He said that a degree of uncertainty had to be expected whenever new legislation comes into force. That raised issues about the quality of the audit work that the executive had carried out prior to devolution. There has been a case of a lot of lawyers just trying it on and testing to see how far they can get with the law as it stands. Mr Poustie said that, while there would probably be some short-term problems for public authorities, the result would be a better quality of administration in the future. Rather, I'd suggest that it's something that Scotland can be proud of, that our new institutions were bound by human rights considerations from inception.
People suggest that the courts have been deluged.
These cases have always been possible if people went to Strasbourg. It's just that it's easier now to deal with the case here. We won't be washing our dirty linen in Europe to such a great extent. To mark the full introduction of the Human Rights Act into British law, BBC News Online is publishing a series on its impact throughout this week. Come back each day to find out more.