What if UK courts disagree with the European Court of Human Rights?

The system of precedence in the UK’s legal system means that all courts in the UK have to follow what the UK Supreme Court has said on a previous issue. This includes human rights law. Even if the ECtHR has decided an issue differently to the UK Supreme Court, UK courts will follow the UK Supreme Court's decision unless and until it makes a different decision. Currently, when the UK Supreme Court looks at a human rights case, it starts first with UK laws and common law before thinking about judgments from the ECtHR. Section 2 of the Human Right Act says UK courts have to consider decisions made by the ECtHR but that doesn’t mean they have to follow them. The Supreme Court has shown that they are open to choosing a different approach to the ECtHR in some cases if there is a good reason for this.