The European Court Of Human Rights - 1038 Words

It is established that the UK does not have a single, written and codified constitution that encompasses ground rules on how it should be governed. The first part of this essay outlines the movement of the United Kingdom towards legal constitutionalism which then brings to the consideration of the need for judicial diversity in the second part. To make this argument, this paper analyses the influence of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) and European Union (EU) law including domestic laws onto the dilution of political elements in the UK; thus transitioning towards a legal constitution. Before the 1970s, Dicey’s view that ‘no person or body is recognised by the law of England as having a right to override or set aside the†¦show more content†¦However, the incorporation of legal constitutionalism prove the increasing need for this reform in order to prevent the state’s powers from being ultra vires. The legal approach is necessary to protect basic h uman rights from being taken away by higher authorities because what use is a constitution if it fails to operate fairly without bias? The European Communities Act 1972 (ECA 1972) which is the foundation of the UK’s entry into the EU led to the erosion of its parliamentary sovereignty. The enactment of this Act led to the implication that any conflicting domestic laws in English courts were subjected to the supremacy of European law. This concept was affirmed in Factortame No.2.[5] However, Lord Bridge asserted that Parliament voluntarily accepted the limitations[6] because it can repeal the ECA 1972 at any desired time by leaving the EU. Contrary to this, section 18 of the European Union Act 2011 merely confirms that EU laws apply within the UK—according to section 2(1) of the ECA 1972. It may be argued that the EU membership did not cause any considerable change to the UK’s basic constitution. But from this point, it can be agreed that legal aspects are beginn ing to surface onto the constitutional system. Most importantly,