The Domestic Law of the United Kingdom and International and European Law An Ever More Tense Relationship

This chapter proposes to examine how international and, most of all, supranational European law and human rights jurisprudence becomes part of the law of the United Kingdom and to consider the implications for the British legal system. This will be done mainly from a legal and judicial perspective, but without ignoring the political one. Indeed, it would be highly problematic to address this theme without taking into account the growing tensions between the Cameron Government and the European Courts, in particular the court in Strasbourg. The chapter will begin by illustrating the legal mechanisms that are employed in the reception of international and supranational European law and the role played by the national and subnational parliaments and governments and then it will examine the relationship between the national courts and the supranational courts in Europe. The final part of this contribution will focus on the rising tensions over the past year between the Cameron Government, on one hand, and the European Union and, in particular, the Council of Europe: indeed one could argue that 2013 was an annus horribilis with regard to the relations between Britain and Europe.