The U.K.'s 'Metric Martyr' Case: A Challenge to the European Union's Authority over Its Member States

On April 2001, the Magistrates' Court convicted Steve Thoburn, a Sunderland grocer, for selling bananas priced solely by the imperial measure of the pound and using scales measured by the pound. At this time British law required that the metric measure of kilogram be used. As a result of this case, Thoburn has been referred to as the "Metric Martyr." After the trial level conviction, the appellate court affirmed Thoburn's criminal conviction on February 18, 2002, but a last effort is being made by the defendant in an unusual appeal pending before the European Court of Human Rights. At the time of the grocer's sale, Britishlaw (in implementation of EC Directive 89/617 and its amendments) required all goods sold "loose from bulk" (produce) to be weighed and sold in metric units. The law did not prohibit posting in imperial weights as long as the imperial weights were solely a supplementary indication to the metric weights. The Sunderland grocer incident is only a single recent manifestation of a long-fought battle over the dominance of national sovereignty in the U.K. over the supranational powers exercised by the European Union (EU) of which the U.K. is a Member State. As a result of this fairly mundane occurrence over the sale of bananas using the imperial scale, a large number of irate U.K. citizens have rallied to the defense of the grocern and his four other Metric Martyr counter-parts, who were charged with the same type of offense in other parts of the country. The crux of the problem and what makes the case extraordinary is the right of British businesses to continue to use the imperial unit of measure despite an EC Directive that requires the Member States to adopt the metric system. The reason that this is a much more volatile and personal issue for the British is that, although the metric system traditionally has been the unit of measure for the remaining fourteen Member States on the continent, Great Britain is the one Member State forced to change from its centuries old imperial system, which affects the ordinary citizen even in a simple purchase of bananas. The EC Directive governing the unit of measure forced ordinary U.K. citizens to realize and react to the boundaries of national power when functioning within the supranational structure of the EU. The Metric Martyr, therefore, becomes a perfect case study of this critical issue pitting national sovereignty against the EU. The U.K. is the perfect venue to examine the struggle to retain national identity within the EU, because the issue of sovereignty has caused it particular discomfort since it joined the EEC in 1972. Among the fifteen current Member States, the U.K. has been the most resistant to the idea of a united Europe, to participate in the adoption of the Euro as the common currency, and the most hesitant to move in the direction of a federalized system for the EU. The EU is moving forward at a rapid rate which makes the U.K. even more acutely aware that it must define its role as a Member State. In Part II of this article the authors provide the background to the Sutherland grocer's legal problems, which resulted in his conviction. Part III summarizes the history of the U.K.'s association with other international organizations after World War II, followed first by its rejection of the concept of a European Economic Community and then by its attempts to become a Member State during the 1960s. Part IV covers the final approval of the Treaty of Accession in 1972 and the apprehension of the British people to their status within the EEC. An explanation of the legal effect of EU Directives in a Member State, and the specific directives pertinent to the Metric Martyr case, are discussed in Part V. The applicable U.K. domestic metrication laws are examined in Part VI. Finally, Part VII analyzes the attorneys' arguments and judicial decisions at the trial and appellate levels of the Metric Martyr case demonstrating the political and legal tension between the EU and the U.K. regarding the issue of national sovereignty.