European Council meeting room
Great Britain and Ireland are the only members of the European Union with legal systems based on common law*. Civil law prevails in all the other member states. These two traditions are the basis of quite different ways of approaching EU regulation; and they lie at the heart of some of the most critical misunderstandings between – in particular – the UK and the EU. They also go some way to explaining why the UK seems constantly to struggle with EU bureaucratic rigidity and with what eurosceptics perceive as undemocratic regulatory incontinence.
Custom and equity are the two guiding principles of common law: precedent tempered by a sense of what is “just”, so that while past judgements make up the scripture, they don’t necessarily override fairness.
