But I do wonder how much longer this system can last. We are moving towards an American arrangement by which judges change the law in ways they want by wrenching very broad principles of rights to fit particular cases. Thus, Article 8 of the European Convention – the right to a private life – is invoked here in assisted dying cases to give people the right to death. In the United States (Roe v. Wade) 40 years ago, abortion was imposed across the whole country by asserting a right to privacy. The consequence, in America, is that all senior judicial appointments are intensely political. Everyone knows which judges are liberal, which conservative, and the parties fight incessantly to get the “right” ones on to the court. This system is an affront to impartial justice, but it is the inevitable, semi-democratic remedy if you turn judges into the masters of the state. That is the way things are going here.