Website reviews

www.echr.coe.int

European Court of Human Rights site. Includes press releases of all new judgments together with summaries and links to the full judgment. Contains an interesting section listing nearly 300 cases and the effect that they have had on domestic laws. Also full versions of some basic texts (such as the rules of court), lists of pending cases and summaries of cases dealt with since 1999. The texts of the judgments are on HUDOC: see below.

Subjective Rating (where 5 is excellent and 1 is poor and no rating indicate that that category has not been assessed)

Site design 4/5

Updating frequency 5/5

http://hudoc.echr.coe.int

Place of first call for full judgments of the European Court of Human rights and the Commission too. Judgments are searchable by loads of parameters. Not always easy though to find what you’re after. Not all are in English so you can learn legal French vocabulary too. Marks are tout droit…

Usefulness 5/5

Site design 4/5

Updating frequency 5/5

www.beagle.org.uk/hra/newindex.htm

Homegrown resource on UK human rights law. Contains text of the Human Rights Act 1998, the text of the Articles of the Convention incorporated in the Act (plus links to summaries of various cases and links from there to the full text of the judgment). There are over 400 searchable summaries of HR cases. The link to Judicial Studies Board case summaries of European judgments is a useful, if outdated resource.

Usefulness 4/5

Site design 3/5

Updating frequency 3/5

www.lcd.gov.uk/hract

The Lord Chancellor’s Department Human Rights Unit has its own section of the LCD website. Contains various official documents relating to the 1998 Act but shies clear of caselaw. The three official reports on the impact of the 1998 Act on the English courts are interesting as are the statistics (e.g. 1 in 6 HR claims were upheld in the first year). Potentially useful links to ministerial statements and parliamentary material etc.

Usefulness 3/5

Site design 2/5

Updating frequency 3/5

www.swarb.co.uk/lisc/Human_Rights.html

Another homegrown site, this one by  web veteran Swarbrick. It summarises some lots of HR cases, both UK and European together with links to the full text. The good news is that this is free. The bad news is that access, through Lawindexpro, to cases less than a year old (and the full database over all areas of law) costs cash. Subscriptions start at £15.

Usefulness 3/5

Site design 2/5

Updating frequency 5/5

www.yourrights.org.uk

At last, Liberty (or NCCL in hippy-speak) have got  round to publishing a site on human rights law. It claims, puzzlingly, to be the first dedicated web-based human rights information service. The material on the site is based on the text of a book “Your Rights” and is structured by reference to subjects areas (e.g. mental health law, property law etc.). The text is neatly broken up but very short and not up to date. The site is still under construction, so maybe one to watch.

Usefulness 2/5

Site design 4/5

Updating frequency 2/5

www.hg.org/human.html

For international aspects of human rights, this Hieros Gamos portal is hard to beat. A massive collection of international materials including treaties, conventions, human rights organisations, academic literature and sites, US caselaw etc. Searchable too: though easy to get lost. Try also www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/diana/index.html for a similar project.

Usefulness 5/5

Site design 3/5

Updating frequency (unknown)

www.doughtystreet.co.uk

The Doughty Street Chambers website has a small section on human rights. Most useful is the set of links to human rights sites including sites providing human rights materials in other common law countries. You can also subscribe (free) to their HR updater.

Usefulness 3/5

Site design 3/5

Updating frequency 2/5

www.lawtel.co.uk

www.lawreportsonline.co.uk/lawreps.nsf

UK Human Rights Reports

www.butterworths.com

Butterworths Human Rights Direct service

www.sweetandmaxwell.co.uk/westlaw

The Westlaw Human rights service

www.justis.com

Caselaw and commentary with the magic J-link