R (Smith) v Secretary of State for Defence & Anor [2010] UKSC 29 – Read judgment The Supreme Court has ruled by a 6-3 majority that the Human Rights Act does not apply on the battlefield and soldiers are not automatically entitled to inquests arising from deaths in foreign conflicts. The case related to Private [...]
Archive for June, 2010
Human Rights Act does not apply on the battlefield, says Supreme Court [updated]
Posted in Art. 2 | Right to life, Case summaries, Inquests and Inquiries, tagged human rights, Jason Smith, Supreme Court on June 30, 2010 |
Parliament Square protesters to be evicted by Mayor
Posted in Art. 11 | Freedom of Association, Politics / Public Order, tagged Boris Johnson, Democracy village, human rights on June 30, 2010 |
The Mayor of London has won a court order to evict a camp of protesters from Parliamentary Square. The protesters have won a temporary reprieve by appealing the decision. As we posted earlier this month, during the build-up to the General Election a number of protesters erected tents and flags in Parliament Square, a green [...]
Box ticking or thinking: what are the duties of planners?
Posted in Art. 14 | Anti-Discrimination, Case comments, Environment, Housing, In the news on June 30, 2010 |
The Queen on the Application of Janet Harris (Appellant) v London Borough of Haringey (Respondent) and Grainger Seven Sisters Ltd (2) Northumberland And Durham Property Trust Ltd (Interested Parties) and The Equality and Human Rights Commission (Intervener) [2010] EWCA Civ 703 22 June 2010 – read judgment In granting planning permission for redevelopment of a site [...]
Suspect terrorist on bail entitled to continued anonymity in his own interests
Posted in Art. 5 | Right to Liberty, Case summaries, Terrorism on June 29, 2010 |
Secretary of State for Home Department (Respondent) v AP (Appellant) (no 2) [2009] EWCA Civ 731 Supreme Court 23 June 2010 AP, who had been subject to a control order and who now continued to live at the same address under bail pending a deportation decision on grounds of national security, was entitled to continuing [...]
School did not breach suspended pupil’s Convention rights, says Supreme Court
Posted in Case summaries, Children, Protocol 2 Art. 1 | Right to education on June 29, 2010 |
In the matter of an application by ‘JR17′ for Judicial Review (Northern Ireland) [2010] UKSC 27 The Supreme Court found that there was no breach of a pupil’s right to education, where he was unlawfully suspended from school but was provided with work to do and home tutoring – read judgment A pupil was suspended [...]
Court of Appeal rules on transsexual’s pension rights under EC law
Posted in Art. 14 | Anti-Discrimination, Case summaries, Margin of Appreciation, Medical, Pensions on June 28, 2010 |
Christine Timbrell v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions [2010] EWCA Civ 701 22 June 2010 A person who had acquired a different gender was entitled under European law to obtain the legal rights, such as an earlier pension, associated with the acquired gender – read judgment The appellant had undergone male to female reassignment [...]
Wikileaks founder emerges from hiding
Posted in Art. 10 | Freedom of Expression, Freedom of Information, In the news on June 25, 2010 |
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, who has been on the run from the US authorities after being linked to a serious US national security breach, has come out of hiding in Belgium. The Telegraph reports that trouble started for Assange after a US intelligence analyst bragged about sending 260,000 confidential state department cables about the wars [...]
Most senior female judge: Human Rights Act hampered by constitutional problems
Posted in In the news, tagged human rights, Lady Hale on June 25, 2010 |
Baroness Hale of Richmond has spoken to the Salford Human Rights Conference on the development of human rights law, and has lamented the time spent on constitutional wrangling rather than applying the essence of the Act. Lady Hale is the only female judge on the UK Supreme Court. The speech can be downloaded here, and [...]
Polish religious education breached freedom of conscience rights of pupil
Posted in Art. 14 | Anti-Discrimination, Art. 9 | Thought/Conscience/Religion, Case comments, Children, Education, Margin of Appreciation, Protocol 2 Art. 1 | Right to education, Religion, tagged human rights, Poland, religious freedom on June 24, 2010 |
Grzelak v. Poland (no. 7710/02) – read judgment The European Court of Human Rights has found that A Polish boy who refused to attend religious instruction classes for reasons of personal conviction had been discriminated against human rights because of a policy of reflecting that non-attendance in school reports. The applicant Mateus Grzelak had been [...]
Court of Appeal rules on mental health institutions’ obligations to voluntary patients
Posted in Art. 2 | Right to life, Case comments, Medical, Mental Health on June 23, 2010 |
(1) Richard Rabone (In his own Right & as Personal Representative of the Estate of Melanie Rabone, Deceased) (2) Gillian Rabone(In her own Right) Appellants v Pennine Care NHS Trust 21 June 2010 [2010] EWCA Civ 698 – read judgment Court of Appeal rules that health trusts did not have operational obligations under Article 2 [...]
Terror advice decision causes uproar in United States, but could it happen here?
Posted in Art. 10 | Freedom of Expression, In the news, Terrorism, tagged Holder, human rights, Terrorism on June 22, 2010 |
Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project, United States Supreme Court – Read judgment The US Supreme Court has ruled that it does not violate the US Constitution for the government to block speech and other forms of advocacy supporting a foreign organization that has been officially labeled as terrorist, even if the aim is to support [...]
Even more secret evidence trouble for Government in Al Rawi case
Posted in Art. 3 | Torture / Inhumane Treatment, Art. 5 | Right to Liberty, Art. 6 | Right to Fair Trial, Case summaries, Politics / Public Order, Secret justice, Terrorism, tagged Al Rawi, Binyam Mohamed, human rights, Torture on June 21, 2010 |
Al Rawi & Ors v the Security Service & Ors [2010] EWHC 1496 (QB) (21 June 2010) – Read judgment The Government has received another in an increasingly long line of blows in the Al Rawi & Others foreign torture case, with Mr Justice Silber ordering a closed hearing to see whether [...]





Parliament Square protesters evicted: analysis of judgment
Posted in Art. 10 | Freedom of Expression, Art. 11 | Freedom of Association, Case comments, In the news, Politics / Public Order, tagged Democracy village, human rights on June 30, 2010 |
The Mayor of London v Hall & Ors [2010] EWHC 1613 (QB) (29 June 2010) – Read judgment The Mayor of London has won a court order to evict a camp of protesters from Parliamentary Square, with the High Court stating that his response to the protest was proportionate and not a breach of the [...]
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