UK abandons 'pick-and-mix' approach to international law

Chief legal adviser says following the rules is in Britain's interest

British Attorney General Richard Hermer has said the UK will honour and sustain international law. Getty Images

The UK has abandoned a “pick-and-mix” approach to international law and will support a rules-based order, the attorney general has said.

Richard Hermer, the government’s chief legal adviser, said that unless Britain fully abides by international law then it will lead to the “disintegration” of the system.

In the annual security lecture at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) defence think tank in London, Mr Hermer explained why the UK was taking the path of “progressive realism” in its foreign policy.

The approach combines a pragmatic approach to national interest with a principled commitment to a rules-based international order. It was recently outlined by Foreign Secretary David Lammy.

Mr Hermer criticised former prime minister Boris Johnson, who set out to “deliberately breach international law” concerning the UK’s Brexit deal with the EU.

The previous Conservative government's plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda was deemed to be in danger of breaking international law by the UK's Supreme Court, imperilling the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). Frustration with the convention prompted many Conservatives to call for the UK to leave the treaty it helped to establish more than 70 years ago.

“First, we need to be clear that a selective, or ‘pick and mix’ approach to international law by the United Kingdom will lead to its disintegration,” Mr Hermer said.

“The international rules-based order soon breaks down when states claim that they can breach international law because it is in their national interests. That is the exceptionalism argument that Russia makes.”

Mr Hermer used his speech to position progressive realism among the competing strands of foreign policy thinking.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, left, with Narendra Modi, the Prime Minister of India. Both countries are partners in international trade agreements. Getty Images

On the one hand are “romantic idealists who say that international law, conceived as the reign of moral principle, provides a complete answer to any question”.

“We should always call out our partners, with different types of governments, regardless of whether or not the criticism works or whether quiet diplomacy might more effectively produce results.”

On the other are what he called “pseudo realists” in the Conservative party who “demand that in these volatile times we must abandon our long-standing commitment to international law and to moral principles”.

Mr Hermer said by navigating a course through these two positions in “good faith” the UK has been able to advance its interest through the mechanisms of international law.

This has included new trade agreements with India, the EU, the US and Japan, and persuading Germany to change its law to stop the shipping of asylum seekers on “small boats” across continental Europe and the English Channel to the UK.

“By contrast with the inconsistent, flamboyant and on occasion inflammatory rhetoric, this government is clear that the national interest is served by the restoration of our reputation not simply as a nation that respects its international law obligation but as a leader in the rules-based international order,” he said.

Mr Hermer is a lawyer from a human rights and international background. He is close to Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer.

Last year, Mr Hermer visited Israel for talks with senior officials to discuss the government's changing policies on the Gaza.

Briefings have emerged in recent weeks that said Mr Hermer is taking a proactive approach to how the government is interpreting the law.