Hunting Act 2004 - Definition and Overview

The Hunting Act 2004 is an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom passed in 2004. The effect of the act will be to outlaw hunting with dogs (particularly fox hunting) in England and Wales from February 18 2005.

The Act received the Royal Assent on November 18, 2004 when the House of Commons invoked the Parliament Act, thereby becoming law without the approval of the House of Lords. The Lords had preferred an Act that regulated hunting with dogs.

The chaos that surrounded the passing of the act was a fitting finale to what many consider to have been one of the most absurd and time-consuming episodes in recent parliamentary history. The final passing of the legislation was considered very controversial with many newspapers and broadcasters condemning Tony Blair's Labour administration for giving into what they perceived as the prejudicial views of anti-hunting Labour backbenchers. Labour MPs voting for the legislation maintained that they simply represented the majority of the public who favoured a ban on hunting with dogs. Their assertion of majority support for the thrust of the legislation seems to have some basis in evidence, a September 2002 survey commissioned by the Daily Telegraph [1] (http://www.yougov.com/yougov_website/asp_besPollArchives/pdf/TEL020101010.pdf) indicated that a narrow majority of people (57%) agreed with the statement that 'hunting with dogs is never acceptable'.

There have been a series of declarations by various groups of hunting activists (most notably the Countryside Alliance) that they will still go hunting in defiance of the law and it is expected that pro-hunting groups will mount several legal challenges to the act (both in the British High Court and European Court of Human Rights). These are expected to include, a ruling on the legality of the Parliament Act itself, and a quite separate challenge as to whether the anti-hunting legislation contravenes individual property rights protected in the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). However, mainstream legal opinion holds that the proposed legal challenges are not likely to be successful in overturning the basic thrust of the legislation, though there is a much greater probability that the challenges could delay its implementation or obtain a degree of compensation for those adversely affected. On the balance of probabilities, it seems likely that several hundred years of legal foxhunting in England and Wales will end sometime between 2005 and 2007.

References

• YouGov Survey (Commissioned by Daily Telegraph)- 28 September 2002 - Sample Size 1997 individuals - [2] (http://www.yougov.com/yougov_website/asp_besPollArchives/pdf/TEL020101010.pdf)
• Full Text of the Hunting Act 2004 - [3] (http://www.legislation.hmso.gov.uk/acts/acts2004/20040037.htm)