SUMMARY

1 A good essay:

– is well written;

– is well presented;

– contains only relevant material; and, above all,

– answers the question.

2 Preparing your work thoroughly will help you to

– interpret the question;

– undertake appropriate research; and

– prepare a plan; after which

– you will have sifted the material so that you will be left with only those things which are

– relevant to the question; and

– directed to an appropriate answer.

3 You can improve the presentation of your essay by following the recognised conventions of grammar, spelling, punctuation, style and referencing.

4 Careful final editing of the essay will pick up most of the oversights and errors which remain.

¹See the comments of Lord Hoffmann on the principle of ‘legality’ in R v Secretary of State for the Home Department ex parte Simms [1999] UKHL 33, [2000] 2 AC 115, 131-32.

²For example, the government’s response to the decision in R v Secretary of State for the Home Department (Respondent) ex parte Al-Hasan [2005] UKHL 13, [2005] 1 WLR 688.

³Art. 3.

⁴Art. 6(4).

⁵Sweden: Instrument of Government, Chapter 2 Art. 21.

⁶Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms s. 23.

⁷Sweden: Instrument of Government Chapter 2 Art. 20.

⁸Arts 1, 4, 10, 13.

⁹Lord Clyde, R v Lambert [135].

¹⁰HL Debs, 3 November 1997, col. 1228.

¹¹KD Ewing, ‘The Human Rights Act and Parliamentary Democracy’ (1999) 62 MLR 79, 79.

¹²M Flinders, ‘Mechanisms of judicial accountability in British central government’ [2001] Parl. Aff. 54, 63.

¹³D McGoldrick, ‘The United Kingdom’s Human Rights Act 1998 in Theory and Practice’ (2001) 50 ICLQ 901, 953.