A more serious objection to binding an Irish court to follow a decision of the Strasbourg court is that we then have to apply the doctrine of the margin of appreciation in the same way as the Strasbourg court applies it in a case involving another state, even though the circumstances can be quite different. The doctrine of the margin of appreciation in Strasbourg is that within each member state there must be a wide discretion as to how the rights can be applied, given the cultural and social differences between the states.