Human rights is an important and interesting topic. Not a day passes but there is some story in the media dealing with human rights. Important political and social issues, such as the methods used to combat terrorism, the bullying use of social media, the concerns of celebrities for their privacy, the consequences for individuals of the advances in medicine, the use of surveillance by the state, and so on, all raise human rights issues. Beginning Human Rights Law has been written to provide a brief introduction to the subject. It aims to introduce the basic principles of human rights law as these have developed under the European Convention on Human Rights and been given ‘further effect’ in United Kingdom law through the Human Rights Act 1998. The book explores the major issues and cases relating to specifi c rights and seeks to place these into context. Chapter 1 introduces the topic as a subject for study. Chapters 2 – 4 explore the European Convention (ECHR) and the Human Rights Act (HRA). Chapters 5 – 10 then give consideration to specifi c rights – what they cover, how they have been given effect both in the Convention and in the UK law based on it, and what the main problems and issues associated with these rights are. As well as text, throughout the book there are diagrams which clarify matters and there are also ‘on- the-spot questions’ of various kinds to stimulate refl ection. Major cases are discussed and further reading is indicated at the end of each chapter. The book aims, not at a detailed account of the law but, rather, to draw attention, in a straightforward and easy- to-read way, to the background ideas and the main purposes that lie behind particular rights – to the human interests that are served by these rules of law. Human rights are often controversial and so the book also aims to point out the main areas of disagreement. With this bigger picture of what underlies the law, readers will be well placed to proceed to a fuller, more detailed study. There is a great danger of seeing human rights law as merely just another set of detailed, complicated, legal rules. Doing this may miss the moral and political seriousness which explains the special nature of human rights – that they should be legal limits on the exercise of power even in a democracy.