The impact of the European Court of Justice on the constitutional order of the United Kingdom

Abstract

This thesis deals with the relationship between legal systems. It looks for and at the evidence that the legal system of the European Communities, as developed by the European Court of Justice, has influenced and shaped the internal order of the English and Scottish legal systems, particularly in the spheres of constitutional and administrative law. First of all, it might be appropriate to give a note on methodology. The approach adopted in this thesis to the study of the relationship between these bodies of law is primarily that of case-law analysis. Cases from the European Court of Justice and from the national courts of the United Kingdom are examined and their judgements subjected to close scrutiny. Judicial pronouncements are seen to be of particular interest because, under Common law systems (among which I would, for these purposes, group Scots Law ) it is what judges say when on the Bench that has normative weight. The doctrinal writings of contemporary legal scholars are rarely referred to in or by the courts and even then they have, at most, persuasive force. Thus, questions as to the extent to which Community law has been taken into the legal systems of Scotland and England will be resolved by examining the judgements of the courts rather than by looking at the writings of legal academics. The latter may be of interest in predicting or advocating how the law might be developed, but the only authoritative pronouncements as to the present state of national law are made by judges when acting as judges and deciding cases.