Legal News

Supreme Court judge Lord Toulson has said that UK courts have taken rulings in the Strasbourg court “too far”.

Lord Toulson said that British courts should not comply “slavishly” with rulings of the European Court of Human Rights.

He added that Britain’s courts were entitled to reject any rulings made at Strasbourg which they considered incorrect – saying that it was an “error” to regard any decision made at Strasbourg as binding in the UK.

Lord Toulson said that British judges could still learn from judges in other jurisdictions – adding that judicial horizons “should never be narrow” when developing the law.

Decisions made in Strasbourg have on occasion made it difficult for the Home Office to deport people back to their home countries, including cases involving those suspected of terrorism and convicted criminals who have completed their sentences in the UK.

Lord Toulson said that he was not advocating that the European Convention should be ignored – but added that judges in Britain were not required to follow decisions made in the Strasbourg court automatically.

Justice Secretary Chris Grayling has said that if the Conservatives win the 2015 general election, he would consider replacing the Strasbourg court with the UK’s Supreme Court as the highest court in the UK.

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