Belgium bitten by Aarhus – again

19 February 2012 by David Hart KC

Solvay, CJEU, 16 February 2012 read judgment

This case is a sequel to C-128/09 Boxus, CJEU, 18 October 2011, for which see my post. Boxus was a reference from the Belgian Conseil d’Etat. Solvay was a reference from the Belgian Constitutional Court, with a wide set of questions asking, in effect, whether ratification by the Walloon Parliament of various airport and railway projects got round various challenges set by the Aarhus Convention, the EIA Directive, as amended, and the Habitats Directive.

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The Environmental Tribunal: the view from Auckland

8 July 2011 by John Joliffe

Access to environmental justice is as topical as ever. Delegates at the recent conference of the United Kingdom Environmental Law Association (UKELA), held in late June at UEA in Norwich (yards from the Climatic Research Unit much in the news) argued that the current regime in this country is unsatisfactory – because of the cost, but also, and less predictably, because of a lack of basic fairness.

One QC who specialises in planning law pointed to the fact that a developer who is dissatisfied with a planning decision can appeal it, but an affected third party (often a disgruntled resident) cannot. He commented off the record that in his experience both as an advocate and as a decision-maker, decisions were affected by the knowledge that developers could readily challenge refusals, whereas third parties could not challenge grants other than by way of judicial review.

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About

3 December 2009 by Guest Contributor

The UK Human Rights Blog aims to provide a free, comprehensive and balanced legal update service. Our intention is not to campaign on any particular issue, but rather to present both sides of the argument on issues which are often highly controversial. We post on a huge range of legal issues, from human rights, to public, medical and environmental law.

Jasper Gold is the Blog’s Commissioning Editor, with Allyna Ng as Editing Assistant and an Editorial Team comprising Rosalind English, Angus McCullough KC, David Hart KC, Martin Downs, Jim Duffy and Jonathan Metzer.

The Blog is written by members of 1 Crown Office Row. Its searchable archive of case reports and comments dating back to 1998 (when the acclaimed Human Rights Update service  was launched) is freely available. The Blog also delivers a weekly Rights Round-up, written by our talented team of recent law graduates. We welcome posts from legal academics as well as practising lawyers.

In May 2017 the podcast series Law Pod UK was introduced alongside the Blog, featuring lively interviews with members of Chambers on caselaw and general legal developments.

Adam Wagner founded the Blog in 2010. The Blog has had over 6 million hits and averages well over 500,000 hits a year. The blog also has thousands of subscribers across email, Facebook and Twitter. It is regularly acclaimed by commentators and cited by leading lights in the legal community.

If you like the Blog, please do subscribe to our regular email updates. Law Pod UK episodes are freely available for download from Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Audioboom and many more platforms.

We would welcome your comments.

Editorial team

Jasper Gold

1 Crown Office Row

Jasper is developing a broad practice and accepts instructions in all chambers’ practice areas. As well as clinical negligence, public law, discrimination, data law, inquests and tax, Jasper gained experience as a pupil in commercial disputes and is comfortable with cases containing contractual or other commercial elements.

Since joining 1COR, Jasper has undertaken advocacy in the high court, county court and coronial court. He has appeared in several inquests, including ‘Article 2’ and jury inquests. He is currently instructed as junior counsel to the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police in the Undercover Policing Inquiry, and is the Co-Commissioning Editor of the UK Human Rights Blog.

Twitter: @JasperSGold

Full C.V.

Allyna Ng

1 Crown Office Row

Allyna joined Chambers as a tenant in April 2025, following a probationary tenancy under the supervision of Amy Mannion KC, Shahram Sharghy, and Rachel Marcus.

Allyna is building experience in all of Chambers’ practice areas including public law and human rights, education, employment, and inquests and inquiries.

Prior to coming to the Bar, Allyna practised as a lawyer in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia where she handled a variety of matters in all aspects of civil litigation. In her role, Allyna worked on cases involving freedom of religion, judicial review applications, defamation, and misfeasance in public office. Allyna has appeared in the Sessions Court, High Court, and the Industrial Tribunal, and assisted in cases before the Court of Appeal in Malaysia.

Full C.V.

Rosalind English

1 Crown Office Row

Rosalind English is one of the editors of the UK Human Rights Blog. She also presents Law Pod UK, a series of podcasts on legal developments relevant to Chambers work. 

She teaches law at Cambridge University Institute of Continuing Education.

Twitter: @rosalindenglish

Full C.V.

Angus McCullough KC

1 Crown Office Row

Angus McCullough has a varied practice which covers public law (including human rights), professional negligence, regulatory and disciplinary law, and the environment. He has acted as a special advocate in many of the most high profile national security cases in recent times (e.g. Abu Qatada, Ekaterina Zatuliveter, Al Jedda). Instructed by the Attorney General, he has appeared in contempt of court applications against the press and jurors (including the ‘Facebook juror‘ and the first internet press contempt case to be brought). He is also a recognised expert in medical law: complex and high value medical claims constitute a major part of his practice and in 2009, the year before taking silk, he was named ‘Personal Injury and Clinical Negligence Junior of the Year by Chambers & Partners. Before becoming a QC in 2010 he was on the panel of Treasury Counsel (A list from 2001-2010).

Twitter: @amccqc

Full C.V.

Martin Downs

1 Crown Office Row

Martin Downs practises in the field of equality and human rights. He has co-authored two books about Civil Partnership and Same-Sex Marriage and is a regular contributor to Family Law and Tolley’s Employment Law. He lectures on employment, equality, education and family law amongst other subjects and has made a number of media appearances – particularly about radicalisation.
He is very interested in the history, culture and politics of South Asia as well as Ireland. He tweets on legal matters too.

Twitter: @MartinJDowns

Full CV.

David Hart KC

1 Crown Office Row

David Hart practises in environmental law, medical law (particularly clinical negligence), professional negligence and construction. He has also appeared at a number of major public inquiries. David has particular experience of group actions in the environmental field and in medical cases.

He has been Chair of the Environmental Law Foundation since 2016, and has done pro bono work for them. He sat on a Research Ethics Committee at St Thomas’ Hospital for 10 years, and he has a particular interest in genetics. He is an accredited mediator. He has been a regular contributor to the Blog for the last 5 years, on all subjects under the sun.

Twitter: @hart_david

Full CV.

Jim Duffy

1 Crown Office Row

Jim was the Blog’s Commissioning Editor in 2017. His practice spans human rights, inquests, clinical negligence and employment law. Before transferring to the Bar in 2012, Jim was a solicitor whose work involved human rights cases on behalf of Iraqi civilians, British soldiers, jobseekers and immigrants.

After becoming a tenant at 1 Crown Office Row, he acted as Judicial Assistant to Lord Reed and Lord Hodge at the UK Supreme Court in 2013-14.

Twitter: @JimDuffy12

Full C.V.

Jonathan Metzer

1 Crown Office Row

Jonathan joined chambers as a tenant in September 2017 after completion of 12 months of pupillage. He has a broad practice across all areas of chambers’ work, with particular expertise in public and human rights law, asylum and immigration, clinical negligence and inquests. He appears regularly in the County Court, the Coroner’s Court and the Immigration Tribunals, and has also undertaken hearings in the High Court. 

Before coming to the Bar, Jonathan undertook voluntary work at The Death Penalty Project, Simons, Muirhead & Burton LLP. He also worked on a pro bono basis for the School Exclusion Project, acting as lay legal representative for the parents of excluded pupils at hearings in front of school governors and independent review panels. Jonathan was the Blog’s Commissioning Editor from 2017-2022.

Twitter: @JonathanMetzer 

Full C.V.

Founding Editor:  Adam Wagner

Adam was the founding editor of the UK Human Rights Blog. He was longlisted for the 2011 Orwell Prize for blogging. He is a tenant at Doughty Street, specialising in public law, human rights and medical law.  In 2015 he set up RightsInfo, an innovative new website that aims to bring human rights to life using infographics, stories and social media.

Twitter: @adamwagner1

About 1 Crown Office Row

1COR is a leading set of civil law Chambers. We are recognised as having leading practitioners in all aspects of healthcare law, clinical negligence and personal injury, professional disciplinary proceedings, public and administrative law, human rights, employment, professional negligence, costs, matrimonial finance, VAT and environmental law. We also have a team of 15 accredited mediators. You can read more about 1COR by clicking here.

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‘It’s complicated’: Court of Session considers duty to offer an opportunity to rehabilitate

2 July 2015 by Fraser Simpson

Photo credit: Guardian

Reid, Re Judicial Review, [2015] CSOH 84 – read judgment.

The Outer House of the Court of Session has refused a prisoner’s claim for damages resulting from an alleged  failure to afford him a reasonable opportunity to rehabilitate himself.

by Fraser Simpson

For a refresher on the Scottish Court system, see David Scott’s post here.

This case follows a Supreme Court judgment last year in which it was affirmed that under Article 5 ECHR there exists an implied duty to provide prisoners with a reasonable opportunity to rehabilitate themselves and to show that they are no longer a danger to the public (R (on the application Haney and Others) v. The Secretary of State for Justice, [2014] UKSC 66). According to the Supreme Court, a failure to satisfy this duty does not affect the lawfulness of the detention but it does entitle the prisoner to damages.

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Targets for reduction in sewage outflow not unlawful, says High Court

28 September 2023 by Rosalind English

The King (on the application of Wildfish Conservation v Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Environment Agency (Defendant) and the Water Services Regulation Authority (Interested Parties) [2023] EWHC 2285 (Admin)

In 2022, there were over three hundred thousand incidents of overflow into coastal waters, freshwater rivers and estuaries from sewerage works in the UK, following heavy rainfall. The most common cause of the overflows studied was rainwater entering sewers with insufficient capacity.

These proceedings were brought in regard to the publication of a Plan regarding setting out specific targets for water companies, regulators and the Government “to work towards the long-term ambition of eliminating harm from storm overflows”. These targets are compliance with existing statutory obligations, including conditions in permits issued by the Environment Agency.

The Plan sets three targets: that water and sewerage companies will by 2050 only be allowed to discharge from a storm overflow where there would be no local adverse ecological effect; the second target is to protect public health in designated bathing waters: water and sewerage companies must by 2035 significantly reduce harmful pathogens from overflows either by carrying out disinfection or by reducing the frequency of discharges; the third, a backstop target for 2050, which operates in addition to the first two targets: by 2050 storm overflows will not be permitted to discharge above an average of 10 heavy rainfall events a year.

The Marine Conservation Society, an oyster growing company and an individual representing the public interest also challenged the legality of the Plan. The Environment Agency and Ofwat were interested parties.

Factual Background

In 2020 the sewerage network was under pressure from a growing population, increased run-off from urbanisation and heavy rainfall. It was acknowledged that the cause of overflow was the lack of capacity in the current sewer network and that had to be tackled. The government and Ofwat recognised that that water infrastructure had not kept pace with developmental growth over decades.

In the face of this, officials and ministers started formulating policy targets which would require improvements going beyond those which could satisfy a cost-benefit test(the so-called and therefore be required under regs.4 and 5 of the 1994 Regulations (BTKNEEC: see below.)

The new statutory plan that the Secretary of State had to produce was seen as a means to set specific, time-bound objectives which would drive widespread change on storm overflows across the country. But officials advised that the target should seek to reduce discharges significantly rather than eliminate them altogether, because of the costs involved and the small level of additional benefit generated.

Prisoners’ Legal Aid, Malayan Killings and the Role of the Judiciary – the Human Rights Roundup

23 March 2014 by Celia Rooney

Welcome back to the UK Human Rights Roundup, your regular springtime blossom of human rights news and views.  The full list of links can be found here.  You can find previous roundups here.  Links compiled by Adam Wagner, post by Celia Rooney. 

This week, a challenge to the legal aid reforms by the Howard League for Penal Reform is rejected, while campaigners seeking an inquiry into the action of British soldiers in Malaya in 1948 face similar disappointment.  Meanwhile, some of the most senior judges in the UK give their views on the role of the judiciary today.

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Open justice and crosses to bear – The Human Rights Roundup

29 March 2011 by Graeme Hall

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.

by Graeme Hall

In the news:

James Wilson, writing in the Halsbury’s Law Exchange blog, examines Lord Neuberger’s discussion relating to the form and content of legal judgments, delivered in the 2011 Judicial Studies Board Lecture “Open Justice Unbound“. Whilst agreeing with many of the points Lord Neuberger made, Wilson highlights the difficulties in making judgments comprehensible to members of the public. Click here to see Adam Wagner’s post on ‘open justice’ and the accessibility of the law, a theme which is developed by Lucy Series in The Small Places blog.

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The Round-up: Fee hikes, JR funding and the death of Sidaway

16 March 2015 by acwessely

Photo credit: Guardian

Alex Wessely brings us the latest edition of the Human Rights Round-up

In the news

Planned increases in court fees have been given the green light after successfully clearing the House of Lords. As the Law Gazette reports here a 5% charge will be added to all civil claims valued above £10,000, with an aim to raise £120m per year for the court service. ObiterJ writes that “for many people in need of the law, access to justice will now be a forlorn hope”. Whereas Lord Faulks, a Minister behind the reforms, argued that litigation is “very much an optional activity”, this was disputed by Lord Pannick – “litigation is often a necessity to keep your business alive or to maintain any quality of life”. Joshua Rozenberg, writing in the Guardian, bemoans the lack of attention paid to these significant increases, which shows that “the public has very little interest in what is being done in its name”.

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The air that we breathe: NGO’s appeal dismissed

5 June 2012 by David Hart KC

R (CLIENTEARTH) v SECRETARY OF STATE FOR ENVIRONMENT FOOD &  RURAL AFFAIRS, Court of Appeal 30 May 2012, on appeal from Mitting J, 13 December 2011, 

A newsflash, really, confirming that ClientEarth’s claim for a declaration and mandatory order against Defra in respect of air pollution was refused by the Court of Appeal, in line with the judgment below. And the lack of a link to the CA’s judgment because it is not available, I imagine, because the judgment was extempore, and it is being transcribed at the moment. Sadly, that does not necessarily mean it gets onto  the public access site, Bailli, in due course: the first instance decision still languishes on subscription-only sites. So all I know is that ClientEarth’s appeal did not find favour with Laws and Pitchford LJJ, sitting with Sir John Chadwick, but this, as ClientEarth explains, may not be the end of the line.

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Police Anti-terrorism “Lead” calls for children to be protected from terrorist parents on a par with paedophilia

1 March 2018 by Martin Downs

A speech by Mark Rowley (the outgoing Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police for Specialist Operations and National Lead for Counter Terrorism Policing) to Policy Exchange has been given the front page treatment with headlines like, “Extremists should lose access to their children.” The speech has been made available in full by the Policy Exchange on their website and on Youtube.

Additionally, The Times quotes Mark Rowley as saying, in response to questions from the press in advance of the speech,

We still see cases where parents convicted of terrorist-related offences, including radicalisers, retain care of their own children.

If you know parents are interested in sex with children, or if you know parents believe that people of their faith or their belief should hate everybody else and corrupt children for it, for me those are equally wicked environments to expose children to.

The speech is phrased more tentatively but included this passage,

The family courts and social services now routinely wrestle with child protection and safeguarding cases arising out of terrorism and extremism. However, we still see cases where parents convicted of terrorist-related offences, including radicalisers, retain care of their own children. I wonder if we need more parity between protecting children from paedophile and terrorist parents.

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Supreme Court refers question of public interest in disclosure about mobile phone masts to ECJ

29 January 2010 by Rosalind English

Office of Communications v Information Commissioner [2010] UKSC 3

SC (Lord Hope (Deputy President), Lord Saville, Lady Hale, Lord Mance, Lord Collins) January 27 2010

Article 4(2) of the European Directive 2003/4 imposes a duty to disclose environmental information. The Environmental Regulations were passed in 2004 to give effect to the Directive, the duty being contained in Regulation 12.. There are a number of different exceptions to this duty, one of which is the public safety exception in reg 12(5)(a), and another the intellectual property rights exception in reg. 12(5)(c).

The information commissioner had ordered that the respondent (OFCOM) disclose information as to the precise location of mobile telephone base stations in the United Kingdom. The Information Tribunal had dismissed OFCOM’s appeal against the order, finding that although disclosure fell within the scope of the two exceptions under 12(5)(a) and (c), both were outweighed by the public interest in disclosure.

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How can the courts manage the Facebook phenomenon?

24 April 2013 by Rosalind English

HL (A Minor) v Facebook Incorporated, The Northern Health and Social Care Trust, The Department of Justice for Northern Ireland and others  [2013] NIQB 25 (1 March 2013) – read judgment

In this somewhat chaotic action, the Plaintiff sued ten defendants, in anonymised form by her father and next friend.

The Writ stated that the Plaintiff, aged 12,  had been engaged in posting and uploading sexually suggestive and inappropriate photographic images of herself onto Facebook, and that she had been doing so vis-à-vis several different accounts with differing profile names. She had been involved with the social services from the age of 11. From July 2012 to January 2013 she was the subject of a Secure Accommodation Order. She currently resides in a specialised unit, is a grade below secure accommodation.

This was clearly a bid by the father to bring his wayward daughter under control by restricting her access to the internet.

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The Round up: The threat to Schengen and the end of Fast Track Detention

16 November 2015 by Charlotte Bellamy

Charlotte Bellamy brings you the latest human rights news

In the News

The Home Office has confirmed that it is rejecting the call of Lord Carlile, the UK Government’s former independent reviewer of terror legislation, to rush the government’s internet surveillance bill through Parliament following the devastating attacks in Paris carried out by IS on Friday, Andrew Sparrow reports [at 12.18].

In Lord Carlile’s view the bill could pass through Parliament in the next three to four weeks, and the “necessary powers need to be on the statute book as quickly as that”. Though the draft bill was published on 4 November, it has not yet been scrutinised by the intended joint committee of both houses of Parliament. Despite Lord Carlile’s belief that “we don’t have time to wait” and the content of the draft bill is “for the most part perfectly reasonable”, the Home Office appears to be sticking to their original timetable that the final version be published in Spring next year, having had due regard to pre-legislative scrutiny, with a view to it becoming law before the end of 2016.
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Suing Facebook is no easy matter

9 November 2015 by Rosalind English

Richardson v Facebook [2015] EWHC 3154 (2 November 2015) – read judgment

An action in defamation and under the right to privacy against Facebook has been dismissed in the High Court. The Facebook entity named as defendant did not “control” the publication so as to allow liability; and even if it did, no claim under the Human Rights Act could lie against FB as it could not be described as any sort of a public authority for the purposes of Section 6 of the Act.

The claimant, acting as a litigant in person, sought damages in respect of the publication in 2013 and 2014 of a Facebook profile and a posting on the Google Blogger service. The Profile and the Blogpost each purported to have been created by the claimant, but she complained that each was a fake, created by an impostor. She claimed that each was defamatory of her, and infringed her right to respect for her private life under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
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The Weekly Round Up: Ukraine, ARAP, SLAPPs and trans rights

16 March 2026 by Sascha Lavin

In the news

The UN Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine found that 1,205 children have been systematically deported and forcibly transferred from Russian-occupied areas in Ukraine to Russia. Of those cases, eight in ten children have not yet returned. According to the findings, Russian authorities have acted in contravention with international humanitarian law, under which evacuation can only be temporary and for the legally justifiable reasons of health, medical treatment or safety. 

The Courts and Tribunals Bill passed its second reading in the House of Commons last week. The Bill introduces a range of reforms aimed at reducing court backlogs, including proposals to restrict jury trials and raising magistrates’ sentencing powers. The House of Commons Public Bill Committee has issued a call for evidence from experts in fields relevant to the Bill.

The Netherlands and Iceland sought permission to intervene in the International Criminal Court (ICJ) case initiated by South Africa against Israel’s actions in Gaza. The ICJ had previously received 16 requests to intervene, including from Palestine, Ireland and Colombia.

[* note from editor: The United States and other countries have also filed declarations of intervention in South Africa’s case of genocide against Israel at the International Court of Justice. Article 63 of the Statute of the Court allows countries to intervene in cases involving the interpretation of a convention to which they are parties, even if they are not parties to the dispute.

In its 11-page declaration the US rejected South Africa’s accusations of genocide against Israel.

“To avoid any doubt, the United States affirms, in the strongest terms possible, that the allegations of ‘genocide’ against Israel are false. They are also unfortunately nothing new,” it said.

The US said it considered it necessary to intervene in this case in order to offer its interpretations of the provisions of the Genocide Convention, informed by its role in drafting the 1948 text]

In the Courts:

On Wednesday, the Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR) launched an inquiry into the recent changes to laws relating to protest. The inquiry will examine whether the Government has correctly balanced its duty to protect the public from disruption or fear, with its duty to protect the right to protest – described by JCHR chair, Lord David Alton, as “a cornerstone of our democracy”.

In the courts

CHD, R (On the Application Of) v Secretary of State for Defence

On Thursday, the High Court ruled that the Ministry of Defence’s (MoD’s) refusal of an Afghan Relocation and Assistance Policy (ARAP) application was unlawful, on the grounds of an error of fact and a failure to publish related caseworker guidance. Although the MoD withdrew the decision shortly after the hearing, Saini J still handed down judgment, noting that the Court’s findings could affect other ARAP cases [1-2]. 

The judicial review challenge was brought by CHD, an Afghan national who was tortured by the Taliban and is currently in hiding in Afghanistan. For 13 years, until the takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban in 2021, CHD held a key public-facing role within a partly UK-funded organisation that promoted the rule of law and combatted the Taliban’s influence. 

CHD’s application to re-locate to the UK was rejected by the MoD on the grounds that he failed to meet Condition 2 Category 4 of ARAP, which requires applicants to have made, in the course of their employment, “a substantive and positive contribution to the UK’s military objectives or national security objectives (which includes counter-terrorism, counter-narcotics and anti-corruption objectives) with respect to Afghanistan” [15].

Saini J held that MoD decision makers had made an error of fact when determining that the objectives of CHD’s employer – the advancement of the rule of law and a functioning legal system – were not also part of the UK’s national security objectives at the time of CHD’s employment [75-77]. 

Saini J also noted that he would have been inclined to find the unpublished guidance and any decision made pursuant to it unlawful, had it been necessary to decide the issue [21]. Applying R (Lumba) v SSHD [2012] 1 AC 245, Saini J held that the MoD’s failure to publish interfered with the general rule of law that the publication of policies is necessary for applicants to make informed and meaningful representations [84].