Legislative counsel plays an important role in protecting human rights – although this role is often invisible to the public. They prefer a modest and ad hoc approach, away from the spotlight – and for good reasons. Nevertheless, I believe that legislative counsel should re-examine their role in protecting human rights, and develop a more systematic approach. However,they should retaina modest attitudehere, away from the spotlight, and not lose sight of the fact that their primary role is giving effect to government policy.

Legislative counsel have always had a significant role in human rights protection. It is well accepted that they should comment on issues such as the content of warrant provisions, searchand seizure power provisions, information-collecting provisions and the details of criminal offences.

Let us look more closely at two aspects of this role.

Firstly, legislative counseltend to take an ad hoc approachto human rights,building on a vast collective experience of individual projects. This ad hoc approach basedon past experience is very valuable.It allows legislative counsel to identifyissues quickly, and to identify solutionsthat have worked in the past. In other words, the ad hoc approach is quick and reliable.

Secondly, legislative counsel deal with human rights issues with a light touch. They have a modest view of their role in human rights protection. They tend to defer to human rights experts. In other words, legislative counselplay a role at the periphery of human rights protection – not at the centre.

I support these two features of the legislative counsel’s role – that is, an ad hoc approach with a light touch. Legislative counsel should not take on a central role in human rights protection – at leastuntil they gain a detailedknowledge of humanrights law and practice. Most legislative counselare just too busy to gain this detailed knowledge – although I understand that in some jurisdictions they are moving in this direction (eg, Canada and the UK).