Public authorities under the Human Rights Act 1998

Produced in partnership with Alexander Campbell of Cornerstone Barristers

Practice notes

Public authorities under the Human Rights Act 1998

Produced in partnership with Alexander Campbell of Cornerstone Barristers

Practice notes

The Human Rights Act 1998 (HRA 1998) requires public authorities not to act in ways which are incompatible with the Convention rights. Only if a body is a public authority is it vulnerable to a claim. Therefore it is vital to be able to determine what makes a body a public authority for the purposes of HRA 1998. In some cases it is clear cut whether a body is a public authority or not, but in many cases the situation is more nuanced. In those cases it is necessary to look to guidance given by the courts on the topic of what makes a body a public authority.

The legislative background

Section 6 of HRA 1998 states:

‘Acts of public authorities
(1) It is unlawful for a public authority to act in a way which is incompatible with a Convention right.
(3) In this section “public authority” includes—
(a) a court or tribunal, and
(b) any person certain of whose functions are functions of a public nature,
but does not include either

Alexander Campbell

Barrister, Cornerstone Barristers

Alex is a skilful and experienced barrister whose practice primarily spans issues of public law and property law. Alex’s experience of complex public law issues including human rights, equality issues makes him extremely well-placed to assist clients in litigation across the many fields of law in which these issues arise.

Alex has been praised by judges as an 'excellent’ advocate, for his ‘forensic precision’ in approaching cases and has been described as ‘an expert’ in his fields of practice. He is well-liked by clients for his approachable manner and for his ability to bring clarity to complex cases. He is ranked in Chambers and Partners 2018 and is described as a ‘rising junior with a growing reputation’.

Alex was called to the Bar after an exceptionally strong academic background. Alex holds a law degree from Trinity College, Cambridge and was awarded multiple prizes for his academic performance whilst there. He holds a Master’s degree in French Law from France’s most prestigious law school, l’Université de Paris II – Panthéon-Assas, and a Master’s degree with distinction in public law and human rights from University College London. Alex has been the recipient of a prestigious Pegasus Scholarship under which he spent time working as a barrister in Paris.

Alex writes regularly in legal publications in his areas of practice online, in journals and books.

Jurisdiction(s):

United Kingdom

Key definition:

authorities definition

What does authorities mean?

judicial decisions or opinions of authors of repute used as grounds of statements of law;

��Ӱ��

Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/605.1.15 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/15.6.1 Safari/605.1.15