TY - JOUR TI - Perspectives of Law in Human Rights T2 - IS - KW - The European Convention on Human Rights KW - the United Kingdom KW - blanket ban on voting by prisoners KW - deportation of illegal immigrants KW - tension between judges and politicians KW - the European Court of Human Rights AB - Endicott Timothy - Professor, Dean of the Faculty of Law, University of Oxford. Address: St. Paul Road, Cross Building Str., Oxford, OX1 3UL, Great Britain. E-mail: timothy.endicott@law.ox.ac.uk.In this article, the author analyses the controversial results of the application of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) in the UK. These results cause tense relations between judges and politicians - implementing executive and legislative powers. At that, two sensitive for British justice issues are emphasized, i.e. national rules on immigration and the voting rights of prisoners, and shown that the deportation of illegal immigrants suspected of a crime doe s not consider the negative consequences of this act on their family life. The right to family life natural to EU law is vague and strange to British common law. When interpreting this abstract right, British judges find it challenging - they have to measure incommensurable, i.e. grave consequences of deportation for the family of the wrong-doer and state interests protected by immigration rules the principles of which are not expressed publicly. Another issue faced by British judges and politicians is the regulating the rights of the imprisoned. The blanket ban on voting by prisoners is incompatible with art. 8 of the Convention and art. 3 of Protocol 1 thereto. Besides, Parliament approved the Human Rights act one of the provisions of which obliges judges to interpret Statutory law according to the Convention. At the same time the European Court decided that article 3 of the Protocol excludes the total ban on the rights of the imprisoned. The article stresses that British lawyers and politicians who actively participated in the development of the ECHR did not foresee this development. Instead, the British were convinced that the Convention would not affect their legal practice. The author concludes that British courts improve their professional skills to protect the interests protected by the Convention. AU - Timothy Endicott UR - https://law-journal.hse.ru/en/2012--2/55141167.html PY - 2012 SP - 17-25 VL -