Dr Kai Moller, Professor Conor Gearty, Professor Jill Peay, Dr Peter Ramsay.

This is an optional course for 2nd and 3rd year LLB students and BA Anthropology and Law students. It is only available to students who have studied the first year Public Law course (LL106), or with permission from the course convener, an equivalent course.

The course offers an introduction to the Human Rights Act and the European Convention on Human Rights, with an emphasis on underlying theoretical and conceptual issues.

The history of human rights protection in the UK; theoretical aspects of human rights; the Human Rights Act 1998; human rights and parliamentary sovereignty; human rights and standards of review; human rights and the common law; precedent and human rights law. The rights to life and freedom from torture; free expression; freedom of association and 'militant democracy'; freedom of religion; the right to respect for private and family life; equality and non-discrimination. Mental health and human rights. Terrorism, security and states of emergency; 'social learning'. Anomalous zones.

One two-hour seminar per week.

Students are expected to submit two essays during the year.

For European Convention law there exists no textbook which deals with the issues in adequate depth, but interested students may want to take a look at Harris, O'Boyle and Warbrick, Law of the European Convention on Human Rights 2nd edn (OUP, 2009) for an overview. For the second term, C. Gearty's book Principles of Human Rights Adjudication (2004) is a good starting point for further analysis but now rather dated. See the same author's Civil Liberties (OUP, 2007) and A Kavanagh, Constitutional Review under the UK Human Rights Act (CUP, 2009). In both terms, in-depth engagement with the primary materials and active participation in the seminars is essential for successful completion of the course.

One three hour unseen examination in the Summer Term (100%) with nine questions from which three must be attempted.