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Archive for January, 2011

No religion in court please

Posted in Art. 9 | Thought/Conscience/Religion, Case comments, Religion, tagged , , , on January 31, 2011 | 4 Comments »

Shergill v Purewal & Anor [2010] EWHC 3610 (QB) (15 December 2010) - Read judgment In the commotion surrounding the Christian hotel gay discrimination case, it is easy to forget that there is a long-standing principle that English courts will not decide matters of religious doctrine. This principle has been in play in a run of recent [...]

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Daily Mail on the naughty step over domestic violence case

Posted in In the news, Poor reporting on January 30, 2011 | 5 Comments »

In an entertaining post which also raises the serious issue of journalistic responsibility, the Nearly Legal blog has put a Daily Mail “family law expert” on the naughty step in relation an article on a recent Supreme Court decision on the meaning of domestic violence in housing cases. According to the respected housing law blog, [...]

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Disabled volunteers can be discriminated against

Posted in Art. 14 | Anti-Discrimination, Case summaries, Employment, European, International, tagged , , , on January 28, 2011 | 3 Comments »

X v Mid Sussex Citizens Advice Bureau [2011] EWCA Civ 28 – Read judgment The Court of Appeal has ruled that disabled people are not protected by domestic or European legislation against discrimination when they undertake voluntary work. In this decision the specific question was whether volunteers at Citizens Advice Bureaus are protected from disability [...]

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Counter-terrorism review published

Posted in Art. 3 | Torture / Inhumane Treatment, Art. 6 | Right to Fair Trial, Art. 8 | Right to Privacy/Family, In the news, Terrorism, tagged on January 26, 2011 | 2 Comments »

The Home Office has published its long-awaited review of counter-terrorism and security powers. The review findings and recommendations are here. Other key documents can be found via the following links: Summary of responses to the consultation (PDF file – 616kb) Equality impact assessment (PDF file – 810kb) A report by Lord Macdonald of River Glaven [...]

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Supreme Court extends meaning of domestic violence

Posted in Art. 3 | Torture / Inhumane Treatment, Art. 8 | Right to Privacy/Family, Case summaries, Family, Housing, tagged on January 26, 2011 | 5 Comments »

Yemshaw (Appellant) v London Borough of Hounslow (Respondent) [2011] UKSC 3 – Read judgment / press summary The Supreme Court has unanimously ruled that “domestic violence” in section 177(1) of the Housing Act 1996 includes physical violence, threatening or intimidating behaviour and any other form of abuse which, directly or indirectly, may give rise to [...]

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Supreme confusion

Posted in In the news, Judges and Juries on January 26, 2011 | 15 Comments »

As the UK Supreme Court Blog points out, our highest court of appeal has updated the “frequently asked questions” section of its website. Of particular interest are the answers to two questions. The first is probably the most important question the public ever asks about the court, namely whether, once a case has wound its [...]

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Expenses peer Taylor convicted, but will he be jailed?

Posted in Criminal, In the news, Politics / Public Order, tagged , on January 26, 2011 | 1 Comment »

Ex-Tory peer Lord Taylor of Warwick has become the first parliamentarian to be found guilty by a jury of making false parliamentary expenses claims. He now faces sentencing. Given the recent case of former MP David Chaytor, it seems unlikely that he will escape jail. A jury at Southwark Crown Court found Taylor guilty of [...]

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Libel threatens to stifle debate about factory farming

Posted in Agriculture, Animals, Art. 10 | Freedom of Expression, Defamation / Libel, In the news, tagged on January 25, 2011 | 2 Comments »

Food production is becoming a chosen territory for some of the fiercest current battles about freedom of information in this country.  In 2009 the Channel 4 broadcast of a film about the  pork factory business was effectively shut down by the threat of libel action; in the last week the Guardian reported that libel lawyers [...]

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A Cornish hotel and the conflict between discrimination law and religious freedom

Posted in Art. 14 | Anti-Discrimination, Art. 8 | Right to Privacy/Family, Art. 9 | Thought/Conscience/Religion, Case summaries, Religion on January 24, 2011 | 7 Comments »

Hall & Anor v Bull & Anor [2011] EW Misc 2 (CC) (04 January 2011) – Read judgment Judge Andrew Rutherford in the Bristol County Court has held that the devout Christian couple who ran their Cornish hotel according to their Christian principles directly discriminate against a homosexual couple in a civil partnership, when they [...]

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States Not Obliged to Assist Persons Wishing to Commit Suicide – Antoine Buyse

Posted in Art. 2 | Right to life, Case summaries, Medical, tagged on January 23, 2011 | 1 Comment »

Last week, the European Court of Human Rights decided in the case of Haas v. Switzerland (judgment in French only) that the right to private life is not violated when a state refuses to help a person who wishes to commit suicide by enabling that person to obtain a lethal substance. The applicant in the case, [...]

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Court of Human Rights: five recent Article 10 cases – Hugh Tomlinson QC

Posted in Art. 10 | Freedom of Expression, Case comments, Freedom of Information on January 21, 2011 |

Over the past month, the Court of Human Rights has handed down judgment in six Article 10 cases.  We have already posted about the most recent, MGN v United Kingdom. Of the other five, two involved civil defamation claims in domestic cases.  In both civil defamation cases it was held that the State had infringed the right [...]

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Information is knowledge, knowledge is power

Posted in Art. 10 | Freedom of Expression, Case summaries, Freedom of Information, Immigration/Extradition, In the news on January 21, 2011 |

R (on the application of Guardian News and Media Limited) v City of Westminster Magistrates’ Court [2010] EWHC 3376 – Read judgment The Guardian newspaper has failed to convince the High Court that it should be able to see  key documents in the trial of three men threatened with extradition to the United States on [...]

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Batty behaviour in Hampshire habitat

Posted in Animals, Case comments, Case law, Case summaries, Environment, European, In the news, tagged on January 21, 2011 | 1 Comment »

Morge (FC) (Appellant) v Hampshire County Council (Respondent) on appeal from [2010] EWCA Civ 608- Read judgment We cannot drive a coach-and-horses through natural habitats without a bit of soul-searching, says the Supreme Court . The UK has conservation obligations under EU law to avoid the deterioration of natural habitats and this goes beyond holding [...]

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Prisoner voting and the £160m question

Posted in In the news, Politics / Public Order, Prisons, Protocol 1 Art. 3 | Free elections, tagged on January 20, 2011 | 9 Comments »

The government has reportedly revised its plan to allow prisoners serving less than 4 years to vote in elections. Ministers now seek to limit the right to those sentenced to a year or less. A looming presence in the debate has been the much-touted figure of £160m compensation which the prime minister has warned Parliament [...]

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Pastor Terry Jones ban – what about free speech?

Posted in Art. 10 | Freedom of Expression, In the news, International, Religion, tagged , on January 20, 2011 | 3 Comments »

Terry Jones, an American pastor who threatened to burn Korans on the 9th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, has been banned from entering the UK “for the public good”. He has told BBC Radio 5 live that he would challenge the “unfair” decision as his visit could have been “beneficial”. But, as I posted last [...]

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