Reality Amidst Rhetoric: Implementation of ECtHR Judgments in the UK

Abstract

This article concerns the implementation of judgments of the European Court of Human Rights in the United Kingdom. The rhetoric of politicians who object to the Court and raise problems with the implementation of its judgments is contrasted with the reality of implementation. It is shown that the UK is a good international citizen which takes its obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights seriously. Problems with implementation, such as those raised by the prisoner voting judgment, Hirst (No 2), are useful tools for politicians seeking to provoke anti-European sentiment. However, with this judgment now implemented, this strategy is no longer as successful as it once was.