Book excerpt: Unlocking Human Rights will ensure that you grasp the main concepts of this fascinating and dynamic area of law with ease, providing you with an indispensible foundation in the subject. The book explains in detailed, yet straightforward, terms: • The nature of human rights • European Convention on Human Rights • Human Rights Act • Right to life • Torture, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment • Public order, police powers, freedom of association and assembly • Right to a fair trial • Freedom of expression • Privacy, private life and marriage • Right to liberty and security • Prohibition of discrimination • Terrorism • Freedom of thought, conscience and religion • Property rights • Contemporary themes of UN human rights review of the UK, constitutional reform, and security The book provides practical knowledge to help you apply the understanding of these themes and explains: • Rights concepts and language • How the Convention and Human Rights Act operate • Ways in which applicants use the procedures to remedy injustices when domestic UK law has let them down • What kinds of protection are available to everyone within the UK’s jurisdiction • How a balance is struck between the need to protect many different kinds of right in the modern world, with the equally important need to protect everyone from external threats • Why it is vital that essential freedoms of thought, conscience, religion, association, assembly and expression are protected • How the ‘rights’ which everyone claims as their own have to be balanced against the qualifications or restrictions that are imposed to protect other people’s interests This new volume is fully up-to-date with the latest changes in the law and includes discussion of essential developments, including the Protection of Freedom Act 2012, Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013 and the Succession to the Crown Act 2013.