Constitutional Law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Constitutional Law - Essay Examplecourts to grapple with justifications for rights and freedoms, fetching a more philosophical approach to legal reasoning as they attempt to resolve conflicts among individual rights and competing societal and individual interests.2While the Human Rights Act 1998 did not semiofficially impose a UK Bill of Rights it did indorse Convention Rights under the European Convention on Human Rights.3 By the time the Human Rights Act 1998 came into effect in October 2000 the UK judiciary had already become accustomed to the masking of Convention Rights as a Member State to the European Community.4 However as Fenwick, Phillipson and Masterman observeat the same time they were proud of their long-established common law and constitutional traditions, including deference to parliament and to the executive in judicial review cases, as manifested in the Wednesbury doctrine.5The Wednesbury doctrine is the approach adapted by the courts in respect of judicial rev iew in Associated Provincial Picture Houses Ltd v.Wednesbury Corporation 1948 1 KB 223. In this case it was held that the applicant for judicial review is required to satisfy the court that no reasonable common official would have reached the conclusion that the official under review came to.6 Moreover, the court went on to state that it impart not stand in an appellate position to overrule an official decision it will wholly stand as a judicial authority to determine whether or not the public official offended the law in its abuse of authority.7While the judiciary maintains that the Wednesbury doctrine remains a directional principle the courts have displayed a willingness to depart from this strict doctrine and to loosen the grip of judicial deference. This deference has never been more significant than it has in recent years with respect to legislative changes calculated to take modern threats of terrorism.