The European Convention on Human Rights is not just of relevance to liberal lawyers seeking to prosecute a South American dictator who, unwisely for him, decided to seek medical treatment in the UK.

Human rights is now a mandatory topic for all solicitors.

Within the UK the rights of citizens to seek redress for unfairness by 'public authorities', including courts, tribunals, local government and others which perform public functions, will soon be strengthened.

The rights of all -- not just individuals but also limited companies, shareholders and directors -- to fair, public and timely hearings of the determination of their civil rights, and of any criminal charges brought against them, is set to become clearly defined.

This is because the Human Rights Act 1998, which is scheduled to come into force by mid-2000, will make the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms part of UK law (it has already, post-devolution, come into effect in Wales).

The jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights will then become relevant to all who practise in the UK.

Solicitors will need, at the very least, an awareness of the fact that Strasbourg interpretations of what is acceptable behaviour will apply to just about every area of legal activity.

These interpretations will take in: the rights to life, liberty and person, access to justice and a fair trial, freedom of expression, privacy, education, and the enjoyment of property.

Solicitors will need to appreciate some of the finer points of European law.

For example, they will need an understanding of 'proportionality' and its linkage with the principle of 'the margin of appreciation'.

'Proportionality' in this context requires a reasonable relationship between the objective and the means used to achieve it.

So the effect of upholding a right must be weighed against the freedoms that may be disturbed as a result.

The 'margin of appreciation' is the leeway given by the European Court to courts of member states in determining what is necessary to protect reasonable rights written into their domestic legal systems.

These concepts are novel even to those solicitors who are expe rienced UK litigators and further underlines the importance of getting up to speed in good time.

Let there be no mistake: this raft of European-defined rights will impinge not only on the behaviour of public authorities, the courts and tribunals, but also on disputes regarding contract, commercial and insurance matters, personal injury, matrimonial, welfare, disability, property, employment, defamation, privacy, tax and criminal law.

That is why the Law Society has created a Human Rights Act task force and why it is not inappropriate for me, as someone who is not best known as a human rights campaigner, to chair it.

The purpose of the task force is to ensure as far as possible that all solicitors are aware that for the first time as a matter of UK law, their clients will have certain minimum, fundamental human rights which, as legal advisors, they will have a duty to uphold.

It is not sufficient for this awareness to be confined to those already at the 'sharp end' of human rights law.

And even those solicitors who are already well up on the fundamental rights aspects of their particular specialism will need to appreciate the wider application to every area of legal work.

This should not be seen as an additional burden on solicitors as they grapple with an ever-changing and demanding legal landscape.

Instead, it should be viewed as an opportunity for solicitors who are the main gateway to justice, and enablers of commerce, to be seen in the vanguard of these newly-defined rights which will, it is estimated, create up to 5% additional litigation as well as other extra legal work.

David McIntosh is senior partner of London law firm Davies Arnold Cooper and a Law Society Council member