Report comment

I sincerely hope (and don't believe) that human rights are 'alien to our national culture'. Torture was not permitted (in England and Waes) as part of routine judicial process, it was a British judge who declared that slavery was unlawful in this country (as long ago as the 18th century), and we have a long and proud tradition of arguing for them. British lawyers were instrumental in drawing up the European Convention on Human Rights, not to mention that British barristers first came up with the idea for Amnesty International. The prohibition of discrimination means no more than not taking into account irrelevancies when deciding who to employ and to whom you can offer goods and services. Any sensible lawyer should be aware of human rights - first, to recognise when the issue may be relevant to advising a client, and second, to make his/her business more efficient and effective by getting the best people working in it. Of course we can all argue about what the scope of a right should mean in any particular set of circumstances, but the principles are surely basic to having any reasonable sort of fair and effective society where proper use is made of people's talents. Sadly experience (and this blog!) shows that many lawyers really do need training in what adhering to a concept of human rights actually means.