Moving away from common sense : the impact of the juridification of human rights

Kang-Riou, N

Abstract

This chapter insists on taking seriously the criticism that there has been a loss of ‘common sense’ in the application of the law due to the application of the HRA. It can appear that the criticisms made by the press against the court(s) are valid because they relate to a common view of what human rights should be and that human rights law only incidentally follows such a view.
In many aspects they are actually far apart. Quite often the language used by the European Court of Human Rights is substantially different from the ‘common view’ expressed by the media. As human rights transformed into a legal language, it has been taken over by lawyers and legal institutions which alter both its form and substance. The legalisation of the human rights produce a modification of the content of the human rights away from a common sense of justice and at the same time give to expert judges powers which traditionally rested in domestic politics.

Citation

Kang-Riou, N. (2017). Moving away from common sense : the impact of the juridification of human rights. In F. Cowell (Ed.), Critically Examining the Case Against the 1998 Human Rights Act (169-184). Routledge

• Online Publication Date: Sep 13, 2017
• Publication Date: Sep 18, 2017
• Deposit Date: Dec 20, 2017
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 17, 2020
• Publisher: Routledge
• Pages: 169-184
• Book Title: Critically Examining the Case Against the 1998 Human Rights Act
• ISBN: 9781138223820-(hbk.);-9781315310053-(online)
• Publisher URL: https://www.routledge.com/Critically-Examining-the-Case-Against-the-1998-Human-Rights-Act/Cowell/p/book/9781138223820