Ian Leigh is Professor of Law at Durham University and a member of the Durham Human Rights Centre.

Ten years after the passing of the Human Rights Act 1998, it is timely to evaluate the Act's effectiveness. The focus of Making Rights Real is on the extent to which the Act has delivered on the promise to 'bring rights home'. To that end the book considers how the judiciary, parliament and the executive have performed in the new roles that the Human Rights Act requires them to play and the courts' application of the Act in different legal spheres. This account cuts through the rhetoric and controversy surrounding the Act, generated by its champions and detractors alike, to reach a measured assessment. The true impact in public law, civil law, criminal law and on anti-terrorism legislation are each considered. Finally, the book discusses whether we are now nearer to a new constitutional settlement and to the promised new 'rights culture'.

Part I: The Architecture of the Human Rights Act
1 Great Expectations
2 Human Rights and the Political Process
3 The Courts (I): Sources of law
4 The Courts (II): Interpretation and Its Limits
5 The Co-operative Constitution?
Part II: Domestic Remedies for Violations of Convention Rights
6 Public Law Remedies: the Scope and Standard of Judicial Review under the HRA
7 Human Rights and the Criminal Trial
8 Human Rights and Counter-Terrorist Measures
9 'Horizontal rights'
10 Civil Law Remedies
11 Conclusion