The UK is negotiating this week with the 47 countries who use the ECHR for certain curbs on countries authority.  It is looking to adopt reforms that limit the court’s ability to overrule cases already determined by national courts and also limit the states to ask the court for preliminary opinions in order to avoid many cases from ever reaching the Court.  Proponents say that the Court “has gone too far in undermining national sovereignty and that some of its rulings could endanger security.  Opponents say this will have a “corrosive effect” on people’s support for civil liberties and that the changes will “endanger access to justice.”  Forty-seven countries will have to agree to the changes – clearly, it will not be a straightforward process no matter the outcome.

See UK ‘Quietly Confident’ of European Court of Human Rights Changes, BBC News, (April 17, 2012), http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-17748035.