Keeping rights at home: British conceptions of rights and compliance with the European Court of Human Rights

The United Kingdom’s relationship with the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has been historically fraught. This article examines this relationship with a view to understanding how the United Kingdom’s conceptions of human rights protection, both domestically and in Europe, shape its willingness to comply with ECtHR judgements. The article argues that the U K maintains a sense of a distinctly ‘British’—as opposed to ‘European’—rights culture, based on principles such as parliamentary sovereignty and so-called common sense values. In doing so, the article explores an important analytical gap in terms of understanding the relationship between compliance behaviour and international law, as current theoretical explanations do not necessarily explain how cultural perceptions of rights and law translate into decisions to comply.