Case Study

Case Study: Buddhist Open-Air Service

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Case Study: Buddhist Open-Air Service

Introduction

The paper strives to answer the question, at the end of the case study, by understanding the key elements of a law situation from the background information of Buddhist Open-Air Service. The paper aims to answer the question regarding John and Mary Eva's using of Human Rights Act 1998 to confront the action of the Chief Constable and claiming for their £1,800 losses. For this purpose, the significant Articlesof the Human Rights Act 1998 and the European Convention on Human Rights are explained in the paper. Further, the paper also analyses a decided case, which contributes to explanation of the problem question.

Discussion

The law problem regarding the cancellation of the Buddhist Open-Air Service of the Entwhistle Buddhist Association (EBA), by the Chief Constable of Greater Entwhistle Police (GEP), requires analysis of various elements in context with the statutes mentioned in the background information. The service planned by the EBA on October 28, 2011was aimed at denunciating Chinese government for its oppression of Tibetan Buddhists. However, the EBA service was to be held in the open air, at Ace Mill in Entwhistle, and expected to attract a large number of people from the North West including local media. The Chief Constable of GEP, on being alerted by the Chinese Embassy in UK of the website contents of EBA, issued a notice to the EBA trustees imposing several conditions on the open-air service planned by the EBA. These impositions include:

Changing of location, of any EBA's planned service between 19 October and 31 October 2011, to at least 10 miles from the Electro plc.'s main gates

The number of demonstrators will not exceed 20

The duration and demonstration of the service will not be more than 2 hours

The planned service must not be held open-air, but in a building

Further, the Chief Constable advised not to trespass the premises of Electro plc.'s on October 28, 2011. Doing this would allow the GEP to arrest the demonstrators on the basis of powers mentioned in s128 Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005. The above mentioned impositions on the EBA's open-air service disappointed many Buddhists in the Northern England and North West. The residents of Cornwall, John and Marry Eva, in order to participate in the open-air service already booked non-refundable flights and partly non-refundable hotel accommodation at the Entwhistle Plaza Hotel, which will cost them over £1,800. They have also lost an opportunity to participate in the service in order to hear a sermon from the Tibetan Lama Sogyal, who is a prominent and senior person in the Tibetan Buddhist spiritual hierarchy.

Let us describe the possibility of John and Mary Eva's use of Human Rights Act (HRA) 1998 for challenging the action of the Chief Constable and claiming for their £1,800 losses, in accordance with the pertinent Articles of the HRA.

The HRA and Its Relevance to the Law Problem

The HRA received Royal Assent on November 9, 1998 and is the Act of Parliament of the United ...