ECJ Grand Chamber – Fixed-term employment – Directive 1999/70/EC – Framework agreement on fixed-term work – Abuse through use of successive fixed – term employment contracts – Civil and public servants – Employment conditions – Pay and pension entitlements – Direct effect of directives – Interpretation in conformity with a directive – Procedural autonomy – … Continue reading Impact v Minister for Agriculture and Food: ECJ 15 Apr 2008
(External relations) Article 234 EC (ex-Article 177) – EEA Agreement – Jurisdiction of the Court of Justice – Accession to the European Union – Directive 80/987/EEC – Liability of a StateAdvocate General Jacobs said: ‘Retroactive effect consists in the application of the rule to situations which were permanently fixed before that rule came into force. … Continue reading Andersson and Wakeras-Andersson v Svenska Staten: ECJ 15 Jun 1999
The Court considered the procedures when a prisoner is kept in solitary confinement, otherwise described as ‘segregation’ or ‘removal from association’, and principally whether decisions to keep the appellants in segregation for substantial periods were taken lawfully. Held: The segregation was not authorised by the applicable legislation: ‘rule 45 . . (1) enables the governor … Continue reading Bourgass and Another, Regina (on The Application of) v Secretary of State for Justice: SC 29 Jul 2015
(Bahamas) The applicants appealed against sentences of death, saying that the executions would be unlawful while there was a pending appeal to the OAS. Held: The appeals failed. The Bahamas was a member of the Organisation of American States, but the rules of that organisation had not been incorporated into its law. The planned execution … Continue reading Higgs and Mitchell v The Minister of National Security and others: PC 14 Dec 1999
‘A book has been cited to me: Harris Plantrose and Teck on the Arbitration Act 1996 . It explains, without giving its source, those words ‘not covered by legal provisions’. What is said is that those words were inserted to take account of particular situations in the Netherlands, Portugal and, it is believed, also Spain, … Continue reading Zealander and Zealander v Laing: 19 Mar 1999
The two prisoners, serving life sentences for murder, had had their appeals rejected. They continued to protest innocence, and sought to bring their campaigns to public attention through the press, having oral interviews with journalists without . .
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Ancillary relief – second appeal Citations: [2006] EWCA Civ 1116 Links: Bailii Statutes: Access to Justice Act 1999 55 Jurisdiction: England and Wales Family Updated: 09 December 2022; Ref: scu.270181
Renewed application for leave to appeal. Judges: Chadwick LJ Citations: [2002] EWCA Civ 817 Links: Bailii Statutes: Access to Justice Act 1999 55, European Convention on Human Rights 8 A1 FP, Administration of Justice Act 1970 36 Jurisdiction: England and Wales Citing: Appeal from – Barclays Bank plc v Alcorn ChD 2002 Hart J said: … Continue reading Barlcays Bank Plc v Alcorn: CA 17 May 2002
The appellant sought leave to appeal out of time against an order dismissing his action against the solicitors who had acted for his former spouse in matrimonial proceedings. Held: Leave was refused. A solicitor owes his duty to his own client, not to the opponent. The action and the appeal were totally without merit. The … Continue reading Wilkes v Ballam Delaney Hunt (A Firm): CA 18 Aug 2005
Permission to appeal denied – no claim. Citations: [2002] EWCA Civ 1815 Links: Bailii Statutes: Access to Justice Act 1999 55 Jurisdiction: England and Wales Professional Negligence Updated: 28 June 2022; Ref: scu.217864
The applicant sought to appeal from an order refusing leave to appeal out of time. There was no second appeal inherent in such a case where the court had not additionally considered and refused the leave to appeal itself. A refusal to extend time dealt with a different issue to the grant of leave to … Continue reading Foenander v Bond Lewis and Co: CA 23 May 2001
The grant of a permission to appeal on a second occasion was not to be quashed under the 1999 Act. John Howell QC HHJ [2015] EWHC 2094 (Admin), [2015] WLR(D) 319, [2015] 1 WLR 4333 Bailii, WLRD Access to Justice Act 1999 55(1), Town and Country Planning Act 1990 289(6) Planning, Litigation Practice Updated: 02 … Continue reading Miaris v The Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government and Others: Admn 17 Jul 2015
Application for permission to appeal Wall LJ [2009] EWCA Civ 109 Bailii Access to Justice Act 1999 55 England and Wales Litigation Practice Updated: 27 December 2021; Ref: scu.304532
The appeals raise a point of some general importance in relation to the powers of the official receiver; namely, whether, at a time when the official receiver is pursuing disqualification proceedings against a former director, the court has jurisdiction to make an order, on an application made by the official receiver under section 236 of … Continue reading Official Receiver v Meade-King and Another: CA 30 Jan 2001
Claim by chargor customer that sale prices obtained by the bank of repossessed properties had been inadequate. Second tier appeal – whether important point of principle. [2001] EWCA Civ 210, [2001] Lloyd’s Rep Bank 113, (2001) 82 P and CR DG3, (2001) 82 P and CR 16 Bailii Access to Justice Act 1999 55(1) England … Continue reading Raja v Lloyds TSB Bank Plc: CA 24 Jan 2001
Prosecution to protect defendant not available The claimants faced extradition to the US. They said that the respondent had infringed their human rights by deciding not to prosecute them in the UK. There was no mutuality in the Act under which they were to be extradited. Held: The Director had a discretion as to whether … Continue reading Bermingham and others v The Director of the Serious Fraud Office: QBD 21 Feb 2006
The applicants sought to challenge the grant of a permit by the defendant to a company to operate a cement works, saying that the environmental impact assessment was inadequate. Held: The Agency had been justified in allowing the application in the form presented. Nor had there been inadeqate disclosure. Everything which was required to be … Continue reading Edwards, Regina (on the application of) v Environment Agency: HL 16 Apr 2008
The claimant had been a defendant in an action. He came to be awarded substantial damages and costs, but the legally aided claimant was unlikely ever to be able to pay, and he sought payment of his costs under the Regulations. The respondent said that costs in respect of a period between the transfer of … Continue reading Rayner v The Lord Chancellor: CA 9 Nov 2015
application for permission to appeal – second application Citations: [2001] EWCA Civ 422 Links: Bailii Statutes: Access to Justice Act 1999 54 55 Jurisdiction: England and Wales Litigation Practice Updated: 17 October 2022; Ref: scu.200930
The appellants challenged the compatibility with the European Convention on Human Rights of the system for recovery of costs in civil litigation in England and Wales following the passing of the Access to Justice Act 1999. The parties had been involved in very substantial litigation over an alleged nuisance. The claimants’ lawyers had acted under … Continue reading Coventry and Others v Lawrence and Another: SC 22 Jul 2015
The department complained that the defendants had entered into a transaction with their farm at an undervalue so as to defeat its claim for recovery of sums due. The transaction used the grant of a tenancy by the first chargee. Held: The farmers’ appeal as to the farm transaction failed: ‘beyond argument that DEFRA was … Continue reading Feakins and Another v Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Civ 1513): CA 9 Dec 2005
The claimant alleged complicity by the defendant, (now former) Foreign Secretary, in his mistreatment by the US while held in Libya. He also alleged involvement in his unlawful abduction and removal to Libya, from which had had fled for political persecution. The defendants now appealed from rejection of the defendants’ claim to state immunity and … Continue reading Belhaj and Another v Straw and Others: SC 17 Jan 2017
The court considered one of the last applications for permission to seek judicial review of a Social Security Commissioner’s determination before the transfer of the Commissioner’s jurisdiction to the Upper Tribunal. Mr Eadie, for the Commissioner, submitted that, applying Sivasubramaniam and Cort, judicial review should be restricted to outright excess of jurisdiction and fundamental denials … Continue reading Wiles v Social Security Commissioner and Another: CA 16 Mar 2010
The claimant journalist sought disclosure of papers acquired by the respondent in its conduct of enquiries into the charitable Mariam appeal. The Commission referred to an absolute exemption under section 32(2) of the 2000 Act, saying that the exemption continued until the papers were destroyed, or for 20 years under the 1958 Act. Held: The … Continue reading Kennedy v The Charity Commission: SC 26 Mar 2014
Inherent High Court power may restrain Publicity The claimant child’s mother was to be tried for the murder of his brother by poisoning with salt. It was feared that the publicity which would normally attend a trial, would be damaging to S, and an application was made for reporting restrictions to be applied to avoid … Continue reading In re S (a Child) (Identification: Restrictions on Publication): HL 28 Oct 2004
Citations: [2007] 1 WLR 554, [2006] EWCA Civ 1017 Links: Bailii Statutes: Courts and Legal Services Act 1990 58, Access to Justice Act 1999 27(1) Jurisdiction: England and Wales Citing: Cited – Mountain v Hastings CA 16-Apr-1993 The tenant disputed the effect of a notice to quit. Paragraph 3 of the form read: ‘The landlord … Continue reading Garrett v Halton Borough Council: CA 18 Jul 2006
Ancillary relief – refusal of second tier leave to appeal Citations: [2001] EWCA Civ 1815 Links: Bailii Statutes: Access to Justice Act 1999 855 Jurisdiction: England and Wales Family Updated: 28 June 2022; Ref: scu.201461
The claimant Reynolds challenged the differential treatment by age of jobseeker’s allowance. Carson complained that as a foreign resident pensioner, her benefits had not been uprated. The questions in each case were whether the benefit affected a ‘possession’ within the Convention or the discrimination was arbitrary so as to breach the applicants human rights. Held: … Continue reading Carson and Reynolds v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions: CA 17 Jun 2003
House owners had used vehicular access across a common to get to their houses for many years. The commons owner required them to purchase the right, and they replied that they had acquired the right by lost modern grant and/or by prescription. Held: The use of a right of way over a common by vehicles … Continue reading Roland Brandwood and others v Bakewell Management Ltd: CA 30 Jan 2003
Where the judge decided that no inference could be drawn from the defendant’s silence, because of the absence of facts which could have been mentioned, he had a duty positively to warn the jury not arbitrarily to draw adverse inferences from the silence. He had been wrong to leave it open to the jury to … Continue reading Regina v McGarry: CACD 16 Jul 1998
The claimant appealed against refusal of his employer’s pension scheme trustees to include as a recipient of any death benefit his male civil partner. Held: The appeal succeeded. The salary paid to Mr Walker throughout his working life was precisely the same as that which would have been paid to a heterosexual man. There was … Continue reading Walker v Innospec Ltd and Others: SC 12 Jul 2017
Where the Court of Appeal had refused permission to apply for judicial review after a similar refusal by a judge, that decision was also, by implication, a refusal to grant permission to appeal against the judge’s decision, and there was no scope for a further appeal to the House of Lords. It is not the … Continue reading Regina v Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, Ex Parte Eastaway: HL 8 Nov 2000
The court had previously published and then withdrawn its judgment after third parties had been able to identify those involved by pulling together media and internet reports with the judgment. Held: The judgment case should be published in its original format. The court identified: ‘the risk of so called ‘jigsaw identification’ in cases where the … Continue reading H v A (No2): FD 17 Sep 2015
The owner of Stonehenge had enclosed the monument by fencing for its protection. The Attorney-General wished to remove the fencing in order to keep the place open so that the public could visit it. Held: The court rejected a suggestion that there existed public rights of access to the ancient site of Stonehenge, despite the … Continue reading Attorney-General v Antrobus: ChD 1905
The issue raised by this appeal is neatly put in paragraph 1 of Mr Justice Lightman’s judgment: ‘This appeal raises questions as to the application and effect of Section 11 of the Access to Justice Act 1999 and the Community Legal Services (Costs) Regulations 2000 made thereunder. These statutory provisions apply where a party is … Continue reading Hill v Bailey: SCCO 25 Nov 2003
The claimants had lost their claim on an insurance policy, and had had costs awarded against them subject only to the issue of whether the fact that they had been legally aided protected them. Held: The applicants had been found to be guilty of fraud, both as to the underlying claim, and in their applications … Continue reading Jones and Another v Congregational and General Insurance plc: QBD 2 May 2003
The appellants had been peacefully protesting at Stonehenge. They were among others who refused to leave when ordered to do so under an order made by the police officer in charge declaring it to be a trespassory assembly under the 1986 Act. They appealed saying that the assemply had been on a public highway, and … Continue reading Jones and Lloyd v Director of Public Prosecutions: Admn 23 Jan 1997
The claimants challenged the 1967 Act, saying that it deprived them of their property rights when lessees were given the power to purchase the freehold reversion. Held: Article 1 (P1-1) in substance guarantees the right of property. Allowing a mechanism for the compulsory transfer of the freehold interest in the house and the land to … Continue reading James and Others v The United Kingdom: ECHR 21 Feb 1986
Power to call in is administrative in nature The powers of the Secretary of State to call in a planning application for his decision, and certain other planning powers, were essentially an administrative power, and not a judicial one, and therefore it was not a breach of the applicants’ rights to a fair hearing before … Continue reading Regina (Holding and Barnes plc) v Secretary of State for Environment Transport and the Regions; Regina (Alconbury Developments Ltd and Others) v Same and Others: HL 9 May 2001
The court had no jurisdiction to hear an appeal against a judge’s refusal of permission. Davis LJ [2015] EWCA Civ 1218 Bailii Access to Justice Act 1999 54 England and Wales Litigation Practice Updated: 09 January 2022; Ref: scu.558049
Andrew Grubb HHJ [2015] EWHC 3032 (Admin) Bailii Access to Justice Act 1999 Legal Aid Updated: 08 January 2022; Ref: scu.557107
The bank challenged measures taken by HM Treasury to restrict access to the United Kingdom’s financial markets by a major Iranian commercial bank, Bank Mellat, on the account of its alleged connection with Iran’s nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programmes. The bank sought to have the direction given under section 7 of the 2008 Act. … Continue reading Bank Mellat v Her Majesty’s Treasury (No 2): SC 19 Jun 2013
The union appellant challenged the validity of the imposition of fees on those seeking to lay complaints in the Employment Tribunal system. Held: The appeal succeeded. The fees were discriminatory and restricted access to justice. The consequence of the order had been very substantially to reduce the number of cases coming before the tribunal, and: … Continue reading Unison, Regina (on The Application of) v Lord Chancellor: SC 26 Jul 2017
Each defendant challenged the way he had been treated on revocation of his parole licence, saying he should have been given the opportunity to make oral representations. Held: The prisoners’ appeals were allowed. Lord Bingham stated: ‘While an oral hearing is most obviously necessary to achieve a just decision in a case where facts are … Continue reading Regina v Parole Board ex parte Smith, Regina v Parole Board ex parte West (Conjoined Appeals): HL 27 Jan 2005
(First Division, Inner House) The reclaimer challenged dismissal of her claim for review of the recent decision for the prorogation of the Parliament at Westminster. Held: Reclaim was granted. The absence of reasons allowed the court to infer that the reason for the prorogation was unlawful.‘It was the role of the courts to protect Parliament. … Continue reading Cherry, Reclaiming Motion By Joanna Cherry QC MP and Others v The Advocate General: SCS 11 Sep 2019
Statement without lawyer access was inadmissible The accused complained that he had been convicted for assault and breach of the peace on the basis of a statement made by him during an interview with the police where, under the 1995 Act, he had been denied access to a lawyer. Held: The section must be read … Continue reading Cadder v Her Majesty’s Advocate: SC 26 Oct 2010
The claimant sought return of items removed by the defendants under the 1984 Act. A decision had been made against a prosecution by the police. The police wished to hold onto the items to allow a decision from the second defendant. Held: The defendant’s appeal succeeded. The offence allowed an officer to seize material found … Continue reading Scopelight Ltd and Others v Chief of Police for Northumbria: CA 5 Nov 2009
C operated a motor racing circuit as tenant. The neighbour L objected that the noise emitted by the operations were a nuisance. C replied that the fact of his having planning consent meant that it was not a nuisance. Held: The neighbour’s appeal succeeded. C, but not the freeholder were liable in nuisance. In the … Continue reading Coventry and Others v Lawrence and Another: SC 26 Feb 2014
Extension oh Human Rights Beyond Borders The appellants complained that the system set up by the respondent where Home Office officers were placed in Prague airport to pre-vet applicants for asylum from Romania were dsicriminatory in that substantially more gypsies were refused entry than others, and that it was contrary to the obligations of the … Continue reading Regina v Immigration Officer at Prague Airport and another, ex parte European Roma Rights Centre and others: HL 9 Dec 2004
The claimants had been in coaches being driven to take part in a demonstration at an air base. The defendant police officers stopped the coaches en route, and, without allowing any number of the claimants to get off, returned the coaches to London. The officer acted saying that he feared a breach of the peace … Continue reading Laporte, Regina (on the application of ) v Chief Constable of Gloucestershire: HL 13 Dec 2006
The Mirror had published a picture of Naomi Campbell leaving a rehabilitation clinic. They appealed a decision in which having been found to have infringed her privacy by a covertly taken photograph, they had then been ordered to pay very substantial sums in costs, including a success fee. Held: The court asked the parties to … Continue reading MGN Limited v United Kingdom: ECHR 24 Oct 2008
Consequential judgment. Mr Coventry had been found liable in the principle judgment in nuisance to the appellant neighbours. The Court was now asked as to several matters arising. First, to what extent were the defendants’ landlords liable to the claimants, and second as to the suspension of the injunctions whilst the property to be protected … Continue reading Coventry and Others v Lawrence and Another (No 2): SC 23 Jul 2014
References: [2004] UKHL 27, [2004] 3 WLR 58, Times 21-Jun-04, [2004] 2 AC 369, [2004] 3 All ER 821, [2004] INLR 349 Links: House of Lords, Bailii Coram: Lord Bingham of Cornhill, Lord Steyn, Lord Walker of Gestingthorpe, Baroness Hale of Richmond, Lord Carswell The claimant resisted removal after failure of his claim for asylum, … Continue reading Regina v Secretary of State for the Home Department ex parte Razgar etc: HL 17 Jun 2004
