Deborah Wells and Dr. Kendall Stiles, Political Science

(Editor’s note: This report was written by Dr. Stiles on Deborah’s behalf because she was serving a mission at the time this report was due.)

The project involved a study of British civil rights laws and practices in the context of European human rights law as embodied in the Convention on Human Rights and enforced by the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. Over the years, Britain has often found itself chastised for failing to comply with both the spirit and letter of the law, which raises the obvious question: why would the world’s most mature democracy have difficulty complying with these rules?

Deborah worked for the Scottish Parliament during the summer of 2004 and in that capacity was able to probe this question further. In particular, she was able to ask Scottish parliamentarians (SMPs) their views on British human rights and was surprised to learn that there was a fairly high level of dissatisfaction. In particular, there was a sense that power in Britain is too heavily concentrated in London, that the police are too unfettered, and that many Britons (and perhaps even more Scots) find it difficult to protect their basic rights – especially in the wake of September 11, 2001.

Taking some of these findings and incorporating them with my own work on British human rights, I drafted a paper which Deborah then reviewed and revised over a period of several weeks. The final product was a study that challenges conventional wisdom on the spread of international legal principles in general by showing that in the British case things aren’t always what they seem. Specifically, we combined material on the current situation with historical evidence that although Britain appears to move progressively and deliberately down a path of expanding civil rights in accordance with international principles (many of which it helped to draft and promote), the fact is that this process is often in stutter-step and is off-set by considerable ambivalence. Ultimately, the paper helps us better understand the nature of British politics, the place of civil rights in British government, and the mechanisms surrounding the spread of international legal principles.

This paper is currently under review at an important journal – Political Science Quarterly – and a decision is expected shortly. Sadly (for me), I will have to deal with any future revisions since Deborah has recently left to serve an LDS mission in Brazil.

This paper ties in closely with my broader project on the spread of international legal principles over time – the project related to the Mentoring Environment Grant for which I have applied.