The new Human Rights Act 1998 will affect a wide range of legal areas including police powers, criminal and civil rules of evidence and procedure, family law, planning, employment law, freedom of information, privacy, tax, education, environmental law, immigration and asylum, and electoral law. The Act brings with it a whole new European legal system with different rights, different courts, a new body of case-law and a legal status which differs from the status accorded to EC law.