Comparison

• Rule of law

  principle that the law is enforced, and that it is applied equally to everyone
• structural

  • UK - flexible Constitution, HRA not entrenched and can change. Declaration of incompatibility
  • US - entrenched in Bill of Rights so protected
  • UK - Parliamentary sovereignty so choose civil rights
  • US - Constitution sovereignty so Supreme Court landmark rulings as interpretative amendments
  • UK - campaign finance limits
  • US - spend more on so influence representatives
• rational

  • individuals infringing rights
  • (race flashcard)
  • (women's flashcard)
  • political leaders
  • UK - lack figure
  • US - civil rights movement led by Martin Luther King (race flashcard)
  • expand civil rights
  • UK - Abortion Act and NI in 2019 (women & LGBTQ flashcard)
  • Blair reduce after 9/11
  • US - Democrat Kennedy and Johnson for civil rights
  • Bush reduce in 9/11 and Trump restrict immigration (immigration flashcard)
• cultural

  individual liberty

  • UK - HRA. Rule of Law and pluralism
  • US - Bill of Rights. Rule of Law and pluralism. Suspicious of government control eg anti-lockdown protests. Threatened by far-right eg Capitol insurrection

  religious groups

  • UK - feel threatened by liberal policies (religion flashcard)
  • US - stronger, feel threatened by liberal policies

  women and minorities

  • UK - (race, women, LGBTQ flashcard)
  • US - women not protected in Constitution (women and LGBTQ flashcard)
• national emergency

  • UK - after 9/11, Prevention of Terrorism Act but repealed in 2011
  • US - after 9/11, Patriot Act so search homes without court order
• women’s rights

  • similarities: MeToo movement against sexual harassment
  • UK - Abortion Act not contested. 30% British consider themselves religious
  • US - Roe v Wade contested as pro-life Republicans and pro-choice Democrats. 56% Americans consider themselves religious
• race

  • UK - Civil Rights campaign with Bristol Buss Boycott. Race Relations Act banned racial discrimination
  • UK - 1970s, “Sus” laws arrest anyone loitering and ready to commit offence but mostly young black men. 2011, police shot Duggan and riots and looting
  • UK - black men 9x more likely stopped and searched than white
  • US - racial segregation and Civil Rights movement. Black Lives Matter
• rights of immigrants

  • UK - debates on access to NHS, housing, HRA and deportations. 2016, leave EU as immigration concerns
  • US - Trump tried overturning Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood programme for child immigrants but overruled by Supreme Court
• rights of LGBTQ+ people

  • UK - 2013, same-sex marriage legal
  • UK - 2020, Johnson cancel plans to make legal gender change easier
  • US - 2015, same-sex marriage legal in all states. Trump ban transgender people in military and remove healthcare protections
  • US - 2020, Supreme Court rules employers not fire workers for being transgender
• gun rights

  • UK - gun control accepted after Snowdrop campaign
  • US - Second amendment
• religious groups

  • UK - 2018, Lee v Ashers Bakery Company and Supreme Court rule right to not make cake promoting same-sex marriage
  • US - 2018, Masterpiece Cakeshop v Colorado Civil Rights Commission and Supreme Court rule right to not make cake promoting same-sex marriage