
care order
A court order placing a child under the care of a local authority. Under the Children Act 1989 an application for a care order can only be made by a local authority, the NSPCC, or a person authorized ...

conflicting rights
Rights can be seen to conflict in a multitude of contexts. For example, the right to freedom of expression of the media (and the allied right of viewers, listeners, and ...

contact
N.(in family law) The opportunity for a child to communicate with a person with whom that child is not resident. The degree of contact may range from a telephone call to a long stay or even a visit ...

Convention right
Any right protected under the European Convention on Human Rights and hence under the Human Rights Act1998. When an issue arises in a case in relation to a convention right it is said to be “engaged”.

crime investigation by the police
Investigating crime is seen by the public as a primary function of the police. This is reactive, with the police responding to the demands made on them by the public. ...

damages
Money damages are an attempt to compensate the plaintiff for harm suffered. The types and measure of damages vary according to the nature of the claim, and may include pecuniary ...

degrading treatment or punishment
Treatment that arouses in the victim a feeling or fear, anguish, and inferiority capable of humiliating and debasing the victim and possibly breaking his physical or moral resistance (Ireland v UK ...

derogation
N.Lessening or restriction of the authority, strength, or power of a law, right, or obligation. Specifically:1 (in the European Convention on Human Rights) A provision that enables a signatory state ...

disclosure of personal information
The notion that the individual has a right to control their own personal information is seen by many scholars as lying at the heart of the right to personal privacy ...

discrimination
Treating one or more members of a specified group unfairly as compared with other people. Discrimination may be illegal on the ground of sex, sexual orientation, race, religion, disability, or ...

economic and social rights
Economic and social rights broadly include rights relating to participation in the economy, particularly the rights of workers such as the right to fair working conditions, and rights to social ...

effective remedy
A right contained in Article 13 of the European Convention on Human Rights but not incorporated directly by the Human Rights Act1998. The Article stipulates that the state must provide systems that ...

enforcing human rights
Unlike most states, the United Kingdom has not adopted a codified written constitution (ie a constitutional document of the highest legal status) with an entrenched (specially protected) set of ...

entrapment
N.Deliberately enticing a person into committing a crime in order to secure his conviction, as by offering to buy drugs from him. The English courts do not recognize entrapment as a defence. However, ...

entrenched rights
These are legal rights which have a special status, so that they cannot be removed or curtailed by the ordinary process of changing the law. They are thus protected from ...

environmental ethics
A search for moral values and ethical principles in human relations with the natural world. See also ethics, land ethcs, stewardship.

Equality and Human Rights Commission
(EHRC)A non-departmental public body established under the Equality Act 2006. It is accountable for its public funds but independent of government. The Commission brings together the work of three ...

European Convention on Human Rights
A convention, originally formulated in 1950, aimed at protecting the human rights of all people in the member states of the Council of Europe. Part 1 of the Convention, together with a number of ...

European treaties
The main treaties, or agreements between states in international law, between European countries, fall under the purview of two regional organizations: the Council of Europe, and the European Union. ...

evidence obtained illegally
Evidence obtained by some means contrary to law. At common law, if evidence was obtained illegally (e.g. where there had been a search of premises without a search warrant), that evidence was not ...