There are three sources of the English legal system which are: European law, national legislation also known as acts of parliament and jurisprudence which is law made by the courts. Of these three sources of the English legal system some are of greater importance than others. Given that European law is a part of English law, it is inevitable that there will be conflicts between the two and I will go on to further discuss how the courts decide which law is superior, European or English, when a conflict arises between two laws. national law and European law. Probably the most important source of English law is European law. The United Kingdom joined the European Union (EU) in 1973 and European law has been part of English law ever since. Being part of the EU means that all member states must follow the laws established by the EU, as the EU has the authority to create rules and regulations that all member states should abide by. The EU has a number of main institutions which are: the Council of the European Union, the European Parliament, the European Council, the European Court of Justice and the European Commission. These institutions pass laws that apply to member states. The sources of European law in which laws are issued are regulations, directives and decisions. The regulations are used as a way to promote consistency of laws across the EU. Once approved, the regulations come into force immediately in all member states. Directives on the other hand aim to harmonize law between member states, they attempt to create similar but not exactly identical laws. With directives, member states can implement the law using their own methods. An example of an EU directive is the Working Time Directive, which imposes a maximum number of hours an individual can work. The last... middle of the paper... murderers sentenced to life imprisonment are eligible for parole, but in some exceptional cases the murderer may not be granted parole. The ECtHR found that this treatment of not granting parole was considered inhuman and degrading treatment. The ECHR also found that this was a direct violation of the European Convention on Human Rights. The ECHR has ordered the British government to inform the Council of Europe on how it intends to apply the rule allowing for possible parole reviews of convicted murderers. Although the UK's Justice Minister has remained adamant not to give in to pressure from the ECHR, the Prime Minister's legal advisor has stated that the UK will sooner or later have to succumb to the ECHR. In this case the conflict arose due to the strict British parole code and also the fact that in their opinion the ECHR should not have the final say on British law.