Contents - Constitutional Court of Georgia

54
Charlotte Skeet
application of the law. More than this it provides for consistent and stable development of the law
according to existing constitutional legal principles and can provide for the infusion of new constitutional
legal norms from time to time. Section 3 of the Human Rights Act 1998 could not have
been used to request courts to reinterpret all existing and future legislation according to European
Convention of Human Rights norms if there had been no clear system of court hierarchy and precedent.
52 That system allows for these important human rights principles to be adjudicated and diffused
consistently all the way through the courts and tribunals in the United Kingdom. The system
of precedent therefore allows the courts to go beyond a negative constitutional role in restraining
the power of government but also to make a positive contribution by promoting and developing
new constitutional principles based on human rights. So while ECHR jurisprudence is useful and
may be persuasive, like jurisprudence from other domestic and international jurisdictions, it should
complement rather than substitute the domestic development and application of constitutional
principles.
(2002) 118, 408-427.
52 A similar provision (s2) had been placed in the UK European Communities Act in 1973 to require courts in the English Legal system to
recognise the primacy of EC law.