ABSTRACT
Law has been intrinsic to national identity and culture at least since the advent of the nation-state. As an empirical case study of the continuous relevance of the relationship of law, culture, and national identity, this chapter analyzes the rise of European human rights. In order to evoke the two most distinct European legal cultures, the two countries in focus are the United Kingdom and France, representing respectively the common law and civil law traditions. The dangers seemed imminent: European law, a new form of codification in conflict with national customs and culture, was sought to be slipped in through the back door by 'Eurocrats'. The development of human rights law in the Court did accelerate in the mid-1970s, as did the frequency of dissent from the English judge Sir Gerald Fitzmaurice, a former legal advisor of the Foreign Office and at the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) from 1974-1980.
