More fossil fuel power stations in the news (see my previous post), and more struggling with which bits of Euro environmental law ordinary people are allowed to enforce, and which bits are for the Commission. Various NGOs challenged the grant of permits to 3 new power stations in the Netherlands, because the state was exceeding its emission limits [...]
Archive for May, 2011
No right to enforce EU air pollution law: only a Crackerjack pencil
Posted in Environment, European, In the news, Margin of Appreciation, Public/Private on May 31, 2011 |
Twitter reveals, more privacy, drug courts – The Human Rights Roundup
Posted in In the news, tagged human rights on May 31, 2011 |
It’s time for the human rights roundup, a regular bulletin of all the law we haven’t quite managed to feature in full blog posts. The full list of links, updated each day, can be found here. Happy post Bank Holiday reading! In the news: Whilst the Neuberger Committee’s report is arguably the best place to [...]
The power of unelected judges – Part 2 of 2
Posted in In the news, Scotland on May 30, 2011 | 3 Comments »
Updated x 2 | Two court decisions have upset UK governments this week. One is being appealed in the normal way by the Secretary of State for Education, but the other may lead to a fundamental rethink of the Scottish justice system. As a Bank Holiday special, this post is split into 2 parts. Part 1 [...]
The power of unelected judges – Part 1 of 2
Posted in Art. 6 | Right to Fair Trial, Case summaries, Employment, In the news, Judges and Juries, Scotland on May 30, 2011 | 5 Comments »
Two court decisions have upset UK governments this week. One is being appealed in the normal way by the Secretary of State for Education, but the other may lead to a fundamental rethink of the Scottish justice system. As a Bank Holiday special, this post is split into 2 parts. Starting with the Sharon Shoesmith [...]
Old laws v. new policies: Parliamentary privilege but not a footballer in sight
Posted in Environment, In the news on May 28, 2011 | 1 Comment »
What happens when the government changes its mind about an existing law but new law has not yet been enacted? Easy, really. You have to follow the old law, whatever the government may currently think about it. But it gets more complicated when the area of law, like planning, has a wide area of policy-making [...]
Sharon Shoesmith wins her appeal – Obiter J
Posted in Case summaries, Children, Employment on May 27, 2011 | 5 Comments »
Shoesmith, R (on the application of) v OFSTED & Ors [2011] EWCA Civ 642 (27 May 2011) – Read judgment In April 2005, Sharon Shoesmith was appointed as Director of Children’s Services at Haringey London Borough Council. The appointment by a Council of such an officer is a statutory requirement - Children Act 2004 s.18. “Baby [...]
Murder, miscarriage of justice and Scots judicial autonomy
Posted in In the news, tagged ECtHR, miscarriage of justice, right to a fair trial, Scotland on May 27, 2011 | 1 Comment »
Fraser v Her Majesty’s Advocate [2011] UKSC 24 (25 May 2011) - Read judgment The Supreme Court has had to consider (for the second time in a month) the ticklish question of what constitutes a “miscarriage of justice”. The business is rendered more ticklish because this was a case being handled by the High Court [...]
Let’s talk about sex
Posted in Art. 10 | Freedom of Expression, Art. 8 | Right to Privacy/Family, Defamation / Libel, In the news, Judges and Juries, Media on May 26, 2011 | 7 Comments »
In 1991 US band Salt-n-Pepa reached number 2 in the UK charts with Let’s Talk About Sex. It is difficult to imagine now, 20 years on, why such an inoffensive and gently educational song generated huge controversy. That difficulty highlights how much less prudish we are about sex now than we were then. Salt-n-Pepa talked [...]
Murder, toil and trouble – three new Supreme Court judgments
Posted in Art. 5 | Right to Liberty, Art. 6 | Right to Fair Trial, In the news, Judges and Juries on May 25, 2011 |
The Supreme Court has delivered three judgments this morning, all of which are of interest from a human rights perspective. We will cover them in more detail soon, but for now, a brief summary. First, murder. In 2003 Nat Fraser was convicted of murdering his wife and sentenced to 25 years in prison. In Fraser (Appellant) [...]
Closing the escape hatch for foreign criminals?
Posted in Art. 8 | Right to Privacy/Family, Case comments, Immigration/Extradition on May 25, 2011 |
AP (Trinidad & Tobago) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2011] EWCA Civ 551 Read Judgment In the ongoing controversy over the deportation of foreign offenders, the Court of Appeal has decided that the Immigration Tribunal had not made a mistake of law in deciding that a foreign citizen who had lived in the [...]
Must lawyers blog and tweet?
Posted in In the news, Media, Technology, tagged #lawblogs on May 24, 2011 | 14 Comments »
Lots of lawyers are blogging and tweeting. Should they be? I spoke last Thursday at the second #lawblogs event, kindly hosted in the grand (not to mention establishment) surrounding of The Law Society. The event was attended by around 75 people, most of whom had a passion for legal blogging and tweeting. You can read [...]
DNA case analysis: The mystery of the missing purpose
Posted in In the news, tagged DNA, DNA database, DNA retention, European Court of Human Rights, Judicial activism, Right to Privacy, Statutory purpose on May 24, 2011 | 4 Comments »
We reported last week the Supreme Court ruling in R (on the application of GC) (FC) (Appellants) v The Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis (Respondent) in which the majority found that they could interpret the DNA retention provision in the Police and Criminal Evidence Act (PACE) in such a way that it would be [...]
MP has “revealed” footballer’s name, but is it safe to repeat it?
Posted in Art. 10 | Freedom of Expression, Art. 8 | Right to Privacy/Family, Defamation / Libel, In the news, Media, tagged John Hemming, privacy injunction on May 23, 2011 | 20 Comments »
John Hemming MP has somewhat predictably “revealed” the name of a footballer who has been trying to keep his alleged affair with a reality TV contestant private, and breached the traditional “sub judice” rule in the process. Does this mean that the privacy injunction in question is now effectively defunct? Hemming made his move just hours [...]
“Prompt” means 3 months and not a day less for Euro-cases
Posted in Art. 6 | Right to Fair Trial, Environment, European, In the news on May 23, 2011 |
Buglife, R (on the application of) v Natural England [2011] EWHC 746 (Admin) – Read judgment All public lawyers know that judicial review must be commenced “promptly and in any event not later than 3 months” after the public act complained of, failing which a claimant is at the mercy of the court as to whether [...]
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Recommended- Assange v The Swedish Prosecution Authority [2012] UKSC 22 (30 May 2012) May 30, 2012Supreme Court rules by 5-2 majority that Julian Assange must be extradited to Sweden. Definition of "judicial authority" is a wide one.
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- Case law
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- MM and AO (A Child), R (on the application of) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2012] EWCA Civ 668 (18 May 2012) May 18, 2012Secretary of State acted lawfully in not ordering independent inquiry into 2009 protest at Immigration Detention Centre. Challenge by children separated from parents during protest and claiming pschiatric damage as result.
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- Assange v The Swedish Prosecution Authority [2012] UKSC 22 (30 May 2012) May 30, 2012
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UKHRB on Twitter
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Disclaimer
Police may have duty to inform victims of phone hacking
Posted in Art. 8 | Right to Privacy/Family, Case comments, Criminal, Media, Police, tagged phone hacking on May 25, 2011 | 1 Comment »
Bryant & Ors, R (on the application of) v The Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis [2011] EWHC 1314 (Admin) (23 May 2011) – Read judgment The police may have a duty under article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (the right to privacy) to inform members of the public that their phone [...]
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