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Hunt supporters are planning civil disobedience against a ban
Pro-hunt campaigners are preparing a legal challenge to overturn a ban on hunting in England and Wales.
On Thursday MPs used the Parliament Act to push through a ban, which will outlaw fox and deer hunting and hare-coursing with dogs from February 2005.
The Countryside Alliance is challenging the legitimacy of the 1949 Act, and arguing the ban does not comply with some aspects of the Human Rights Act.
An application for judicial review will be made at the High Court on Friday.
Campaigners are also threatening a campaign of civil disobedience and say they will try to unseat Labour MPs who voted for the ban.
Rural Affairs Minister Alun Michael said he was confident of seeing off any legal challenge.
He told BBC Two's Newsnight programme: "People have every right to use the courts to test the law, but I don't believe that they will succeed.
"The legal advice I have had is that the bill as it is complies satisfactorily with the human rights legislation. I am quite confident about that."
You could have a government which legislated to have itself rule for ever
Countryside Alliance spokesman
The 1949 Parliament Act allows MPs to force through legislation over opposition from the House of Lords, if it has been rejected by peers over two sessions.
But there have been questions about whether the 1911 Parliament Act, which required three sessions of rejection from peers, should have been used to amend its own terms and create the 1949 act, against Lords opposition.
Former master of the rolls Lord Donaldson told BBC News the campaigners' argument had "100% strength" but that "whether the courts agree is a matter for them".
He said: "Why should the three years agreed be reduced to two without the agreement of both houses? If it can be reduced to two it can be reduced to one month."
'Human rights'
A spokesman for the Countryside Alliance said: "The 1911 Act should not have been used to amend itself.
"By that principal... you could have a government which legislated to have itself rule for ever."
USE OF THE 1949 PARLIAMENT ACT
1991: War Crimes Act
1999: European Parliamentary Elections Act
2000: Sexual Offences Amendment Act
Countryside Alliance chairman John Jackson, farrier's wife Mair Hughes and Bicester Hunt member Patrick Martin are expected to lodge the application for judicial review.
The Alliance also argues there are parts of the Human Rights Act which would be contravened by the ban.
It says people who had entered into contracts, such as farriers, saddlers and feed merchants, who would lose out as a result should be compensated.
The group has also pledged to test loopholes in the ban when it comes into force in February.
And it says 50,000 people have said they are prepared to break the ban with a campaign of civil disobedience, "in the full knowledge they will be arrested".
I don't think it will be a hunting election
Rural Affairs Minister Alun Michael
Pro-hunt Labour peer Baroness Mallalieu said the parliamentary system had failed to protect a minority from "unfair legislation", so they would look to the courts to do so.
She told Newsnight: "If they can't, then it is back to the people.
"The people ultimately have to decide, at the next election and beyond, because this is not something that is going to be ended by next May. It is going to carry on."
Nearly 1,000 people gathered to protest outside Windsor Castle on Thursday, where the Queen held a reception for French President Jacques Chirac, many promising to carry on hunting.
'Watershed'
BBC correspondent Tom Heap said that in next year's expected general election, hunt supporters would try to unseat Labour MPs who voted for the ban "in favour of those who would reverse it" - which would usually mean Tories.
Landowners would also protest by "being obstructive", with measures like barring military training exercises or denying access to utility companies to work on networks.
But RSPCA director of animal welfare, John Rolls, said the bill was a "watershed in the development of a more civilised society for people and animals".
In terms of the election he said hunting was "not the most important issue for people in rural areas, never mind urban areas".
In Scotland, a ban on hounds killing foxes has been in place for two years.
Hunting is still legal if the dogs are used to flush foxes to guns.
There is no ban in Northern Ireland.
Pro-hunt campaigners are preparing a legal challenge to overturn a ban on hunting in England and Wales.
On Thursday MPs used the Parliament Act to push through a ban, which will outlaw fox and deer hunting and hare-coursing with dogs from February 2005.
The Countryside Alliance is challenging the legitimacy of the 1949 Act, and arguing the ban does not comply with some aspects of the Human Rights Act.
An application for judicial review will be made at the High Court on Friday.
Campaigners are also threatening a campaign of civil disobedience and say they will try to unseat Labour MPs who voted for the ban.
Rural Affairs Minister Alun Michael said he was confident of seeing off any legal challenge.
He told BBC Two's Newsnight programme: "People have every right to use the courts to test the law, but I don't believe that they will succeed.
"The legal advice I have had is that the bill as it is complies satisfactorily with the human rights legislation. I am quite confident about that."
You could have a government which legislated to have itself rule for ever
Countryside Alliance spokesman
The 1949 Parliament Act allows MPs to force through legislation over opposition from the House of Lords, if it has been rejected by peers over two sessions.
But there have been questions about whether the 1911 Parliament Act, which required three sessions of rejection from peers, should have been used to amend its own terms and create the 1949 act, against Lords opposition.
Former master of the rolls Lord Donaldson told BBC News the campaigners' argument had "100% strength" but that "whether the courts agree is a matter for them".
He said: "Why should the three years agreed be reduced to two without the agreement of both houses? If it can be reduced to two it can be reduced to one month."
'Human rights'
A spokesman for the Countryside Alliance said: "The 1911 Act should not have been used to amend itself.
"By that principal... you could have a government which legislated to have itself rule for ever."
USE OF THE 1949 PARLIAMENT ACT
1991: War Crimes Act
1999: European Parliamentary Elections Act
2000: Sexual Offences Amendment Act
Countryside Alliance chairman John Jackson, farrier's wife Mair Hughes and Bicester Hunt member Patrick Martin are expected to lodge the application for judicial review.
The Alliance also argues there are parts of the Human Rights Act which would be contravened by the ban.
It says people who had entered into contracts, such as farriers, saddlers and feed merchants, who would lose out as a result should be compensated.
The group has also pledged to test loopholes in the ban when it comes into force in February.
And it says 50,000 people have said they are prepared to break the ban with a campaign of civil disobedience, "in the full knowledge they will be arrested".
I don't think it will be a hunting election
Rural Affairs Minister Alun Michael
Pro-hunt Labour peer Baroness Mallalieu said the parliamentary system had failed to protect a minority from "unfair legislation", so they would look to the courts to do so.
She told Newsnight: "If they can't, then it is back to the people.
"The people ultimately have to decide, at the next election and beyond, because this is not something that is going to be ended by next May. It is going to carry on."
Nearly 1,000 people gathered to protest outside Windsor Castle on Thursday, where the Queen held a reception for French President Jacques Chirac, many promising to carry on hunting.
'Watershed'
BBC correspondent Tom Heap said that in next year's expected general election, hunt supporters would try to unseat Labour MPs who voted for the ban "in favour of those who would reverse it" - which would usually mean Tories.
Landowners would also protest by "being obstructive", with measures like barring military training exercises or denying access to utility companies to work on networks.
But RSPCA director of animal welfare, John Rolls, said the bill was a "watershed in the development of a more civilised society for people and animals".
In terms of the election he said hunting was "not the most important issue for people in rural areas, never mind urban areas".
In Scotland, a ban on hounds killing foxes has been in place for two years.
Hunting is still legal if the dogs are used to flush foxes to guns.
There is no ban in Northern Ireland.
