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3 Denning L.J. 1 (1988)

handle is hein.journals/denlj3 and id is 1 raw text is: Lord Denning and EEC Law A. . L. Campbell* The purpose of this article is to make a general survey of Lord Denning's views and decisions concerning EEC law. It will not assess particular decisions, but will consider his contribution to the reception of and understanding of EEC law. The impact of Lord Denning's written views in particular has been as striking as his prose. The contribution of Lord Denning seems to have lain partly in his ability to communicate to the profession and to the general public the importance of the legal changes incurred by U.K. entry into the EEC. It has been said that, prior to the entry of the U.K. into the EEC, the learned journals, and, to some extent, the less learned press, were full of anxiety that the English lawyer and, above, the English judge, would not know how to compete with this new system) Denning was in a position, as Master of the Rolls, to play a central role in the development of the English reception of EEC law. It is arguably fortunate that a judge such as Denning with a penchant for communication and for an ability to rethink the law, and with a temperament for accepting, not resisting, change, was in this position. After U.K. accession to the EEC Denning was over 70, having already had a lifetime in acquiring one legal tradition and at an age when resistance to change is strong. It is to Denning's credit that though he may usually have come down on the side of English law where there was an international element, towards the end of his judicial career he faced realistically the incoming tide of EEC law.2 It can be said that he made a deliberate effort to contribute to the understanding and reception of EEC law. He established lasting and influential, if controversial, guidelines on when to refer questions to the European Court, as well as attempting *Lecturer in Law, University of Aberdeen. The author is grateful to his colleague Mr P. R. Beaumont and to Mr R. R. Paisley for helpful comments on a draft of this article. 1. Mackenzie Stuart, The United Kingdom and Community Law - The First Decade, The Third Lord Fletcher Lecture, November 1981, The Lord Fletcher Lectures 1979-1982, Solicitors European Group (1983) p.40. It has to be said, however, that a body of judges (Lords Diplock and Hailsham as well as Denning) anticipated few difficulties with interpreting EEC Law: see Lasok and Bridge, Law and Institutions of the European Communities 4th ed., p.378, and Bridge, Community Law and English Courts and Tribunals; General Principles and Preliminary Rulings, 1 European Law Review (1975) 13, at p.18. 2. The Hon Justice Kirby, Lord Denning: An Antipodean Appreciation, [19861 DenningL.J. 103, at p.110.

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