This book is addressed, not primarily to the specialist, but to a wider audience. It tackles some basic questions about the role of law, and the courts, in a society ever more complex.

How has the law developed so that it now seems sometimes the final arbiter on social, ethical and political questions?

How does the law respond to these challenges? How far, in particular, can the law reflect changing values? How far can the law influence those values? What part can and should be played by judges?

I have tried to examine these issues in a European context, and in that context I look in particular at human rights, and at the role of the European Union.

In doing so I have a broader aim, which is to promote a more informed debate about European law.

Although European law is well served by specialists, it suffers from a large information deficit among the wider public. Indeed there seems to be more misinformation, even in legal and professional circles, than a genuine attempt to understand it. Both the place of human rights in our society, and the role of the European Union, are subjects of the greatest importance; yet they have become, in part, the playthings of politicians. This is a damaging and dangerous situation.

I am grateful to the Hamlyn Trustees for the invitation to deliver the Hamlyn Lectures on which this book is based.