European judges 'do not threaten british Law'

EUROPEAN judges are not “riding roughshod” over British law, a justice minister claimed on the eve of a conference billed by David Cameron as a unique chance to seize power back for national courts.

Lord Mcnally, the Lib Dem leader in the House of Lords, said there was “more heat than light” in the “furious” and “unreasonable” human rights debate.

He admitted that the European Court of Human Rights had a “reputational problem” and said today’s summit in Brighton should mean more cases being heard by national courts rather than in Strasbourg. But his comments appeared to contradict the Prime Minister, who earlier this year called for radical reform of the court, which has ordered that Britain give prisoners the vote and blocked the deportation of Abu Qatada. Mr Cameron warned there was a “credible democratic anxiety” about the court.

Ken Clarke, the Justice Secretary, and therefore Lord Mcnally’s boss, has previously mocked some of the claims made about human rights cases. However, he has also insisted that reform of the human rights court is necessary.

Lord Mcnally, who has been involved in drawing up the reforms over the past six months as Britain chaired the Council of Europe, told a conference in Parlia- ment: “I do not believe we have got some great constitutional crisis about foreign judges trying to ride roughshod over British law or British processes.”

He added: “The debate around human rights continues to burn furiously in this country but often gives off more heat than light. Reasonable people can disagree about how we defend human rights in this country but the debate as it stands is unreasonable.”

Under the proposed changes, judges in Europe will be urged not to consider applications that have been dealt with properly by national courts. However, those that raise new or serious questions will still go to Strasbourg.