The Human Rights Act – A New Equity or a New Opiate: Reinventing Justice or Repackaging State Control?

The proposed incorporation of the European Convention on Human Rights into the main stream of the United Kingdom's common law system has a number of historical parallels. This article considers what can usefully be drawn from these parallels and then analyses why the modern state feels impelled to take (what appears to be) such a fundamental constitutional step. It considers whether the incorporation agenda is in fact a more subtle discourse initiated by the 'Establishment' and designed to divert attention from matters of greater sensitivity to the state.