Human rights cases accounted for more than a quarter of all civil appeals heard by the House of Lords last year, it has been revealed.

According to the judicial statistics annual report for 2005, 19 of the 68 cases disposed of by the law lords involved human rights. This was almost double the next most frequent subject matters, administrative law and revenue law, which each provided 10 cases.


Leading human rights lawyer Stephen Grosz, a partner at London firm Bindman & Partners, said: '[The Human Rights Act 1998] is a new act and there are a lot of points of principle to be decided, and a lot of difficult points of principle to be decided.'


However, he said the law lords had taken a reasonably tough line. '[I imagine] the government would be relatively content with the way that the House of Lords has interpreted the Act,' Mr Grosz said.


The report also revealed that the law lords allowed more than half (52%) of civil appeals.


In the Court of Appeal Criminal Division, some 37% of appeals against conviction succeeded while more than 71% of appeals against sentence were allowed. In the Civil Division, nearly 38% of the 1,177 final appeals were successful.