Abstract

This chapter presents the text of a lecture on legal orders in Europe given at the British Academy's 2008 Law Lecture. This text suggests that developments in European and international law make it increasingly hard to sustain the view that a single system of law operates within each sovereign territory. It explains that in Europe, different legal orders seem to coexist, in relation to the same issues, within the same legal space; and questions constantly arise about which law is to prevail.