By: Alan J Dignam and David Allen
Publisher: Butterworths
Price: £50
This book will be a useful addition to an individual practitioner’s human rights library, as long as you understand what you are getting. The book does not read as the title suggests. Instead, nearly half is a general commentary on human rights, the European Convention and the 1998 Human Rights Act (HRA). Only then do we come to Part Two: ‘Companies and the Human Rights Act 1998′. And much of Part Two deals with issues not specific to companies and which have little to do with company law.
So do not come to this book expect- ing fireworks on the impact of the HRA on company law. The specialist company lawyer is unlikely to find a great deal of value.
Nevertheless, if the book is assessed for what it does offer, there is quite a lot there. The first part ‘Human Rights and the Human Rights Act 1998′ is a book on its own. Its declared objective is to introduce the reader to the 1998 Act, and it can be used profitably for that purpose.
Starting with a brief history of human rights and the European Convention, it moves on to a useful chapter on interpretation of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). Chapter Four then runs through the Convention rights and freedoms, article by article – including the Protocols. Other books do this as well, but the approach of this chapter is clear, concise and well-referenced to authorities, key articles and books.
The chapter entitled simply ‘The Human Rights Act 1998′ is especially readable and likely to appeal to generalists and specialists. It begins with the twists and turns of UK politics on human rights from the early 1950s, before the Convention was drafted, to the 1998 Act. Interesting if you like that sort of thing – which I do.
The rest of the chapter is in lively question and answer form: Are the courts bound by the Strasbourg case law? Will the UK judiciary change the way they have to interpret the law? Does everybody have to act compatibly with Convention rights? Is the Church of England affected by the HRA?
It is apparent that the link with company law is sometimes tenuous. In Part Two the impression that the authors are struggling to make a whole book about the company law aspects of human rights is reinforced. It is true that many employers are companies and that a number of bodies within the definition of ‘public authority’ in Section 6 of the HRA will be companies.
There are also issues such as freedom of commercial expression under Article 10 that are likely to affect companies more often than individuals.
There are a couple of chapters dealing with true company law issues, such as the position of shareholders as victims under Article 1 of the First Protocol to the Convention (Right to Protection of Property); or the effect of the HRA on Part XIIIA of the Companies Act 1985.
But despite the title and apparent aim of the book, this is not where it is most useful.
Part Two is disordered and too long, with a couple of passages unnecessarily repeated wholesale, such as on Malone v Metropolitan Police Commissioner.
And either editing standards are going to have to become old-fashioned again or this reviewer will have to go into therapy to work out how to deal with Anton Pillar, admissible (sic)and Stationary Office.
Most of us need plenty of help and ideas on the HRA. This book is not an essential part of anyone’s library but if you pick out the best bits there is plenty that is useful in it.
Nicholas Stewart QC is head of chambers of Hardwicke Building.
