Office.This in essence means that any individual who feels their right or rights has been violated by public officials or bodies can take the issue to court or before the law to receive due