ABSTRACT
The aim of this chapter is to summarise important debates in the literature on the effect of the Human Rights Act on democracy. It will start by framing the issues in respect of what is commonly called the ‘counter-majoritarian problem’, and the search for ways to reconcile the power inevitably given to judges under constitutional review with democracy. It will be argued that the literature has assumed that compliance with the Act is underpinned by a need for politicians to avoid the ‘political costs’ (Simms 131) or ‘political consequences’ (Masterman, 2011: pp. 58–59) for non-compliance, but this dynamic has not been adequately explored.
