In their letter today (‘Quality of British justice system is undersold’) Guy Beringer and Dame Elizabeth Gloster rightly noted the strong international appeal of English Law.

They might usefully have noted too the basis of the fundamental attraction of the English legal system: its solid, enduring and reliable foundation in case precedent and the primacy of the principle of individual liberty.  These features distinguish UK common law decisively from the political uncertainties inherent in the system of statute law which prevails in most of Europe, let alone the open political subordination of the legal regimes in countries such as China, Russia and Turkey.