■The current system of a six-month rotating presid-
ency would be replaced by the appointment by the
Council of a permanent President of the Council for
a term of two and a half years
■The creation of a new post of EU ‘Foreign Minister’
(and Vice President of the Commission), combining
the jobs of the High Representative of the Union for
Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and the External
Affairs Commissioner, with the aim of improving the
effectiveness, consistency and coherence of the EU’s
foreign policy.
■From 2014, two-thirds of the member states will have
a Commissioner who will hold office for five years.
■Qualified Majority Voting (QMV) will become the
default voting method for the Council, except where
the treaties require a different method. From 2014,
QMV will be based on a ‘double majority’ requiring
55 per cent of member states and 65 per cent of the
EU’s population.
■The number of MEPs will be capped at 751 (750 plus
the president of the Parliament) and no member state
will have more than 96 or less than six MEPs.
■The introduction of a ‘Citizen’s Initiative’, which
requires the Commission to draft a proposal if one
million citizens petition for reform.
■National vetoes are removed in a number of areas
including in relation to aspects of Justice and Home
Affairs.
■The European Union would acquire a single legal
personality, enabling it to sign international treaties
and join international organisations.
■The provisions of the EU Charter of Fundamental
Rights will be legally binding, although the UK gov-
ernment has entered into a protocol which ensures
that no court can declare UK laws, regulations or
administrative practices as inconsistent with the
Charter.
Although the Lisbon Treaty contains many of the
features of the Nice Treaty, it does not purport to be a
Constitutional Treaty. The Lisbon Treaty amends current
EU and EC treaties, whereas the Nice Constitutional
Treaty aimed to create a single text for a European
Constitution and replace all existing treaties.
The Lisbon Treaty will only come into force when
ratified by member states. However, the process of rati-
fication was thrown into doubt in June 2008, when Irish
voters rejected the Treaty in a referendum. Although the
UK government had undertaken to hold a referendum
on the Nice Constitutional Treaty in its 2005 election
manifesto, it decided that the Lisbon Treaty should be
ratified by Parliament and the European Union (Amend-
ment) Act received the Royal Assent on 19 June 2008.
An application for judicial review of the govern-
ment’s decision not to hold a referendum was unsuc-
cessful (R (on the application of Wheeler)vOffice of the
Prime Minister(2008)). The High Court held that the
‘promise’ contained in the 2005 Labour Party Election
Manifesto and various ministerial statements related to
the Nice Constitutional Treaty and that treaty was mater-
ially different from the Lisbon Treaty; and even if min-
isterial statements could be regarded as a ‘promise’, that
did not give rise to legitimate expectations enforceable
in public law. The subject matter, nature and context of
the ‘promise’ placed it in the realm of politics rather
than the courts.Human rights
European Convention on Human Rights
and the Human Rights Act 1998The UK is very unusual in having no written constitution
which sets out the powers of the Crown, Parliament, the
government and the judiciary, and the rights of citizens.
In the UK, a person is free to do anything which is not
specifically prohibited by the law. However, there is no
statement of basic civil rights and no mechanism to pre-
vent Parliament from passing legislation which restricts
civil rights. Most other countries have written constitu-
tions which incorporate a statement of fundamental
civil rights guaranteed by the state and the courts.
In 1950 the Council of Europe adopted a Euro-
pean Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) which was
based on the United Nations’ Universal Declaration on
Human Rights. The UK ratified the ECHR in 1951. The
rights and freedoms protected by the ECHR and sub-
sequent amendments (known as protocols) ratified by
the UK are set out in Fig 2.6.
Rights under the Convention are not all the same.
There are three types of Convention right:■absolute rights(i.e. Arts 2 and 3) which cannot be
restricted in any circumstances including times of warPart 1Introduction to law