The applicants sought orders that their human rights had been infringed by the conditions of their detention at police stations. One asserted that he had not had opportunity to speak to his solicitor on the phone in private, and the other complained that the arrangements did not guarantee privacy. The court rejected the claims on the basis that the deprivation of the right was either theoretical in one case or illusory in the other. There was no evidence of actual interference with the prisoners human rights. Human Rights jurisprudence had suggested that there was no need to demonstrate actual prejudice, but the UK Act required the court to establish a municipal jurisprudence of human rights. Our common law rights are not lessened or weakened by being re-shaped to fit the facts of particular cases. The rights under the Act and Convention had always to be read in the particular context.
Judges:
Lord Justice Laws, Mr Justice Poole
Citations:
Times 17-Aug-2001, Gazette 06-Sep-2001, [2001] EWHC Admin 553
Links:
Statutes:
European Convention on Human Rights, Human Rights Act 1998 2
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Human Rights, Prisons
Updated: 30 May 2022; Ref: scu.159951
