Widening Horizons: The Influence of Comparative Law and International Law on Domestic Law

Description

British judges increasingly now pay attention to foreign case law when deciding domestic cases, and are required to interpret and apply international law in domestic courts and administer an international code of human rights. Tom Bingham examines the consequences of this increasingly internationalist outlook of British courts, including cases which rely on a range of foreign cases, cases where an international convention or principle is interpreted and cases in which human rights cases are decided in reliance on principles established elsewhere.

Lord Thomas Bingham, Baron Bingham of Cornhill, has held the posts of Master of the Rolls, Lord Chief Justice and Senior Law Lord. He presided over key judgments, including the ruling in the Belmarsh case that it was unlawful, and a breach of human rights, to detain foreign terrorist suspects without charge, and the ruling that evidence against terror suspects obtained by torture was inadmissible.