Khan says Labour will hand power back to British courts – and away from Strasbourg

Today Shadow Secretary of State for Justice Sadiq Khan has outlined proposals that would see a Labour government reassert the role of British courts in relation to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

Currently, Section 2 of the Human Rights Act, introduced by Labour in 1998, ensures that British courts have to take into consideration decisions made in Strasbourg but that they are not bound by said decisions.

But writing in the Telegraph, Khan explains that often Section 2 isn’t understood in the way Labour hoped:

“Too often, rather than “taking into account” Strasbourg rulings and by implication, finding their own way, our courts have acted as if these rulings were binding on their decisions. As a result, the sovereignty of our courts and the will of Parliament have both been called into question.”

If elected in 2015, Khan says that a Labour government would seek to remedy this:

“We’ll use the 800th anniversary of the Magna Carta – the world’s first bill of rights – to assert the role of British courts vis-à-vis Strasbourg. We will make sure it is clear to the judges what Parliament intended by Section 2 – that they’re free to disagree with Strasbourg, that it’s sometimes healthy to do so, and that they should feel confident in their judgments based on Britain’s expertise and strong human rights standing.”

If this doesn’t solve the problem, Khan also doesn’t rule out “re-legislating to make things doubly clear if matters don’t improve”.

From the Shadow Secretary of State for Justice the message is clear: a Labour government will champion the power of British courts – but will do so while continuing to support Britain’s membership of the European Convention of Human Rights.