ABSTRACT
The legal tools for navigating the relationship between the European Convention on Human Rights and national law consist in the principle of subsidiarity and its doctrinal expression through the margin of appreciation. The use to which it has been put in practice can certainly sometimes be criticised, but a margin of appreciation doctrine can, and should, be seen as a valid tool with an important role to play in the Convention system. Through its function of governing the scope and intensity of judicial scrutiny in a particular case it is often instrumental in defining where, in the final analysis, the universal minimum standard of protection lies. The increased emphasis on fundamental human rights protection in the European Union can be said to have culminated in the incorporation of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union into the Treaty framework. The ECHR system belongs to classical international law and is governed by its principles and theories.
