Vertical effect refers to, in English law, the way in which the Human Rights Act impacts on the relationship between individual citizens and the state. The Human Rights Act states that the Act applies to public bodies meaning that any citizens satisfying the test for standing can fight a case based upon a breach of a Convention right.
In recent times there has been some debate as to whether the Human Rights Act can also have horizontal effect as well.
Famous quotes containing the words vertical and/or effect:
“I tell you, hopeless grief is passionless;
That only men incredulous of despair,
Half-taught in anguish, through the midnight air
Beat upward to God’s throne in loud access
Of shrieking and reproach. Full desertness,
In souls as countries, lieth silent-bare
Under the blanching, vertical eye-glare
Of the absolute Heavens.”
—Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861)
“Self-denial is not a virtue: it is only the effect of prudence on rascality.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)