Category: Children

Z (A Child : Hague Convention Application): FD 30 Jun 2020

Father’s application under the 1980 Hague Convention for the return of Z, age 3, to Australia. The mother resists that application on three grounds (i) Z was habitually resident in England at the time of any retention; (ii) the father acquiesced in Z’s retention in England; (iii) it would place Z at grave risk of physical or psychological harm, or in an otherwise intolerable situation, if the court were to require his return to Australia.

Judges:

Theis J

Citations:

[2020] EWHC 1901 (Fam)

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Children

Updated: 23 March 2022; Ref: scu.655265

Regina v London Borough of Barnet ex parte G; Regina v London Borough of Lambeth ex parte W; Regina v London Borough of Lambeth ex parte A: HL 23 Oct 2003

The applicants sought to oblige the local authority, in compliance with its duties under the 1989 Act, to provide a home for children, and where necessary an accompanying adult.
Held: There were four hurdles for the applicants to cross. They must show that their children are children in need within the meaning of section 17(10). The respondents must be under a duty to provide their children with accommodation. They must then show that section 23(6) applies to their case. Last, whether a local authority looking after a child is under a duty to provide accommodation to any of the persons mentioned in section 23(6)(a) and (b), who include the child’s parent, to enable the child to live with that person. Part III of the Children Act 1989 did not oblige a local authority to provide accommodation to enable a dependent child to live with its parents.
Lord Hope of Craighead, in relation to the target duty in section 17(1) of the Children Act 1989, said: ‘I think that the correct analysis of section 17(1) is that it sets out duties of a general character which are intended to be for the benefit of children in need in the local social services authority’s area in general. … [In] R v Barnet London Borough Council, Ex p B [1994] ELR 357 … Auld J . . observed . . that the duties under Part III of the [Children Act] 1989 . . fell into two groups, those which are general and those which are particular, and that the general duties are concerned with the provision of services overall and not to be governed by individual circumstances . . As Mr Goudie for the defendants accepted, members of that section of the public [affected by the local authority’s decision] have a sufficient interest to enforce those general duties by judicial review. But they are not particular duties owed to each member of that section of the public of the kind described by Lord Clyde in R v Gloucestershire County Council, Ex p Barry [1997] AC 584, 610a which give a correlative right to the individual which he can enforce in the event of a failure in its performance.’

Judges:

Lord Nicholls of Birkenhead, Lord Steyn, Lord Hope of Craighead, Lord Millett, Lord Scott of Foscote

Citations:

[2003] 3 WLR 1194, Times 24-Oct-2003, [2003] UKHL 57, [2004] 2 AC 208, [2003] BLGR 569, [2003] NPC 123, [2004] HRLR 4, [2004] 1 FLR 454, (2003) 6 CCL Rep 500, [2004] HLR 10, [2003] 3 FCR 419, [2004] Fam Law 21, [2004] 1 All ER 97

Links:

House of Lords, Bailii

Statutes:

Children Act 1989 17 23(6), European Convention on Human Rights 8.1

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Appeal from – Regina (G) v Barnet London Borough Council CA 11-Apr-2001
A mother and child from Holland were homeless in London. The mother was not entitled to be rehoused as a homeless person, nor to housing benefit, nor to income support, but sought the right to be housed with her child. The authority felt the best . .
Cited – Regina v Inner London Education Authority, Ex parte Ali 1990
The broad duty imposed on a local education authority by section 8 ‘to secure that there shall be available for their area sufficient schools . . for providing primary education’ is a ‘target duty’. . .
Cited – Regina v Northavon District Council ex parte Smith HL 18-Jul-1994
Local Authority is under no obligation to provide permanent housing for a family with children save as provided under the Act. The Children Act not to be used as a way around homelessness decisions and rules. A Social Services request to house . .
Cited – Attorney General ex rel Tilley v Wandsworth London Borough Council 1981
The section was to be given a wide interpretation. . .
Cited – Regina (on the Application of AB and SB) v Nottingham City Council Admn 30-Mar-2001
A local authoity’s failure to fulfil its obligations may be the subject of a mandatory order in approriate cases. The Court ordered a local authority to carry out a full assessment of a child’s needs in accordance with the guidance given by the . .
Cited – Regina v Mayor and Burgesses of London Borough of Tower Hamlets ex parte Anita Bradford Raymond Bradford, Simon Bradford (a Minor By His Next Friend Raymond Bradford) Admn 13-Jan-1997
Section 17(1) imposes an obligation in respect of the needs of an individual child. . .
Cited – Regina v Wigan Metropolitan Borough Council, Ex parte Tammadge 1998
. .
Cited – Regina v Mayor and Burgesses of London Borough of Tower Hamlets ex parte Anita Bradford Raymond Bradford, Simon Bradford (a Minor By His Next Friend Raymond Bradford) Admn 13-Jan-1997
Section 17(1) imposes an obligation in respect of the needs of an individual child. . .
Cited – Regina v Gloucestershire County Council and Another, Ex Parte Barry HL 21-Mar-1997
The House considered the need when assessing community care provision to include considerations of the cost and resources for care. The case concerned a question about the relevance of cost and arose in the context of a duty to make certain . .
Cited – Regina v Sefton Metropolitan Borough Council ex parte Help the Aged ex parte Blanchard CA 31-Jul-1997
. .
Cited – Regina v East Sussex County Council Ex Parte Tandy HL 21-May-1998
A Local Authority may not take its own financial constraints into account when assessing what was an appropriate education for a child in special needs case. It was wrong to try to turn a statutory duty into a power or a discretion. Ordinarily cost, . .
Cited – Regina v Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council ex parte Garlick and similar HL 19-Mar-1993
No homelessness priority could be established by means of having a child applying for housing, rather than his or her parent. An application by a person suffering mental disability who would also be dependent upon others was also rejected. In each . .
Cited – Z and E v Austria ECHR 1986
The state must act in a manner calculated to allow those concerned to lead a normal family life. . .
Cited – K And T v Finland ECHR 12-Jul-2001
ECHR Judgment (Merits and just satisfaction) Violation of Art. 8 with regard to emergency care order concerning J.; No violation of Art. 8 with regard to emergency care order concerning M.; No violation of Art. 8 . .
Cited – Kutzner v Germany ECHR 26-Feb-2002
Hudoc Judgment (Merits and just satisfaction) Violation of Art. 8; Pecuniary damage – claim rejected; Non-pecuniary damage – financial award; Costs and expenses partial award
The mutual enjoyment by parent . .
Cited – KA v Finland ECHR 14-Jan-2003
Hudoc Judgment (Merits and just satisfaction) No violation of Art. 8 with regard to taking into care ; No violation of Art. 8 with regard to involvement in decision-making process ; Violation of Art. 8 with . .
Cited – Regina v Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (ex parte Kujtim) CA 31-Mar-1999
A person had been assessed by the local authority under section 47 as being a person in urgent need of care and attention which was not otherwise available to him, so that he satisfied the criteria laid down in section 21(1)(a). He claimed that, . .
Cited – Regina v Barnet London Borough Council Ex Parte B and Others QBD 17-Nov-1993
A Local Authority has to balance its duties to provide nurseries against financial constraints. The section sets out duties of a general character which are intended to be for the benefit of children in need in the local social services authority’s . .
Cited – Rees v Darlington Memorial Hospital NHS Trust HL 16-Oct-2003
The claimant was disabled, and sought sterilisation because she feared the additional difficulties she would face as a mother. The sterilisation failed. She sought damages.
Held: The House having considered the issue in MacFarlane only . .

Cited by:

Appealed to – Regina (G) v Barnet London Borough Council CA 11-Apr-2001
A mother and child from Holland were homeless in London. The mother was not entitled to be rehoused as a homeless person, nor to housing benefit, nor to income support, but sought the right to be housed with her child. The authority felt the best . .
Cited – Morris, Regina (on the Application of) v Westminster City Council and Another Admn 7-Oct-2004
The applicant questioned the compatibility of s185 of the 1996 Act with Human Rights law. The family sought emergency housing. The child of the family, found to be in priority housing need, was subject also to immigration control. Though the matter . .
Cited – Kent County Council v G and others HL 24-Nov-2005
A residential assessment order had been made under the 1989 Act in care proceedings. When the centre recommended a second extension of the assessment, the council refused, saying that the true purpose was not the assessment of the child but the . .
Cited – M, Regina (on the Application of) v Gateshead Council CA 14-Mar-2006
The applicant had left care, but still received assistance. She was arrested and the police asked the attending social worker to arrange secure accommodation overnight. The respondent refused. The court was asked what duty (if any) is owed by local . .
Cited – Conville v London Borough of Richmond-Upon-Thames CA 8-Jun-2006
The applicant applied for housing being a homeless single mother. The council found that she was intentionally homeless, and was required to leave the temporary accomodation provided. The judge considered that the phrase ‘reasonable opportunity of . .
Cited – M, Regina (on the Application of) v London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham HL 27-Feb-2008
M, a girl aged 16 had become estranged from her mother, and sought housing assistance. She was not referred to the authority’s children’s services, and was not housed. The House examined the duties of local authorities under the section towards . .
Cited – Ahmad, Regina (on the Application of) v London Borough of Newham HL 4-Mar-2009
The claimant wished to be rehoused by the defendant authority. He complained that their allocations policy was unlawful. Once an applicant was deemed in priority need, he entered a pool if such persons and houses were allocated (save in extreme . .
Cited – G, Regina (on the Application of) v London Borough Of Southwark HL 20-May-2009
The House was asked whether when a child of 16 or 17 who was ejected from home and presents himself to a local children’s services authority and asks to be accommodated by them under section 20 of the Children Act 1989, it is open to that authority . .
Cited – A and B, Regina (on The Application of) v Secretary of State for Health SC 14-Jun-2017
The court was asked: ‘Was it unlawful for the Secretary of State for Health, the respondent, who had power to make provisions for the functioning of the National Health Service in England, to have failed to make a provision which would have enabled . .
Cited – Poole Borough Council v GN and Another SC 6-Jun-2019
This appeal is concerned with the liability of a local authority for what is alleged to have been a negligent failure to exercise its social services functions so as to protect children from harm caused by third parties. The principal question of . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Children, Local Government

Updated: 11 February 2022; Ref: scu.187098

Re B (A Child) (Care Proceedings: Threshold Criteria): SC 12 Jun 2013

B had been removed into care at birth. The parents now appealed against a care order made with a view to B’s adoption. The Court was asked as to the situation where the risks were necessarily only anticipated, and as to appeals against a finding of fact.
Held: (Lady Hale dissenting) The appeal was dismissed. An adoption order is an order of last resort. Lord Wilson said the making of such an order required a ‘high degree of justification’, Lord Neuberger, Lady Hale and Lord Kerr preferred the phrase ‘nothing else will do’. Lord Clarke said ‘only in case of necessity will an adoption order be proportionate ‘
A binary fact in issue is treated as either having happened if it is proved to the civil standard of proof or not having happened if it is not.
Lady Hale said that this case was based on the mere possibility that the child would at some future stage suffer psychological harm. There was insufficent evidence that these parents would abuse or neglect the child. Nor, even if the threshhold criteria was met and a care order was appropriate, had it been shown that an adoption was necessary to protect the child. It had not been shown that ‘nothing else would do’. The care order and orders following it were disproportionate.
Lord Wilson set out the reasons for an appeal court’s reluctance to interfere with a lower court’s assessment of evidence: ‘this is traditionally and rightly explained by reference to good sense, namely that the trial judge has the benefit of assessing the witnesses and actually hearing and considering their evidence as it emerges. Consequently, where a trial judge has reached a conclusion on the primary facts, it is only in a rare case, such as where that conclusion was one (i) which there was no evidence to support, (ii) which was based on a misunderstanding of the evidence, or (iii) which no reasonable judge could have reached, that an appellate tribunal will interfere with it. This can also be justified on grounds of policy (parties should put forward their best case on the facts at trial and not regard the potential to appeal as a second chance), cost (appeals on fact can be expensive), delay (appeals on fact often take a long time to get on), and practicality (in many cases, it is very hard to ascertain the facts with confidence, so a second, different, opinion is no more likely to be right than the first).’

Judges:

Lord Neuberger, President, Lady Hale, Lord Kerr, Lord Clarke, Lord Wilson

Citations:

[2013] UKSC 33, [2013] 1 WLR 1911, [2013] 2 FLR 1075, [2013] WLR(D) 226, [2013] HRLR 29, [2013] Fam Law 946, [2013] 2 FCR 525, [2013] 3 All ER 929

Links:

Bailii, Bailii Summary, WLRD

Statutes:

Children Act 1989 31(2), European Convention on Human Rights 8

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Appeal from – In re B (A Child) CA 14-Nov-2012
B had been taken from her parents at birth, the local authority anticipating a risk of harm. The mother had suffered violence at the hands of the father, and also had convictions for dishonesty and making false allegations. The judge had made a care . .
Cited – Re C and B (Care Order: Future Harm) CA 2001
Hale LJ said that ‘a comparatively small risk of really serious harm can justify action, while even the virtual certainty of slight harm might not’. . .
Cited – Re L (Children), (Care Proceedings: Significant Harm) CA 25-Aug-2006
The Court allowed an appeal by parents against a judge’s conclusion that their children had suffered and were likely to suffer significant harm and it remitted the issue for re-hearing. The professional evidence had been that the parents’ . .
Cited – In re J (Children) SC 20-Feb-2013
The mother had been, whilst in a previous relationship, involved in care proceedings after the death from physical abuse of her baby. Whilst being severely critical of her, the court had been unable to identify the author of the child’s death. Now, . .
Cited – YC v The United Kingdom ECHR 13-Mar-2012
The court collated a number of different ways in which, in its previous judgments, it had sought to explain the requirements of necessity and proportionality in relation to adoption orders made against the wishes of the parents: ‘The Court . .
Cited – SB v X County Council, In re P (a Child), In Re P (Placement Orders: Parental Consent) CA 20-May-2008
The court asked ‘what is the proper test for dispensing with parental agreement to the making of a placement order under section 52(1)(b) of the Adoption and Children Act 2002 (the 2002 Act)?’
Held: Any question of contact between the children . .
Cited – SB v X County Council, In re P (a Child), In Re P (Placement Orders: Parental Consent) CA 20-May-2008
The court asked ‘what is the proper test for dispensing with parental agreement to the making of a placement order under section 52(1)(b) of the Adoption and Children Act 2002 (the 2002 Act)?’
Held: Any question of contact between the children . .

Cited by:

Cited – re G (A Child) CA 8-Apr-2014
McFarlane LJ said: ‘In most child care cases a choice will fall to be made between two or more options. The judicial exercise should not be a linear process whereby each option, other than the most draconian, is looked at in isolation and then . .
Cited – McGraddie v McGraddie and Another (Scotland) SC 31-Jul-2013
The parties were father and son, living at first in the US. On the son’s wife becoming seriously ill, the son returned to Scotland. The father advanced a substantal sum for the purchase of a property to live in, but the son put the properties in his . .
Cited – Aintree University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust v James SC 30-Oct-2013
The hospital where a gravely ill man had been treated had asked for a declaration that it would be in his best interests to withhold certain life-sustaining treatments from him. When can it be in the best interests of a living patient to withhold . .
Cited – Henderson v Foxworth Investments Limited and Another SC 2-Jul-2014
It was said that land, a hotal and gold courses, had been sold at an undervalue and that the transaction was void as against the seller’s liquidator.
Held: The appeal was allowed. The critical issue was whether ‘the alienation was made for . .
Cited – Perry v Raleys Solicitors SC 13-Feb-2019
Veracity of a witness is for the court hearing him
The claimant, a retired miner, had sued his former solicitors, alleging professional negligence in the settlement of his claim for Vibration White Finger damages under the government approved scheme for compensation for such injuries. At trial, the . .
Cited – Re EV (A Child) SC 1-Mar-2017
Appeal from application for permanence order. EV had been in care from her birth. Her parents, each with long standing learning difficulties opposed the order.
Held: The Court allowed the parents’ appeals. The meeting of the threshold test was . .
Cited – Mott, Regina (on The Application of) v Environment Agency SC 14-Feb-2018
The Court considered the legality under the European Convention on Human Rights of licensing conditions imposed by the Environment Agency restricting certain forms of salmon-fishing in the Severn Estuary. The claimant operated a licensed putcher . .
Cited – AR, Regina (on The Application of) v Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police and Another SC 30-Jul-2018
The appellant had been tried for and acquitted on a criminal charge. He now challenged the disclosure by the respondent of the charge in an Enhanced Criminal Record Certificate.
Held: His appeal failed. The critical question was whether the . .
Cited – Poole Borough Council v GN and Another SC 6-Jun-2019
This appeal is concerned with the liability of a local authority for what is alleged to have been a negligent failure to exercise its social services functions so as to protect children from harm caused by third parties. The principal question of . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Children, Human Rights

Updated: 11 February 2022; Ref: scu.510792

CN and Another v Poole Borough Council: CA 21 Dec 2017

The court considered the existence of a tortious duty of care to children, on the part of a local authority, to protect them from harassment and abuse by third parties. The Council appealed against an order re-instating the claims after they had been struck out.
Held: The appeal was allowed. Two considerations in particular militated against liability. The first was the concern that ‘liability in negligence will complicate decision-making in a difficult and sensitive field, and potentially divert the social worker or police officer into defensive decision-making’. The second was the principle that in general there is no liability for the wrongdoing of a third party, even where that wrongdoing is foreseeable. In his view, none of the exceptions to that general principle applied, since this was not a case in which the council, performing its social services functions, brought about the risk of harm or had control over the individuals representing the risk, nor had it assumed responsibility towards the claimants. In those circumstances, there was no basis for holding the council liable for the wrongdoing of third parties.

Judges:

Davis, King DBE, Irwin LJJ

Citations:

[2017] EWCA Civ 2185, (2018) 21 CCL Rep 5, [2018] HLR 17, [2018] 2 FLR 565, [2018] 2 WLR 1693

Links:

Bailii

Statutes:

Children Act 1989 17

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Appeal from – CN and Another v Poole Borough Council QBD 16-Mar-2016
Appeal against striking out of claim for damages in negligence.
Held: Allowed. The claim should proceed.
The principal issue was whether the decision of the Court of Appeal in D v East Berkshire Community NHS Trust [2003] EWCA Civ 1151; . .
Cited – X (Minors) v Bedfordshire County Council; M (A Minor) and Another v Newham London Borough Council; Etc HL 29-Jun-1995
Liability in Damages on Statute Breach to be Clear
Damages were to be awarded against a Local Authority for breach of statutory duty in a care case only if the statute was clear that damages were capable of being awarded. in the ordinary case a breach of statutory duty does not, by itself, give rise . .
Cited – JD, MAK and RK, RK and Another v East Berkshire Community Health, Dewsbury Health Care NHS Trust and Kirklees Metropolitan Council, Oldham NHS Trust and Dr Blumenthal CA 31-Jul-2003
Damages were sought by parents for psychological harm against health authorities for the wrongful diagnosis of differing forms of child abuse. They appealed dismissal of their awards on the grounds that it was not ‘fair just and reasonable’ to . .

Cited by:

Appeal from (CA) – Poole Borough Council v GN and Another SC 6-Jun-2019
This appeal is concerned with the liability of a local authority for what is alleged to have been a negligent failure to exercise its social services functions so as to protect children from harm caused by third parties. The principal question of . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Negligence, Children

Updated: 11 February 2022; Ref: scu.602604

In re D (Children): CA 9 Aug 2011

The father sougfht the return to France of the family’s two children which he said had been wrongly brought to England by the mother against his wishes.

Judges:

Thorpe, Black LJJ

Citations:

[2011] EWCA Civ 1294

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Children

Updated: 09 February 2022; Ref: scu.448299

Amine v Amine: FD 13 Jul 2020

Third set of child abduction proceedings pursuant to the 1980 Hague Convention, brought in England in respect of two children, namely M, who is almost 10 years old and F, about six and a half years old.

Judges:

Francis J

Citations:

[2020] EWHC 2339 (Fam)

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Children

Updated: 09 February 2022; Ref: scu.655268

S v C: FD 5 Aug 2020

Application by a former wife for a financial remedy order in respect of A who is the parties’ only child.

Judges:

Mrs Justice Roberts

Citations:

[2020] EWHC 2127 (Fam)

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Children

Updated: 09 February 2022; Ref: scu.655290

Father v Mother: FD 3 Jul 2020

Application under the inherent jurisdiction for the summary return of two girls A (aged 14) and D (aged 11) to Dubai. The application was made by the Father and resisted by the Mother.

Judges:

Lieven J

Citations:

[2020] EWHC 1929 (Fam)

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Children

Updated: 09 February 2022; Ref: scu.655270

ZS, Regina (on The Application of) v Secretary of State for The Home Department: Admn 3 Feb 2017

The claimant, a 15 year olf Afghan boy was an unaccompanied refugee child who was for an appreciable period of time residing in the camp in Calais in France. He sought refuge underthe ‘Dubs’ amendment.

Judges:

Holman J

Citations:

[2017] EWHC 255 (Admin)

Links:

Bailii

Statutes:

Immigration Act 2016 67

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Immigration, Children

Updated: 09 February 2022; Ref: scu.579629

Re L (A Child): FD 6 Sep 2021

Application by a father for the return of his nine year old daughter, L, to Portugal pursuant to the Convention of the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction 1980.

Judges:

The Honourable Mrs Justice Judd

Citations:

[2021] EWHC 2451 (Fam)

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Children

Updated: 09 February 2022; Ref: scu.669904

DH v Czech Repiublic: ECHR 7 Feb 2006

The claimants, 18 Roma children complained, saying that they had automatically been placed in schools for children with special needs by virtue of their racial origin.

Judges:

J-P Costa P

Citations:

57325/00, [2006] ECHR 113, [2006] ELR 121, (2006) 43 EHRR 41

Links:

Worldii, Bailii

Statutes:

European Convention on Human Rights

Jurisdiction:

Human Rights

Cited by:

Cited – Watkins-Singh, Regina (on the Application of) v The Governing Body of Aberdare Girls’ High School and Another Admn 29-Jul-2008
Miss Singh challenged her school’s policy which operated to prevent her wearing while at school a steel bangle, a Kara. She said this was part of her religion as a Sikh.
Held: Earlier comparable applications had been made under human rights . .
Cited – Gallagher (Valuation Officer) v Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints HL 30-Jul-2008
The House considered whether certain properties of the Church were subject to non-domestic rating. Various buildings were on the land, and the officer denied that some fell within the exemptions, and in particular whether the Temple itself was a . .
Cited – Rodriguez v Minister of Housing of The Government and Another PC 14-Dec-2009
Gibraltar – The claimant challenged a public housing allocation policy which gave preference to married couples and parents of children, excluding same sex and infertile couples.
Held: The aim of discouraging homosexual relationships is . .
Cited – Eweida And Others v The United Kingdom ECHR 15-Jan-2013
Eweida_ukECHR2013
The named claimant had been employed by British Airways. She was a committed Christian and wished to wear a small crucifix on a chain around her neck. This breached the then dress code and she was dismissed. Her appeals had failed. Other claimants . .
Cited – Gillberg v Sweden ECHR 3-Apr-2012
(Grand Chamber) The applicant, a consultant psychiatrist, had conducted research with children under undertakings of absolute privacy. Several years later a researcher, for proper reasons, obtained court orders for the disclosure of the data under . .
Appeal from – DH v Czech Republic ECHR 13-Nov-2007
(Grand Chamber) The applicants complained that their children had been moved to special schools which did not reflect their needs from ordinary schools without them being consulted.
Held: The Court noted that, at the relevant time, the . .
Cited – SG and Others, Regina (on The Application of) v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions SC 18-Mar-2015
The court was asked whether it was lawful for the Secretary of State to make subordinate legislation imposing a cap on the amount of welfare benefits which can be received by claimants in non-working households, equivalent to the net median earnings . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Education, Children, Human Rights

Updated: 07 February 2022; Ref: scu.511020

M and Another, Regina (on the Application of) v London Borough of Lambeth and others: Admn 20 Jun 2008

The claimant had arrived from Afhganistan and sought asylum and accomodation as a child. The social worker involved assessed him to be an adult.
Held: The decision was within the duties of the local authorities.

Judges:

Bennett J

Citations:

[2008] EWHC 1364 (Admin)

Links:

Bailii

Statutes:

European Convention on Human Rights 6 8, Children Act 1989 17 20

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Cited – M, Regina (on the Application of) v Gateshead Council CA 14-Mar-2006
The applicant had left care, but still received assistance. She was arrested and the police asked the attending social worker to arrange secure accommodation overnight. The respondent refused. The court was asked what duty (if any) is owed by local . .

Cited by:

at First Instance – A, Regina (on the Application of) v London Borough of Croydon SC 26-Nov-2009
The applicants sought asylum, and, saying that they were children under eighteen, sought also the assistance of the local authority. Social workers judged them to be over eighteen and assistance was declined.
Held: The claimants’ appeals . .
Appeal from – A, Regina (on the Application of) v London Borough of Croydon CA 18-Dec-2008
The court declined appeals against findings that local authorities through social workers could properly assess whether the claimants were under eighteen and entitled, though asylum seekers, to housing provision and support under the 1989 Act. . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Human Rights, Children, Immigration

Updated: 07 February 2022; Ref: scu.270375

Marckx v Belgium: ECHR 13 Jun 1979

Recognition of illegitimate children

The complaint related to the manner in which parents were required to adopt their own illegitimate child in order to increase his rights. Under Belgian law, no legal bond between an unmarried mother and her child results from the mere fact of birth. A recognised ‘illegitimate’ child’s rights of inheritance on intestacy are less than those of a ‘legitimate’ child.
Held: The Belgian system infringed the right to private and family life by reducing inheritance rights for illegitimate children. The object of Article 8 is to protect the individual against arbitrary interference by the public authorities. Nevertheless, it does not merely compel the State to abstain from such interference: in addition to this primarily negative undertaking, there may be positive obligations inherent in an effective ‘respect’ for family life. Where there are no property rights which pre-exist the interference complained of, the article is not engaged. Family life ‘includes at least the ties between near relatives, for instance, those between grandparents and grandchildren, since such relatives play a considerable part in family life.’ Article 8 makes no distinction between the legitimate and illegitimate family.
Sir Gerald Fitzmaurice described the scope of article 8: ‘The emphasis is on the person’s home as a place where he is entitled to be free from arbitrary interference by the public authorities’

Judges:

Sir Gerald Fitzmaurice

Citations:

6833/74, (1979) 2 EHRR 330, [1979] ECHR 2

Links:

Bailii

Statutes:

European Convention on Human Rights 1P 8 A14

Jurisdiction:

Human Rights

Citing:

Followed – Handyside v The United Kingdom ECHR 7-Dec-1976
Freedom of Expression is Fundamental to Society
The appellant had published a ‘Little Red Schoolbook’. He was convicted under the 1959 and 1964 Acts on the basis that the book was obscene, it tending to deprave and corrupt its target audience, children. The book claimed that it was intended to . .

Cited by:

Cited – James and Others v The United Kingdom ECHR 21-Feb-1986
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 . .
Cited – Ghaidan v Godin-Mendoza CA 5-Nov-2002
The applicant sought to succeed to the tenancy of his deceased homosexual partner as his partner rather than as a member of his family.
Held: A court is bound by any decision within the normal hierachy of domestic authority as to the meaning . .
Distinguished – Inze v Austria ECHR 28-Oct-1987
Art 14 was engaged in respect of discrimination over future interests despite Marckx. The case turned on what singular provisions of Austrian inheritance law, whereby the illegitimate claimant had some, but incomplete, rights on his mother’s . .
Cited – Hollins v Russell etc CA 22-May-2003
Six appeals concerned a number of aspects of the new Conditional Fee Agreement.
Held: It should be normal for a CFA, redacted as necessary, to be disclosed for costs proceedings where a success fee is claimed. If a party seeks to rely on the . .
Cited – AHE Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust v A and Others (By Their Litigation Friend, the Official Solicitor), The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority B, B QBD 26-Feb-2003
An IVF treatment centre used sperm from one couple to fertilise eggs from another. This was discovered, and the unwilling donors sought a paternity declaration.
Held: Section 28 did not confer paternity. The mistake vitiated whatever consents . .
Cited – Carson and Reynolds v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions CA 17-Jun-2003
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 . .
Cited – Wilson v Secretary of State for Trade and Industry; Wilson v First County Trust Ltd (No 2) HL 10-Jul-2003
The respondent appealed against a finding that the provision which made a loan agreement completely invalid for lack of compliance with the 1974 Act was itself invalid under the Human Rights Act since it deprived the respondent lender of its . .
Cited – London Borough of Harrow v Qazi HL 31-Jul-2003
The applicant had held a joint tenancy of the respondent. His partner gave notice and left, and the property was taken into possession. The claimant claimed restoration of his tenancy saying the order did not respect his right to a private life and . .
Cited – M v London Borough of Islington and Another CA 2-Apr-2004
The applicant asylum seeker had had her application refused, and was awaiting a removal order. She had a child and asked the authority to house her pending her removal.
Held: Provided she was not in breach of the removal order, the council had . .
Cited – Singh v Entry Clearance Officer New Delhi CA 30-Jul-2004
The applicant, an 8 year old boy, became part of his Indian family who lived in England, through an adoption recognised in Indian Law, but not in English Law. Though the adoption was genuine, his family ties had not been broken in India. The family . .
Cited – National Westminster Bank plc v Spectrum Plus Limited and others HL 30-Jun-2005
Former HL decision in Siebe Gorman overruled
The company had become insolvent. The bank had a debenture and claimed that its charge over the book debts had become a fixed charge. The preferential creditors said that the charge was a floating charge and that they took priority.
Held: The . .
Cited – Countryside Alliance and others v HM Attorney General and others Admn 29-Jul-2005
The various claimants sought to challenge the 2004 Act by way of judicial review on the grounds that it was ‘a disproportionate, unnecessary and illegitimate interference with their rights to choose how they conduct their lives, and with market . .
Cited – Smith v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and Another HL 12-Jul-2006
The House considered whether under the 1992 Regulations a self-employed parent could use for his child support calculation his net earnings as declared to the Revenue, which would allow deduction of capital and other allowances properly claimed . .
Cited – In re P and Others, (Adoption: Unmarried couple) (Northern Ireland); In re G HL 18-Jun-2008
The applicants complained that as an unmarried couple they had been excluded from consideration as adopters.
Held: Northern Ireland legislation had not moved in the same way as it had for other jurisdictions within the UK. The greater . .
Cited – EM (Lebanon) v Secretary of State for the Home Department HL 22-Oct-2008
The claimant challenged the respondent’s decision to order the return of herself and her son to Lebanon.
Held: The test for whether a claimant’s rights would be infringed to such an extent as to prevent their return home was a strict one, but . .
Cited – Re E (A Child); E v Chief Constable of the Royal Ulster Constabulary and Another (Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission and others intervening) HL 12-Nov-2008
(Northern Ireland) Children had been taken to school in the face of vehement protests from Loyalists. The parents complained that the police had failed to protect them properly, since the behaviour was so bad as to amount to inhuman or degrading . .
Cited – Pearce v Mayfield School CA 31-Jul-2001
The claimant teacher was a lesbian. She complained that her school in failed to protect her against abuse from pupils for her lesbianism. She appealed against a decision that the acts of the pupils did not amount to discrimination, and that the . .
Cited – Pearce v Mayfield School CA 31-Jul-2001
The claimant teacher was a lesbian. She complained that her school in failed to protect her against abuse from pupils for her lesbianism. She appealed against a decision that the acts of the pupils did not amount to discrimination, and that the . .
Cited – L, Regina (On the Application of) v Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis SC 29-Oct-2009
Rebalancing of Enhanced Disclosure Requirements
The Court was asked as to the practice of supplying enhanced criminal record certificates under the 1997 Act. It was said that the release of reports of suspicions was a disproportionate interference in the claimants article 8 rights to a private . .
Cited – In re A (A Minor) FD 8-Jul-2011
An application was made in care proceedings for an order restricting publication of information about the family after the deaths of two siblings of the child subject to the application. The Sun and a local newspaper had already published stories . .
Cited – A v P (Surrogacy: Parental Order: Death of Applicant) FD 8-Jul-2011
M applied for a parental order under the 2008 Act. The child had been born through a surrogacy arrangement in India, which was lawful there, but would have been unlawful here. The clinic could not guarantee a biological relationship with the child. . .
Cited – AXA General Insurance Ltd and Others v Lord Advocate and Others SC 12-Oct-2011
Standing to Claim under A1P1 ECHR
The appellants had written employers’ liability insurance policies. They appealed against rejection of their challenge to the 2009 Act which provided that asymptomatic pleural plaques, pleural thickening and asbestosis should constitute actionable . .
Cited – Salvesen v Riddell and Another; The Lord Advocate intervening (Scotland) SC 24-Apr-2013
The appellant owned farmland tenanted by a limited partnership. One partner gave notice and the remaining partners indicated a claim for a new tenancy. He was prevented from recovering possession by section 72 of the 2003 Act. Though his claim had . .
Cited – Recovery of Medical Costs for Asbestos Diseases (Wales) Bill (Reference By The Counsel General for Wales) SC 9-Feb-2015
The court was asked whether the Bill was within the competence of the Welsh Assembly. The Bill purported to impose NHS charges on those from whom asbestos related damages were recovered.
Held: The Bill fell outside the legislative competence . .
Cited – T and Another, Regina (on The Application of) v Secretary of State for The Home Department and Another SC 18-Jun-2014
T and JB, asserted that the reference in certificates issued by the state to cautions given to them violated their right to respect for their private life under article 8 of the Convention. T further claims that the obligation cast upon him to . .
Cited – Hand and Another v George ChD 17-Mar-2017
Adopted grandchildren entitled to succession
The court was asked whether the adopted children whose adopting father, the son of the testator, were grandchildren of the testator for the purposes of his will.
Held: The claim succeeded. The defendants, the other beneficiaries were not . .
Cited – Brewster, Re Application for Judicial Review (Northern Ireland) SC 8-Feb-2017
Survivor of unmarried partner entitled to pension
The claimant appealed against the rejection of her claim to the survivor’s pension after the death of her longstanding partner, even though they had not been married. The rules said that she had to have been nominated by her partner, but he had not . .
Cited – McCann v The State Hospitals Board for Scotland SC 11-Apr-2017
A challenge by request for judicial review to the legality of the comprehensive ban on smoking at the State Hospital at Carstairs which the State Hospitals Board adopted. The appellant, a detained patient, did not challenge the ban on smoking . .
Cited – Human Rights Commission for Judicial Review (Northern Ireland : Abortion) SC 7-Jun-2018
The Commission challenged the compatibility of the NI law relating to banning nearly all abortions with Human Rights Law. It now challenged a decision that it did not have standing to bring the case.
Held: (Lady Hale, Lord Kerr and Lord Wilson . .
Cited – DA and Others, Regina (on The Application of) v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions SC 15-May-2019
Several lone parents challenged the benefits cap, saying that it was discriminatory.
Held: (Hale, Kerr LL dissenting) The parents’ appeals failed. The legislation had a clear impact on lone parents and their children. The intention was to . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Human Rights, Children, Adoption, Wills and Probate

Leading Case

Updated: 07 February 2022; Ref: scu.164889

Neulinger And Shuruk v Switzerland: ECHR 6 Jul 2010

(Grand Chamber) The Swiss Court had rejected the claimant mother’s claim, under article 13b of the Hague Convention, that there was a grave risk that returning the child to Israel would lead to physical or psychological harm or otherwise place him in an intolerable situation.
Held: To enforce the order would be an unjustifiable interference with the right to respect for the private and family lives of mother and child, protected by article 8. The Court observed that ‘the Convention cannot be interpreted in a vacuum but must be interpreted in harmony with the general principles of international law. Account should be taken . . of ‘any relevant rules of international law applicable in the relations between the parties’ and in particular the rules concerning the international protection of human rights’. The Court noted that ‘there is currently a broad consensus – including in international law – in support of the idea that in all decisions concerning children, their best interests must be paramount’.
In a Hague Convention case an in-depth examination of the issues was mandated by the parties’ Article 8 ECHR rights to respect for family and private life.
The Court explained the concept of the child’s best interests: ‘The child’s interest comprises two limbs. On the one hand, it dictates that the child’s ties with its family must be maintained, except in cases where the family has proved particularly unfit. It follows that family ties may only be severed in very exceptional circumstances and that everything must be done to preserve personal relations and, if and when appropriate, to ‘rebuild’ the family (see Gnahore, cited above, para 59). On the other hand, it is clearly also in the child’s interest to ensure its development in a sound environment, and a parent cannot be entitled under article 8 to have such measures taken as would harm the child’s health and development (see, among many other authorities, Elsholz v Germany (2002) 34 EHRR 58 at [50], and Marsalek v the Czech Republic, no 8153/04, [2006] ECHR 321, at [71], 4 April 2006).’

Citations:

41615/07, [2010] ECHR 1053, (2010) 28 BHRC 706, [2011] 1 FLR 122, [2011] 2 FCR 110, [2010] Fam Law 1273, (2012) 54 EHRR 31

Links:

Bailii

Statutes:

European Convention on Human Rights, Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction 1980

Jurisdiction:

Human Rights

Cited by:

Cited – ZH (Tanzania) v Secretary of State for The Home Department SC 1-Feb-2011
The respondent had arrived and claimed asylum. Three claims were rejected, two of which were fraudulent. She had two children by a UK citizen, and if deported the result would be (the father being unsuitable) that the children would have to return . .
Cited – ETK v News Group Newspapers Ltd CA 19-Apr-2011
The claimant appealed against refusal of an injunction to restrain the defendant newspaper from publishing his name in connection with a forthcoming article. The claimant had had an affair with a co-worker. Both were married. The relationship ended, . .
Cited – Re E (Children) (Abduction: Custody Appeal) SC 10-Jun-2011
Two children were born in Norway to a British mother (M) and Norwegian father (F). Having lived in Norway, M brought them to England to stay, but without F’s knowledge or consent. M replied to his application for their return that the children would . .
Cited – DT v LBT FD 7-Dec-2010
. .
Doubted – Re S (A Child) SC 14-Mar-2012
The mother appealed against an order confirmed by the Court of Appeal for the return of her child to Australia. The mother and father had cohabited in Sydney, before M returned with S without F’s consent or the permission of an Australian court. The . .
Cited – HH v Deputy Prosecutor of The Italian Republic, Genoa SC 20-Jun-2012
In each case the defendant sought to resist European Extradition Warrants saying that an order would be a disporportionate interference in their human right to family life. The Court asked whether its approach as set out in Norris, had to be amended . .
Cited – ANS and Another v ML SC 11-Jul-2012
The mother opposed adoption proceedings, and argued that the provision in the 2007 Act, allowing a court to dispense with her consent, infringed her rights under Article 8 and was therefore made outwith the powers of the Scottish Parliament.
Cited – Zoumbas v Secretary of State for The Home Department SC 27-Nov-2013
The appellant challenged a decision that he did not qualify for asylum or humanitarian protection and that his further representations were not a fresh human rights claim under paragraph 353 of the Immigration Rules. He argued that the return to the . .
Cited – SG and Others, Regina (on The Application of) v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions SC 18-Mar-2015
The court was asked whether it was lawful for the Secretary of State to make subordinate legislation imposing a cap on the amount of welfare benefits which can be received by claimants in non-working households, equivalent to the net median earnings . .
Cited – The Christian Institute and Others v The Lord Advocate SC 28-Jul-2016
(Scotland) By the 2014 Act, the Scottish Parliament had provided that each child should have a named person to monitor that child’s needs, with information about him or her shared as necessary. The Institute objected that the imposed obligation to . .
Cited – Makhlouf v Secretary of State for The Home Department SC 16-Nov-2016
(Northern Ireland) The appellant (born in Tunisia) was made subject to a deportation order. He had married a UK citizen and they had a child. After moving to the UK, at various times, the relationship broke down and he was convicted of several . .
Cited – MM (Lebanon) and Others, Regina (on The Applications of) v Secretary of State and Another SC 22-Feb-2017
Challenge to rules requiring certain minimum levels of income (Minimum Income Requirement – MIR) for allowing entry for non-EEA spouse.
Held: The challenges udder the Human Rights Act to the Rules themselves failed. Nor did any separate issue . .
Cited – DA and Others, Regina (on The Application of) v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions SC 15-May-2019
Several lone parents challenged the benefits cap, saying that it was discriminatory.
Held: (Hale, Kerr LL dissenting) The parents’ appeals failed. The legislation had a clear impact on lone parents and their children. The intention was to . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Human Rights, Children, International

Updated: 07 February 2022; Ref: scu.420469

ZH (Tanzania) v Secretary of State for The Home Department: SC 1 Feb 2011

The respondent had arrived and claimed asylum. Three claims were rejected, two of which were fraudulent. She had two children by a UK citizen, and if deported the result would be (the father being unsuitable) that the children would have to return with her.
Held: The mother’s appeal succeeded. The court had to consider the best interests of the children involved. The children were not merely British by any accident. Their nationality was real. Their right to live here was unqualified, they had lived all their lives here and had no social links with any other community. It was insufficient to say that they might adapt to a new society. Although nationality is not a ‘trump card’ it is of particular importance in assessing the best interests of any child. The UNCRC recognises the right of every child to be registered and acquire a nationality (Article 7) and to preserve her identity, including her nationality. In considering the proportionality of the removal, the best interests of the children involved were primary. Nevertheless, their interest as a primary consideration does not mean that it cannot be outweighed by other factors in the balance so that interference with their Article 8 rights is proportionate.
In any case involving a child it was important to discover the child’s own views.
Lord Kerr of Tonaghmore said: ‘It is a universal theme of the various international and domestic instruments to which Lady Hale has referred that, in reaching decisions that will affect a child, a primacy of importance must be accorded to his or her best interests. This is not, it is agreed, a factor of limitless importance in the sense that it will prevail over all considerations. It is a factor, however, that must rank higher than any other. It is not merely one consideration that weighs in the balance alongside other competing factors. Where the best interests of the child clearly favour a certain course, that course should be followed, unless countervailing reasons of considerable force displace them. It is not necessary to express this in terms of a presumption but the primacy of this consideration needs to be made clear in emphatic terms. What is determined to be in a child’s best interests should customarily dictate the outcome of cases such as the present, therefore, and it will require considerations of substantial moment to permit a different result.’

Judges:

Lord Hope, Deputy President, Lady Hale, Lord Brown, Lord Mance, Lord Kerr

Citations:

[2011] 1 FCR 221, [2011] 2 WLR 148, [2011] UKSC 4, UKSC 2010/0002, [2011] Fam Law 468, [2011] 2 AC 166

Links:

Bailii, Bailii Summary, SC, SC Summary

Statutes:

Immigration Act 1971 3(5) 3(6), United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child 1989 12, European Convention on Human Rights 8

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Appeal from – ZH (Tanzania) v Secretary of State for The Home Department CA 2009
The respondent sought an order returning the applicant to Tanzania, but she had children with British nationality, and the consequences of the order would be inevitably that they would have to go with her.
Held: The court criticised the . .
Cited – Abdulaziz etc v The United Kingdom ECHR 28-May-1985
Three women, all lawfully settled in the UK, had married third-country nationals but, at first, the Secretary of State had refused permission for their husbands to remain with them, or join them, in the UK.
Held: The refusals of permission had . .
Cited – Rodrigues Da Silva and Hoogkamer v The Netherlands ECHR 31-Jan-2006
A Brazilian mother came to the Netherlands in 1994 and set up home with a Dutch national but not applying for a residence permit. In 1996 they had a daughter who became a Dutch national. In 1997 they split up and the daughter remained with her . .
Cited – Boultif v Switzerland ECHR 2-Aug-2001
The applicant complained under Article 8 that the Swiss authorities had not renewed his residence permit, after which he had been separated from his wife, a Swiss citizen and who could not be expected to follow him to Algeria. Switzerland argued . .
Cited – Minister of State for Immigration and Ethnic Affairs v Ah Hin Teoh 7-Apr-1995
Austlii (High Court of Australia) International Law – Treaties – Convention ratified by Australia but not implemented by statute – Status in domestic law – Whether giving rise to legitimate expectations.
Cited – Wan v Minister for Immigration and Multi-cultural Affairs 18-May-2001
(Federal Court of Australia) The law required the Tribunal, in determining whether to confirm the refusal to grant a visa to Mr Wan, to treat the best interests of any child affected by its decision as a primary consideration: ‘[The Tribunal] was . .
Cited – Neulinger And Shuruk v Switzerland ECHR 6-Jul-2010
(Grand Chamber) The Swiss Court had rejected the claimant mother’s claim, under article 13b of the Hague Convention, that there was a grave risk that returning the child to Israel would lead to physical or psychological harm or otherwise place him . .
Cited – EM (Lebanon) v Secretary of State for the Home Department HL 22-Oct-2008
The claimant challenged the respondent’s decision to order the return of herself and her son to Lebanon.
Held: The test for whether a claimant’s rights would be infringed to such an extent as to prevent their return home was a strict one, but . .
Cited – Beoku Betts v Secretary of State for the Home Department HL 25-Jun-2008
The appellant had arrived from Sierra Leone and obtained student permits. When they expired he sought asylum, citing his family’s persecution after a coup, and that fact that other members of his family now had indefinite leave, and he said that an . .
Cited – EB (Kosovo) v Secretary of State for the Home Department HL 25-Jun-2008
The claimant arrived as a child from Kosovo in 1999. He said that the decision after so long, it would breach his human rights now to order his return.
Held: The adjudicator had failed to address the effect of delay. That was a relevant . .
Cited – Edore v The Secretary of State for the Home Department CA 23-May-2003
The applicant challenged the decision of the Immigration Appeal Tribunal which had reversed a decision of an adjudicator and restored the Secretary of state’s decision to deport her.
Held: The adjudicator’s decision was acknowledged to be . .
Cited – Maslov v Austria ECHR 23-Jun-2008
(Grand Chamber) The applicant came lawfully to Austria when 6. He committed a large number of offences when he was 14 and 15, and had been sentenced to imprisonment. He complained of a later decision to deport him.
Held: The court said: ‘ The . .

Cited by:

Cited – ETK v News Group Newspapers Ltd CA 19-Apr-2011
The claimant appealed against refusal of an injunction to restrain the defendant newspaper from publishing his name in connection with a forthcoming article. The claimant had had an affair with a co-worker. Both were married. The relationship ended, . .
Cited – E and Others, Regina (on The Application of) v The Director of Public Prosecutions Admn 10-Jun-2011
Judicial review was sought of a decision by the respondent to prosecute a child for her alleged sexual abuse of her younger sisters. Agencies other than the police and CPS considered that a prosecution would harm both the applicant and her sisters. . .
Cited – Re E (Children) (Abduction: Custody Appeal) SC 10-Jun-2011
Two children were born in Norway to a British mother (M) and Norwegian father (F). Having lived in Norway, M brought them to England to stay, but without F’s knowledge or consent. M replied to his application for their return that the children would . .
Cited – Broxbourne Borough Council v Robb and Others QBD 27-Jun-2011
The Council applied for the committal of the defendant for an alleged breach of a without notice injunction. Notice of the injunction had been placed at the site, requiring nobody to move caravans onto the land.
Held: The application . .
Cited – A v P (Surrogacy: Parental Order: Death of Applicant) FD 8-Jul-2011
M applied for a parental order under the 2008 Act. The child had been born through a surrogacy arrangement in India, which was lawful there, but would have been unlawful here. The clinic could not guarantee a biological relationship with the child. . .
Cited – Castle and Others v Commissioner of Police for The Metropolis Admn 8-Sep-2011
The claimants, all under 17 years old, took a peaceful part in a substantial but disorderly demonstration in London. The police decided to contain the section of crowd which included the claimants. The claimants said that the containment of children . .
Cited – E-A (Article 8 – Best Interests of Child) Nigeria UTIAC 22-Jul-2011
UTIAC (i) The correct starting point in considering the welfare and best interests of a young child would be that it is in the best interests of a child to live with and be brought up by his or her parents, . .
Cited – Quila and Another, Regina (on The Application of) v Secretary of State for The Home Department SC 12-Oct-2011
Parties challenged the rule allowing the respondent to deny the right to enter or remain here to non EU citizens marrying a person settled and present here where either party was under the age of 21. The aim of the rule was to deter forced . .
Cited – HH v Deputy Prosecutor of The Italian Republic, Genoa SC 20-Jun-2012
In each case the defendant sought to resist European Extradition Warrants saying that an order would be a disporportionate interference in their human right to family life. The Court asked whether its approach as set out in Norris, had to be amended . .
Cited – BH and Another v The Lord Advocate and Another SC 20-Jun-2012
The appellants wished to resist their extradition to the US to face criminal charges for drugs. As a married couple that said that the extraditions would interfere with their children’s rights to family life.
Held: The appeals against . .
Cited – AAA v Associated Newspapers Ltd CA 20-May-2013
An order had been sought for the claimant child for damages after publication by the defendant of details of her identity and that of her politician father. She now appealed against refusal of her claim for damages for publication of private . .
Cited – A, Regina (on The Application of) v Lowestoft Magistrates’ Court Admn 26-Mar-2013
A had pleaded guilty to a charge of being drunk in a public place, while having the charge of a child under the age of 7 years, contrary to section 2(1) of the Licensing Act 1902. The child in question was A’s daughter, to whom I shall refer as B. B . .
Cited – Zoumbas v Secretary of State for The Home Department SC 27-Nov-2013
The appellant challenged a decision that he did not qualify for asylum or humanitarian protection and that his further representations were not a fresh human rights claim under paragraph 353 of the Immigration Rules. He argued that the return to the . .
Cited – AA v Entry Clearance Officer (Addis Ababa) SC 18-Dec-2013
The appellant child, AA sought entry as the de facto adopted child of his sponsor who had previously been given refugee status. The sponsor had taken parental responsibility of AA under the Islamic Kafala procedure. AA had been admitted under human . .
Cited – SG and Others, Regina (on The Application of) v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions SC 18-Mar-2015
The court was asked whether it was lawful for the Secretary of State to make subordinate legislation imposing a cap on the amount of welfare benefits which can be received by claimants in non-working households, equivalent to the net median earnings . .
Cited – Nzolameso v City of Westminster SC 2-Apr-2015
The court was asked ‘When is it lawful for a local housing authority to accommodate a homeless person a long way away from the authority’s own area where the homeless person was previously living? ‘ The claimant said that on applying for housing she . .
Cited – OPO v MLA and Another QBD 18-Jul-2014
A boy now sought an interim injunction to restrain his father, the defendant classical musician, from publishing his autobiography which mentioned him. The book would say that the father had suffered sexual abuse as a child at school.
Held: . .
Cited – OPO v MLA and Another QBD 18-Jul-2014
A boy now sought an interim injunction to restrain his father, the defendant classical musician, from publishing his autobiography which mentioned him. The book would say that the father had suffered sexual abuse as a child at school.
Held: . .
Cited – OPO v MLA and Another QBD 18-Jul-2014
A boy now sought an interim injunction to restrain his father, the defendant classical musician, from publishing his autobiography which mentioned him. The book would say that the father had suffered sexual abuse as a child at school.
Held: . .
Cited – Ali and Bibi, Regina (on The Applications of) v Secretary of State for The Home Department SC 18-Nov-2015
At the claimants alleged that the rules requiring a foreign spouse or partner of a British citizen or a person settled in this country to pass a test of competence in the English language before coming to live here were an unjustifiable interference . .
Cited – Makhlouf v Secretary of State for The Home Department SC 16-Nov-2016
(Northern Ireland) The appellant (born in Tunisia) was made subject to a deportation order. He had married a UK citizen and they had a child. After moving to the UK, at various times, the relationship broke down and he was convicted of several . .
Cited – Her Majesty’s Attorney General v Akhter and Another CA 14-Feb-2020
Islamic Nikah Ceremony did not create a marriage
The parties had undertaken, in 1998, an Islamic marriage ceremony, a Nikah. They both knew at the time that to be effective in UK law, there would need to be a civil ceremony, and intended but did not achieve one. The parties having settled their . .
Cited – Re Al M (Children) CA 28-Feb-2020
Publication of Children judgment – wide publicity
F brought wardship proceedings in respect of M and F’s two children, seeking their return to Dubai. F was the Ruler of the Emirate of Dubai. Media companies now sought publication of earlier judgments, and F appealed from an order for their . .
Cited – McLaughlin, Re Judicial Review SC 30-Aug-2018
The applicant a differently sexed couple sought to marry under the Civil Partnership Act 2004, but complained that they would lose the benefits of widowed parent’s allowance. Parliament had decided to delay such rules to allow assessment of reaction . .
Cited – DA and Others, Regina (on The Application of) v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions SC 15-May-2019
Several lone parents challenged the benefits cap, saying that it was discriminatory.
Held: (Hale, Kerr LL dissenting) The parents’ appeals failed. The legislation had a clear impact on lone parents and their children. The intention was to . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Immigration, Children, Human Rights

Leading Case

Updated: 07 February 2022; Ref: scu.428361

AL (Serbia) v Secretary of State for the Home Department; Rudi v Same: HL 25 Jun 2008

Each claimant had arrived here with their parents, and stayed for several years. They were excluded from the scheme allowing families who had been here more than three years to stay here, because they had attained 18 and were no longer dependant on their families. They said the removals would be discriminatory.
Held: To justify a discrimination the court had to find ‘very weighty reasons.’ It was the discriminatory effect of the measure which must be justified, not the measure itself. The practical difficulties of removing such as the applicants were less. Though the discrimination would create hard cases on compassionate grounds, any such line might also give rise to claims on compassionate grounds. Being parentless is an ‘other status’ under article 14. On balance the policy was justified, and there was no violation of Article 14.
‘In general, the list concentrates on personal characteristics which the complainant did not choose and either cannot or should not be expected to change. The Carson case is therefore unusual, because it concerned discrimination on the ground of habitual residence, which is a matter of personal choice and can be changed.’
Baroness Hale asked: ‘What difference does it make that the complaint is that the policy discriminates, not between children, but between young adults? On the one hand, the special care and protection which all children both need and deserve is in general no longer needed once they have grown up. On the other hand, the status which differentiates them, that of being without parents or family, remains with them for life (or until their parents can be found), just as does the status of being illegitimate or adopted. But it is not one which has so far been recognised as requiring particularly weighty reasons if a difference in treatment is to be justified. ‘
Lord Brown said: ‘it seems to me quite simply contrived and unreal to regard this policy as a violation of article 14 or of the common law principle of non-discrimination, either on grounds of disproportionality or for want of justification. Its plain intent was to improve the system of immigration control by releasing from it an easily identifiable group of people (of all nationalities, both sexes and various ages) who were causing it particular problems, essentially families with children. The policy was called the ‘family amnesty’ policy and was clearly introduced rather for the benefit of the Home Office than for those whom it enabled to remain. Necessarily bright lines had to be drawn: the concession only availed the relevant family if the parent of the dependent child[ren] had applied for asylum before 2 October 2000 and dates were also specified (later extended) for when the dependency had to exist. ‘

Judges:

Lord Bingham of Cornhill, Lord Hope of Craighead, Lord Scott of Foscote, Baroness Hale of Richmond, Lord Brown of Eaton-under-Heywood

Citations:

[2008] UKHL 42, [2008] 1 WLR 1434, Times 02-Jul-2008, [2008] HRLR 41, [2008] INLR 471, [2008] Imm AR 729, [2008] 4 All ER 1127, 24 BHRC 738, [2008] UKHRR 917

Links:

Bailii, HL

Statutes:

European Convention on Human Rights 14

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Appeal from – AL (Serbia) v Secretary of State for the Home Department CA 28-Nov-2006
. .
Appeal from – Rudi, Regina (on the Application of) v Secretary of State for the Home Department CA 14-Dec-2007
Carnwath LJ said of the ‘near-miss’ argument: ‘This argument is, in my view, based on a misconception. The Secretary of State is of course entitled to have a policy. The promulgation of the policy normally creates a legitimate expectation that it . .
Cited – Kjeldsen, Busk, Madsen and Peddersen v Denmark ECHR 7-Dec-1976
The claimants challenged the provision of compulsory sex education in state primary schools.
Held: The parents’ philosophical and religious objections to sex education in state schools was rejected on the ground that they could send their . .
Cited – Relating to certain aspects of the laws on the use of languages in education in Belgium (Belgian Linguistics) No 2 ECHR 9-Feb-1967
The applicants, parents of more than 800 Francophone children, living in certain (mostly Dutch-speaking) parts of Belgium, complained that their children were denied access to an education in French.
Held: In establishing a system or regime to . .
Cited – EB (Kosovo) v Secretary of State for the Home Department HL 25-Jun-2008
The claimant arrived as a child from Kosovo in 1999. He said that the decision after so long, it would breach his human rights now to order his return.
Held: The adjudicator had failed to address the effect of delay. That was a relevant . .
Cited – Abdulaziz etc v The United Kingdom ECHR 28-May-1985
Three women, all lawfully settled in the UK, had married third-country nationals but, at first, the Secretary of State had refused permission for their husbands to remain with them, or join them, in the UK.
Held: The refusals of permission had . .
Cited – Ghaidan v Godin-Mendoza HL 21-Jun-2004
Same Sex Partner Entitled to tenancy Succession
The protected tenant had died. His same-sex partner sought a statutory inheritance of the tenancy.
Held: His appeal succeeded. The Fitzpatrick case referred to the position before the 1998 Act: ‘Discriminatory law undermines the rule of law . .
Cited – S, Regina (on Application of) v South Yorkshire Police; Regina v Chief Constable of Yorkshire Police ex parte Marper HL 22-Jul-2004
Police Retention of Suspects DNA and Fingerprints
The claimants complained that their fingerprints and DNA records taken on arrest had been retained after discharge before trial, saying the retention of the samples infringed their right to private life.
Held: The parts of DNA used for testing . .
Cited – Carson, Regina (on the Application of) v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions; Reynolds v Same HL 26-May-2005
One claimant said that as a foreign resident pensioner, she had been excluded from the annual uprating of state retirement pension, and that this was an infringement of her human rights. Another complained at the lower levels of job-seeker’s . .
Cited – Stec and Others v United Kingdom ECHR 12-Apr-2006
(Grand Chamber) The claimants said that differences between the sexes in the payment of reduced earning allowances and retirement allowances were sex discrimination.
Held: The differences were not infringing sex discrimination. The differences . .
Cited – Secretary of State for Work and Pensions v M HL 8-Mar-2006
The respondent’s child lived with the estranged father for most of each week. She was obliged to contribute child support. She now lived with a woman, and complained that because her relationship was homosexual, she had been asked to pay more than . .
Cited – Burden and Burden v The United Kingdom ECHR 11-Sep-2007
The claimants were sisters who had lived together all their lives. They complained of discrimination in their treatment under the Inheritance Tax system as opposed to the treatment of a same sex couple living in a sexual relationship. . .
Cited – Clift, Regina (on the Application of) v Secretary of State for the Home Department HL 13-Dec-2006
The claimants were former serving prisoners who complained that the early release provisions discriminated against them unjustifiably. Each was subject to a deportation requirement, and said that in their cases the control on the time for their . .
At First instance – Rudi and Another v Secretary of State for the Home Department Admn 26-Jan-2007
. .
Cited – Matadeen and others v M G C Pointu and others (Mauritius) PC 18-Feb-1998
It is a well recognised canon of construction that domestic legislation, including the Constitution, should if possible be construed so as to conform to international instruments to which the state is party. Lord Hoffmann said: ‘of course persons . .

Cited by:

Cited – RJM, Regina (on the Application of) v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions HL 22-Oct-2008
The 1987 Regulations provided additional benefits for disabled persons, but excluded from benefit those who had nowhere to sleep. The claimant said this was irrational. He had been receiving the disability premium to his benefits, but this was . .
Cited – Mathieson v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions SC 8-Jul-2015
The claimant a boy of three in receipt of disability living allowance (‘DLA’) challenged (through his parents) the withdrawal of that benefit whilst he was in hospital for a period of more than 12 weeks. He had since died.
Held: The appeal . .
Cited – Steinfeld and Keidan, Regina (on The Application of) v Secretary of State for International Development (In Substitution for The Home Secretary and The Education Secretary) SC 27-Jun-2018
The applicants, an heterosexual couple wished to enter into a civil partnership under the 2004 Act, rather than a marriage. They complained that had they been a same sex couple they would have had that choice under the 2013 Act.
Held: The . .
Cited – McLaughlin, Re Judicial Review SC 30-Aug-2018
The applicant a differently sexed couple sought to marry under the Civil Partnership Act 2004, but complained that they would lose the benefits of widowed parent’s allowance. Parliament had decided to delay such rules to allow assessment of reaction . .
Cited – McLaughlin, Re Judicial Review SC 30-Aug-2018
The applicant a differently sexed couple sought to marry under the Civil Partnership Act 2004, but complained that they would lose the benefits of widowed parent’s allowance. Parliament had decided to delay such rules to allow assessment of reaction . .
Cited – Stott, Regina (on The Application of) v Secretary of State for Justice SC 28-Nov-2018
Extended Determinate Sentence created Other Status
The prisoner was subject to an extended determinate sentence (21 years plus 4) for 10 offences of rape. He complained that as such he would only be eligible for parole after serving two thirds of his sentence rather than one third, and said that . .
Cited – DA and Others, Regina (on The Application of) v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions SC 15-May-2019
Several lone parents challenged the benefits cap, saying that it was discriminatory.
Held: (Hale, Kerr LL dissenting) The parents’ appeals failed. The legislation had a clear impact on lone parents and their children. The intention was to . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Immigration, Human Rights, Children

Updated: 07 February 2022; Ref: scu.270382

DH v Czech Republic: ECHR 13 Nov 2007

(Grand Chamber) The applicants complained that their children had been moved to special schools which did not reflect their needs from ordinary schools without them being consulted.
Held: The Court noted that, at the relevant time, the majority of children in special schools in the Czech Republic were of Roma origin. Roma children of average/above average intellect were often placed in those schools on the basis of psychological tests which were not adapted to people of their ethnic origin. The Court concluded that the law at that time had a disproportionately prejudicial effect on Roma children, in violation of Article 14 and Article 2 of Protocol No. 1. However, new legislation had abolished the special schools and required ordinary schools to provide both for children with special educational needs and socially disadvantaged children.
‘in Chapman . . the court also observed that there could be said to be an emerging international consensus amongst the contracting states of the Council of Europe recognising the special needs of minorities and an obligation to protect their security, identity and lifestyle, not only for the purpose of safeguarding the interests of the minorities themselves but to preserve a cultural diversity of value to the whole community’ and ‘Where it has been shown that legislation produces such a discriminatory effect . . it is not necessary . . to prove any discriminatory intent on the part of the relevant authorities’.
In an appropriate case statistics may be relied on to establish that an applicant is a member of a group which has been treated differently in practice from others in a comparable situation in a way which is disproportionately prejudicial to members of that group, and thereby shift the onus to the public body concerned to provide evidence of an objective and reasonable justification for the difference.

Judges:

Sir Nicolas Bratza, P

Citations:

57325/00, [2007] ECHR 922, [2008] ELR 17, 23 BHRC 526, (2008) 47 EHRR 3

Links:

Bailii

Statutes:

European Convention on Human Rights

Jurisdiction:

Human Rights

Citing:

Appeal from – DH v Czech Repiublic ECHR 7-Feb-2006
The claimants, 18 Roma children complained, saying that they had automatically been placed in schools for children with special needs by virtue of their racial origin. . .

Cited by:

Cited – The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints v United Kingdom ECHR 4-Mar-2014
latterdayECHR0314
The claimant said that it had been wrongfully deprived of relief from business rates for its two temples. It asserted that it was a religion, and that the treatment was discriminatory. The government said that the refusal was on the basis alone that . .
Cited – SG and Others, Regina (on The Application of) v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions SC 18-Mar-2015
The court was asked whether it was lawful for the Secretary of State to make subordinate legislation imposing a cap on the amount of welfare benefits which can be received by claimants in non-working households, equivalent to the net median earnings . .
Cited – O’Connor v Bar Standards Board SC 6-Dec-2017
The claimant barrister complained of the manner of conduct of the disciplinary proceedings brought against her. She had been cleared of any breach of the Bar Code of Conduct, but her claim was then ruled out of time under section 7(5)(a), time . .
Cited – DA and Others, Regina (on The Application of) v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions SC 15-May-2019
Several lone parents challenged the benefits cap, saying that it was discriminatory.
Held: (Hale, Kerr LL dissenting) The parents’ appeals failed. The legislation had a clear impact on lone parents and their children. The intention was to . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Children, Human Rights, Education

Leading Case

Updated: 07 February 2022; Ref: scu.511022

W v United Kingdom: ECHR 1987

A local authority must, in reaching decisions on children in care, take account of the views and interests of the natural parents, which called for a degree of protection. In the context of care proceedings, public authorities may not be required to follow inflexible procedures.

Citations:

(1987) 10 EHRR 29

Jurisdiction:

Human Rights

Cited by:

Cited – JD v East Berkshire Community Health NHS Trust and others HL 21-Apr-2005
Parents of children had falsely and negligently been accused of abusing their children. The children sought damages for negligence against the doctors or social workers who had made the statements supporting the actions taken. The House was asked if . .
Cited – TB, Regina (on the Application of) v The Combined Court at Stafford Admn 4-Jul-2006
The claimant was the child complainant in an allegation of sexual assault. The defendant requested her medical records, and she now complained that she had been unfairly pressured into releasing them.
Held: The confidentiality of a patient’s . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Human Rights, Children, Local Government

Updated: 07 February 2022; Ref: scu.224410

In re H (Children): CA 11 Oct 2002

Application by a grandmother for permission to appeal against an order that her application for contact to her grandchildren, a grandson, a granddaughter and a younger grandson, was refused.

Judges:

Mr Justice Bodey

Citations:

[2002] EWCA Civ 1507

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Children

Updated: 07 February 2022; Ref: scu.217676

B and D v R: FD 22 Feb 2002

The parties were unmarried but entered into IVF treatment together. They separated, but the mother continued with treatment, not telling the IVF center of the breakdown of the first relationship, and nor of her new relationship until after the successful insemination. The father sought a declaration of paternity.
Held: The court had jurisdiction under the Act: ‘that treatment services were originally provided to the parties together. No one in this case really sought strenuously to argue to the contrary.’ The court emphasised the need for clarity and certainty on an issue which might attain practical importance only after the lapse of many years. If a male partner changed his mind about treatment services he could withdraw his acknowledgment, and a clinic, if informed of a change of circumstances, should reconsider the position. But in the absence of the partner expressly withdrawing his acknowledgment or a review by the clinic: ‘then in my judgment the original course of treatment continues as treatment services provided to both of them together and, if a child is conceived in the course of that, the man will be the father. This approach affords clarity, simplicity and certainty.’

Judges:

Hedley J

Citations:

[2002] 2 FLR 843

Statutes:

Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990 28(3)

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Appeal from – In re R (Parental responsibility: IVF baby) CA 19-Feb-2003
The mother and father of the child were not married, but had consented to the terms of their infertility treatment. The father donated his sperm, but the mother was only inseminated after they had separated. The mother appealed a declaration of . .
Appeal from (second level) – In Re R (Parental responsibility: IVF baby); D (A Child), Re HL 12-May-2005
The parents had received IVF treatment together, but had separated before the child was born. The mother resisted an application by the father for a declaration of paternity.
Held: The father’s appeal failed. The Act made statutory provision . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Children

Updated: 07 February 2022; Ref: scu.224871

Re A (Children): FD 25 Sep 2019

Judgment given at the conclusion of a fact-finding hearing within wardship proceedings

Judges:

The Rt Hon Sir Andrew Mcfarlane
President of the Family Division

Citations:

[2019] EWHC 2334 (Fam)

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Children

Updated: 07 February 2022; Ref: scu.648663

Re L (Return Order): FD 13 Oct 2021

Application for an order for the summary return of L to Country K. That country is not a signatory to the Hague Convention 1980 and so the application falls to be determined having regard to the best interests of the child.

Judges:

Mr Justice Poole

Citations:

[2021] EWHC 2737 (Fam)

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Children

Updated: 07 February 2022; Ref: scu.669914

LA v SB and Others: CA 12 Jul 2010

The local authority had applied for a care order under the court’s inherent wardship jurisdiction in connection with a family where three children suffered a potentially life threatening disease, Rasmussens’s encephalitis. The parents were said to be not co-operating with the medical team. The authority now sought permission to withdraw its application.
Held: The application was approved. Wall LJ took the opportunity to revisit the guidelines in re T.
It was important to note that in this case there was no lis between the parents and their medical team: this was an application by the local authority, and ‘the Children Act 1989 . . has placed a sharp and clear division between the functions of courts and local authorities. It is properly within the court’s province to decide whether or not MB and his siblings should be the subject of care orders: it is plainly not the court’s function to decide issues which are the responsibility of others or outside the ambit of its proper role. The court cannot control the activities of social services or any other of the departments of local authorities, nor should it attempt to do so. Not only is the issue of surgery for MB not before me, therefore, but as presently constituted it is not an issue for the court.’

Judges:

Sir Nicolas Wall P FD

Citations:

[2010] EWCA Civ 1744

Links:

Bailii

Statutes:

Children Act 1989 100

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Cited – Re O (A minor) (Medical Treatment) FD 12-Apr-1993
The local authority applied for a care order in relation to the child, on the ground that there was an urgent and continuing need for medical treatment which included blood transfusions. The court considered the legal effect of a parent’s belief (as . .
Cited – Camden London Borough Council v R (A Minor) (Blood Transfusion); in Re R (A Minor)(Blood Transfusion) FD 8-Jun-1993
Child A’s doctors considered that she would need treatment over the following two years and that this could involve the need for blood transfusions at any time. The parents were Jehovah’s Witnesses and refused consent.
Held: The order allowing . .
Approved – In Re T (A Minor) (Wardship: Medical Treatment) CA 24-Oct-1996
A baby boy who was 18 months old, suffered from a life-threatening liver defect. His parents were health-care professionals experienced in the care of sick children. The unanimous medical view was that as soon as donor liver became available the . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Children, Health, Local Government

Updated: 06 February 2022; Ref: scu.420686

M (Children : Habitual Residence : 1980 Hague Child Abduction Convention): CA 25 Aug 2020

F sought the return of his children to Germany. They had lived there, but brought to the UK by M with F’s consent. She stayed for a year, and the court now considered where was their habitual residence. The judge considered that they had not lost their habitual residence in Germany. M appealed.
Held: M’s appeal succeeded.

Judges:

Moylan, Simler LJJ, Sir Stephen Richards

Citations:

[2020] EWCA Civ 1105, [2020] WLR(D) 481

Links:

Bailii, WLRD

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Cited – Re B (A Child) SC 3-Feb-2016
Habitual Residence of Child not lost
(Orse In re B (A Child) (Reunite International Child Abduction Centre intervening)) The Court considered the notion of habitual residence. The British girl with same sex parents had been taken to Pakistan, and her mother here sought her return. The . .
Cited – A v A and another (Children) (Children: Habitual Residence) (Reunite International Child Abduction Centre intervening) SC 9-Sep-2013
Acquisition of Habitual Residence
Habitual residence can in principle be lost and another habitual residence acquired on the same day.
Held: The provisions giving the courts of a member state jurisdiction also apply where there is an alternative jurisdiction in a non-member . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Children

Updated: 06 February 2022; Ref: scu.653362

LS v AS: FD 17 Jan 2014

Father’s application for summary return of three children to Hungary, pursuant to the Articles of the Hague Convention.

Judges:

The Honourable Mr Justice Hayden

Citations:

[2014] EWHC 1626 (Fam)

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Children

Updated: 05 February 2022; Ref: scu.525846

Z v Y: FD 9 Aug 2019

Application made by mother for a specific issue order that A undergo brain surgery to alleviate epileptic seizures.

Judges:

The Honourable Mrs Justice Gwynneth Knowles

Citations:

[2019] EWHC 2255 (Fam)

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Children, Health

Updated: 05 February 2022; Ref: scu.648661

Re X and Y (Children: Disclosure of Judgment To Police): FD 12 Feb 2014

‘The issue arising in this judgment is whether I should restrain the local authority from disclosing to the police transcripts of two earlier judgments I have delivered in the long-running care proceedings concerning two children, ‘X’ and ‘Y’.’

Judges:

The Honourable Mr Justice Baker

Citations:

[2014] EWHC 278 (Fam)

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Children

Updated: 04 February 2022; Ref: scu.522557

M v M (Breaches of orders: Committal): CA 28 Jul 2005

The mother sought to appeal refusal of a judge to commit the father for contempt in not complying many times with court orders related to residence and contact.
Held: Leave was required for such an appeal. The rules distinguished between an appeal against a committal where leave was not required, and against any other order made in the discretion of the judge in contempt proceedings where leave was required.

Judges:

Ward LJ, Clarke LJ, Neuberger LJ

Citations:

Times 24-Aug-2005

Statutes:

Civil Procedure Rules 52.3(1)

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Cited – London Borough of Barnet v Hurst CA 17-Jul-2002
The applicant had been sentenced to nine months imprisonment for having broken his undertaking to the Court. He appealed against that sentence. The other party also sought to appeal other parts of the order.
Held: An appeal limited to the . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Children, Contempt of Court, Litigation Practice

Updated: 03 February 2022; Ref: scu.229999

S v S (Child abduction) (Child’s views): 1992

Where a parent objects to the child being returned under the Act to a home country on the basis of the child’s objections, if the objections result solely from a desire to remain with the abducting parent, who in turn does not wish to return, then little or no weight should be attached to the child’s objection.

Citations:

[1992] 2 FLR 492

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – AF v M B-F FD 22-Feb-2008
The father sought the return of the two children to Poland after they had been brought to England by the mother. She said that she had come to seek work as a dentist, and had been unable to support the family in Poland. She said that her Polish . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Children, International

Updated: 03 February 2022; Ref: scu.265915

SA, Regina (on The Application of) v Kent County Council: CA 10 Nov 2011

Allocation of financial responsibility for a child taken into care: ‘whether the claimant, A, is a child being looked after the local authority as that phrase is defined in section 22 of the Act. In the more precise terms posed by the local authority in its skeleton argument, it is ‘whether, as a matter of law, a child who is not the subject of an interim care order can be a looked after child where she goes to live with a relative in circumstances where the local authority is involved in setting up and funding the arrangement.’ If A is ‘a looked after child’, she (or her maternal grandmother with whom she is placed) would be entitled to a fostering allowance of pounds 146 per week. The local authority contend that they are acting lawfully in paying her (or her grandmother) a kinship allowance of only pounds 63 per week pursuant to section 17 of the Act on the basis that she is living with her grandmother under a private family arrangement.’

Judges:

Ward, Rimer LJJ, Sir Stephen Sedley

Citations:

[2011] EWCA Civ 1303, [2012] 1 FCR 355, [2012] 1 FLR 628, [2012] Fam Law 26, [2012] PTSR 912

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Children, Local Government

Updated: 03 February 2022; Ref: scu.448301

M v M (Abduction: England and Scotland): CA 1997

A couple went to live in Scotland with their children. The father was Scottish: the mother English. The mother left the family home and took the children to England without the father’s knowledge, and obtained an ex-parte residence order and a prohibited steps order to prevent the father from removing the children. She also issued a divorce petition. The Circuit Judge in England made an ex-parte injunction restraining the father from instituting proceedings in Scotland. The judge decided that England was the appropriate jurisdiction for the divorce proceedings. The father appealed.
Held: The court allowed his appeal. The judge had been wrong to decide either that the children had no habitual residence or that they were habitually resident in England. The grant of an injunction was inconsistent with the legislative framework provided by the 1973 Act. Undeer Schedule 1, paragraph 8(1), if a petition was presented in that part of the United Kingdom where parties were habitually resident when they last lived together, then any earlier petition presented in a different part of the United Kingdom by the other party to the marriage had to be stayed in favour of the petition presented in the place where the parties were habitually resident. Parliament not only permitted the father to present his petition in Scotland, but expressly provided that if he did so, the mother’s English proceedings should be stayed, and the English court should thereafter have no jurisdiction to make an order under Section 8 of the Children Act 1989 unless it was necessary to do so in order to deal with urgent matters.

Judges:

Butler-Sloss LJ

Citations:

[1997] 2 FLR 263

Statutes:

Domicile and Matrimonial Proceedings Act 1973

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – B v B (Residence: Imposition of conditions) CA 28-May-2004
The court was asked whether it had jurisdiction to hear applications with regard to a child removed from Scotland. The father lived in Scotland, and the mother and child in England. The child had been habitually resident in Scotland and removed to . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Children, Jurisdiction, Scotland

Updated: 03 February 2022; Ref: scu.197889

WX v YZ and Another: FD 29 Jun 2020

Final hearing of the mother’s application for K’s summary return to Poland pursuant to the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of Child Abduction or, alternatively, pursuant to the inherent jurisdiction. The mother’s application was issued just over four years after the father wrongfully removed K from her mother’s care in Poland, where she was habitually resident, using an Algerian passport for her which he had acquired covertly.

Judges:

Mrs Justice Gwynneth Knowles

Citations:

[2020] EWHC 1782 (Fam)

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Children

Updated: 03 February 2022; Ref: scu.655264

SX (A Child): FD 1 Jun 2020

Fact finding hearing in care proceedings relating to SX, a four year old boy who is presently in foster care under an Interim Care Order. Proceedings were issued following the unexplained death of SX’s younger sister, AX, in April 2019 aged two months. At post mortem it was discovered that AX had suffered multiple unexplained fractures.

Judges:

Mrs Justice Lieven

Citations:

[2020] EWHC 1573 (Fam)

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Children

Updated: 03 February 2022; Ref: scu.655263

SH (A Child): FD 11 Jun 2020

mother’s application for an extension of time to appeal, and for permission to appeal, against an order – child arrangements order for a young person

Judges:

Williams J

Citations:

[2020] EWHC 1510 (Fam)

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Children

Updated: 03 February 2022; Ref: scu.655261

JK v LM: FD 17 Jun 2020

Mother’s application for the summary return of the three children from Wales, where they live with the Respondent father, to the Republic of Ireland. The father opposes the application.

Judges:

Nigel Poole QC, Sitting as a Deputy High Court Judge

Citations:

[2020] EWHC 1566 (Fam)

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Children

Updated: 03 February 2022; Ref: scu.655260

AL v SM: FD 4 Jun 2020

Application by AL, the father, for the summary return under Brussels II R and the Hague Convention of NG, aged four, to Slovakia.

Judges:

Mrs Justice Lieven

Citations:

[2020] EWHC 2479 (Fam)

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Children

Updated: 03 February 2022; Ref: scu.655256

A (A Child : Surrogacy: S54 Criteria): FD 18 Jun 2020

Proceedings concerned with one child A who is 3 years of age. His biological mother is M, the First Applicant, and his biological father is F, the Second Applicant.
A was born as a result of a surrogacy agreement in which his mother’s and father’s gametes were used. The surrogate mother is SM, the First Respondent.
Shortly after A’s birth the mother made an application for him to be made a ward of court. HHJ George confirmed the wardship, granted care and control of A to the mother and made an order preventing the father from removing A from his mother’s care.
The mother made an application for a parental order as a single parent: the surrogate mother and the father were respondents to this application. This was before the amendment of the 2008 Act to permit applications by a single applicant and, therefore the application was stayed. After the provisions of s.54A of the 2008 Act came into effect the stay was lifted.

Judges:

The Hon Mr Justice Keehan

Citations:

[2020] EWHC 1426 (Fam)

Links:

Bailii

Statutes:

Human Embryology and Fertilisation Act 2008

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Children

Updated: 03 February 2022; Ref: scu.655254

Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust v AB and Another: FD 16 Jun 2020

Urgent application brought pursuant to the inherent jurisdiction, concerning Z, an infant of 8 weeks of age. The application by the Trust is for a declaration that it is in his best interests to discontinue intensive care and to commence palliative care. This decision is predicated on their conclusion that intensive care is now futile and there are no other procedures or treatments available. Moreover, it is considered that intensive care treatment is now placing an unbearable burden on Z.

Judges:

Mr Justice Hayden

Citations:

[2020] EWHC 1606 (Fam)

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Children, Health

Updated: 03 February 2022; Ref: scu.655262