This established text (formerly Civil Liberties), now in its third edition, presents a comprehensive and detailed critical analysis of the legal protection for civil rights in Britain, concentrating mainly on England and Wales. It reflects the immensely significant effect of the Human Rights Act 1998, now fully in force. This new edition provides extensive treatment of the revolutionary new developments that have occurred in this field since the Labour government came to power in 1997. It covers inter alia the Human Rights Act 1998, the Terrorism Act 2000, the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000, the Data Protection Act 1998 and the Freedom of Information Bill 2000. This book places the legal protection for civil rights in a theoretical context before moving on to compare the traditional means of protecting civil liberties with the protection offered by the Human Rights Act. It considers the probable impact of the HRA in detail and looks at the use of Strasbourg concepts, including proportionality, in domestic law. The succeeding Chapters consider freedom of expression, freedom of information and official secrecy, protection for privacy, freedom of the person, anti-discrimination measures. The recent developments in all these fields are placed in the context of the HRA.