Beside the ancient Bill that shaped the Crown,
And Acts of Union binding shore to shore,
The European Communities Act put down
A modern blueprint for the nation’s law.
Yet three full centuries would slowly fade
Before a fresh constitutional dawn was made.
The Human Rights Act of Nineteen-Ninety-Seven—
Nineteen-Ninety-Eight was the year it passed—
Brought home the rights once managed from afar.
No longer forced to cross the open sea
To Strasbourg’s courts to set a grievance free,
The citizen could claim their liberty at last.
A clever wire stretched across the court,
Where judges walk a tightrope, high and fine:
They bend domestic law to match the text,
Yet bow to Parliament’s supreme design.
For sovereignty remains the ultimate clause,
And Westminster retains the final voice in laws.
