영국의 인권법과 인권기관

The British Human Rights Act and synopsis of human rights protection organizations

When the Europeans discuss democracy, they start from the history and thoughts of Greece and Rome, and when we talk about modern democracy and especially about human rights, we cannot ignore Great Britain. However, the legal system of Britain has so much complexity that it is not easy to introduce it in a simple way. Generally we call the country the United Kingdom, which includes England, Wales and Scotland, but they do not share the same legal system, and therefore it is not easy to describe the legal system of the UK. The UK we are familiar with would mostly be about England. And this thesis would not go beyond that limitation. This thesis is written in order to introduce the human rights act and today’s situation of human rights organizations of the UK. By investigating the human rights organizations in the UK that are different in their history and legal traditions from Korea, it is the intention of this thesis to examine the situation of our own human rights organizations from a more objective point of view. Even if the research process was difficult, a fair amount of implication on human rights through the English system could be obtained. This study unfolds in the sequence of content of British Human Rights Act (Ⅱ), the structure of English human rights organizations (Ⅲ), and the characteristics and evaluation of English human rights organizations (Ⅳ). Britain has an unwritten constitution and did not establish special human rights organization that is comparatively familiar to us. That means the common law courts of Britain have operated as the protection organization of human rights. Besides law courts, various committees operate as complementing organizations that guarantee the parliamentary ombudsman. The enactment of the human rights act of 1998 was a turning point in the protection of human rights and the development of the constitution, and especially in 2006, the equality act was enacted which meets the standard required by international society. This shows a part of process for Britain to become part of an international society that is healthy from the image of the Great Britain that ruled the world in the past. As not much time has passed since the establishment of the British human rights committee, it is too early to evaluate the outcome, however it is clear that the British human rights organizations are established being faithful to the Paris Convention.