Civil and Political Rights: Definition and Context

Comparative Politics – Civil and Political Rights

In this course, Dr Andrew Blick (King’s College London) compares and contrasts the protections of civil and political rights in the UK and in the US. In the first module, we are introduced to the topic of civil and political rights, and begin to explore some of the complexities around their definition and realisation in practice. Then, in the second module, we explore the legal and constitutional protections extant for rights in the UK, before moving on in the third module to unpick the corresponding situation in the US. In the fourth module, we explore the significance of the different constitutional arrangements in the US and UK, particularly the implications of codified and uncodified constitutions, before moving on in the fifth module to compare and contrast the relative power and significance of the UK and US Supreme Courts. In the sixth and final module, we explore the recent history of rights protections in the US and UK, focusing in particular on key developments such as the ongoing controversy in the US over abortion rights and the overruling of Roe V Wade in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organisation (2022), and the UK government's early attempts to alter the Human Rights Act and restrict the power of judges following the Brexit controversy. This course is particularly relevant for the comparative element of the AQA and Edexcel A Level Politics specifications, and for those interested in UK and US politics more generally.

Civil and Political Rights: Definition and Context

In this module we introduce the concept of civil and political rights as it applies to politics in the US and the UK, focusing in particular on: (i) how civil and political rights may be defined; (ii) the difficulties we face in reaching agreement on what these rights are and how to realise them in practice; (iii) the emphasis placed historically on civil rights defined as protections from abuse, particularly by governmental institutions; (iv) the political right to partake in political processes; (v) some examples of political rights, e.g. freedoms of expression, movement, protest and association; (vi) the history of the development of civil and political rights.