BBC Radio 4's Law in Action was broadcast on Tuesday, 11 July, 2006 at 1600 BST. There has been unprecedented national soul searching over the way the Human Rights Act is being applied.
Tension between the government that introduced it and the judges who are applying it has reached such a pitch that some have said we are in the midst of a constitutional crisis.
The Afghan hijacker case and the recent judicial rejection of Control Orders for terror suspects comes at a time when states are struggling to balance the need for security against cherished rights and freedoms. Are our much-criticised judiciary up to the task of striking this delicate balance and applying the law?
Or is it time, as David Cameron has suggested, for a British Bill of Rights and what difference would such laws make? Clive Coleman discusses the issues with shadow Attorney General Dominic Grieve, human rights barrister David Wolfe and Roger Smith of the organisation Justice.
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