Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change v. Friends of the Earth and others, CA, 25 January 2012, read judgment So, after an anxious wait for the affected businesses, the Court of Appeal has confirmed today that the Minister was too hasty in the way he went about modifying the scheme for subsidising small solar power [...]
Archive for the ‘Case comments’ Category
Small solar: Court of Appeal confirms that changes were unlawful
Posted in Case comments, Environment, In the news, Technology on January 25, 2012 | 1 Comment »
The god of free trade: why Austria cannot stop big lorries from using its motorways
Posted in Case comments, Environment, European, In the news, Margin of Appreciation on January 21, 2012 | Comments Off
C-28/09, European Commission v. Austria, 21 December 2011 - read judgment Many countries in the EU are struggling to comply with its laws about air pollution. The UK is in continuing breach of its nitrogen dioxide emission limit: see my post just before Christmas. But one way a country can try to comply with these laws is [...]
No deportation for Abu Qatada, but where are we now on torture evidence? – Professor Adam Tomkins
Posted in Art. 3 | Torture / Inhumane Treatment, Art. 6 | Right to Fair Trial, Case comments, Children, European, Terrorism, tagged abu qatada, European Court of Human Rights, immigration appeals on January 19, 2012 | 1 Comment »
OTHMAN (ABU QATADA) v. THE UNITED KINGDOM – 8139/09 [2012] ECHR 56 – Read judgment - updated (7/2/2012): Abu Qatada is expected to be released from Long Lartin maximum security jail within days. the special immigration appeals commission (Siac) ruled on Monday that Qatada should be freed, despite the Home Office saying he continued to pose a [...]
Small solar systems on tenterhooks: Court of Appeal deliberates
Posted in Case comments, Environment, In the news, Technology on January 17, 2012 | Comments Off
R (on the application of (1) Homesun Holdings (2) Solar Century Holdings (3) Friends of the Earth) v Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change , Mitting J, 21 December 2011, hearing in the CA 13 & 16 January 2012 Avid readers of this blog (posted unpromisingly between Christmas and New Year) may recall this successful challenge to [...]
Youth restraint challenge rejected by High Court
Posted in Art. 3 | Torture / Inhumane Treatment, Art. 8 | Right to Privacy/Family, Case comments, Case summaries, Children, In the news, Poor reporting, Prisons, tagged Access to justice, Standing on January 16, 2012 | 1 Comment »
The Children’s Rights Alliance for England (CRAE) v Secretary of State for Justice and G4S Care and Justice Services (UK) Ltd and Serco plc [2012] EWHC 8 (Admin) – read judgment Although certain restraining measures had been taken unlawfully against young people in secure training centres for a number of years, the court had no jurisdiction [...]
Injunction 4 sex pics on mob
Posted in Art. 10 | Freedom of Expression, Art. 8 | Right to Privacy/Family, Case comments, Case summaries, In the news, Technology, tagged super injunctions on January 12, 2012 | 1 Comment »
AMP v Persons unknown – read judgment If you lose your mobile phone with highly confidential and private information on it, all may not be lost. The unscrupulous finder may be prevented from blurting its contents all over the web, even if the identity of that person is unknown to you or the court. It [...]
Making a Fist of It: The Law and Obscenity
Posted in Art. 14 | Anti-Discrimination, Art. 8 | Right to Privacy/Family, Case comments, Criminal on January 9, 2012 | 6 Comments »
On Friday 6 January 2012, a historic case came to a conclusion in Courtroom 7 of Southwark Crown Court. Michael Peacock was unanimously acquitted, after a four-day trial that saw the outdated obscenity law of England and Wales in the dock. Peacock had been charged under the Obscene Publications Act 1959 for allegedly distributing ‘obscene’ [...]
Are some rights to private life just not cricket?
Posted in Art. 8 | Right to Privacy/Family, Case comments, Immigration/Extradition, In the news, Poor reporting, tagged cricket, Express, immigration, Telegraph on January 9, 2012 | 18 Comments »
Mr Abdullah Manuwar and Secretary of State for the Home Department IA26/543/2010 – Read decision We have posted on this blog previously on some of the poor reporting of human rights cases. Alarm bells were ringing as the Sunday Telegraph reported student Abdullah Munawar’s appeal on human rights grounds against a refusal to grant him leave to stay in [...]
Policy, possession and proportionality – Nearly Legal
Posted in Art. 8 | Right to Privacy/Family, Case comments, Family, Housing, tagged possession proceedings, proportionality on January 1, 2012 | 5 Comments »
Denry Okpor v London Borough of Lewisham, Bromley County Court 25 October 2011 [Transcript not publicly available] Adam Wagner represented Mr Okpor in this case. He is not the author of this post. This was a rolled up permission to appeal and appeal hearing (on which more later) for appeal to a Circuit Judge from [...]
The solar power subsidies case : when can you judicially review a proposal?
Posted in Case comments, Environment, In the news, Technology on December 29, 2011 | 4 Comments »
R (on the application of (1) Homesun Holdings (2) Solar Century Holdings (3) Friends of the Earth) v Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change Admin. Ct, Mitting J, 21 December 2011, extempore judgment, so no transcript available This successful challenge to a proposal to modify subsidies for solar power arose out of the decision [...]
The ECJ on Aslyum, Greece; the UK Protocol on the EU Charter – Dr Cian Murphy
Posted in Art. 3 | Torture / Inhumane Treatment, Case comments, European, Immigration/Extradition, tagged asylum law, asylum seekers, EU Charter, refugee applications on December 28, 2011 | Comments Off
Last Wednesday, the European Court of Justice issued a flurry of judgments just before the Christmas break. Indeed, there were so many interesting and important decisions amongst the twenty or so handed down that seems foolish to consider any of them the ‘most important’. Nonetheless the judgment in NS and Others v SSHD (C-411/10) must be a contender [...]
UK’s EU failure on air pollution: who enforces?
Posted in Case comments, Case law, Environment, European, In the news on December 22, 2011 | Comments Off
R (CLIENTEARTH) v SECRETARY OF STATE FOR ENVIRONMENT FOOD & RURAL AFFAIRS (2011), QBD (Admin) Mitting J, 13 December 2011, extempore so transcript not available. For some time now, the United Kingdom has known that it is in trouble under EU legislation, Directive 2008/50, limiting the amount of nitrogen dioxide in the air we breathe. The date for [...]
No human right to an hour’s minimum in the open air for “lifer” – Court of Appeal
Posted in Art. 8 | Right to Privacy/Family, Case comments, Prisons on December 20, 2011 | 1 Comment »
Malcolm v Secretary of State for Justice [2011] EWCA Civ 1538 - Read Judgment The Court of Appeal has decided that a failure to provide a life sentence prisoner with a minimum of one hour in the open air each day did not constitute a breach of his human rights under Article 8 of the European Convention [...]





Please stow your rights in the overhead compartment
Posted in Case comments, Case law, Damages, Discrimination, European, Features, In the news, International, tagged air travel, compensation, passengers rights on February 9, 2012 | 1 Comment »
Stott v Thomas Cook Operators and British Airways Plc [2012] EWCA Civ 66 – read judgment If you need reminding of what it feels like when the candy-floss of human rights is abruptly snatched away, take a flight. Full body scanners and other security checks are nothing to the array of potential outrages awaiting passengers [...]
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