Introduction : socio-legal perspectives on human rights in the national context / Patrick Schmidt and Simon Halliday -- Implementing human rights / Denis Galligan and Deborah Sandler -- France, the UK, and the 'boomerang' of the internationalisation of human rights (1945-2000) / Mikael Rask Madsen -- 'We've had to raise our game': liberty's litigation strategy under the Human Rights Act 1998 / Richard J. Maiman -- Implementing the Human Rights Act into the courts in England and Wales : culture shift or damp squib? / John Raine and Clive Walker -- The effectiveness of national human rights institutions / Stephen Livingstone and Rachel Murray -- When do rights matter? A case study of the right to equal treatment in Sweden / Reza Banakar -- Human rights and French criminal justice : opening the door to pre-trial defence rights / Jacqueline Hodgson -- The millennium blip : the Human Rights Act 1998 and local government / Luke Clements and Rachel Morris -- Empowering children? Legal understandings and experiences of rights in the Scottish children's hearings system / Anne Griffiths and Randy Frances Kandel.