‘In a report published today, the Law Commission is recommending reforms to the law governing rights to light that will strike a balance between the interests of landowners and the law’s recognition of the need for appropriate development.’
Law Commission, 4th December 2014
Source: www.lawcommission.justice.gov.uk
‘European Court of Justice rules accepting video evidence in asylum cases that hinge on sexuality is a breach of human rights.’
Daily Telegraph, 2nd December 2014
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
‘Back to Aarhus and the constant problem we have in the UK making sure that the cost of planning and environmental litigation is not prohibitively expensive.’
UK Human Rights Blog, 1st December 2014
Source: www.ukhumanrightsblog.com
‘Libyan Rendition, Human Rights Week 2014 and the Naked Rambler – Human Rights Roundup.’
UK Human Rights Blog, 1st December 2014
Source: www.ukhumanrightsblog.com
‘The lack of any effective check or court oversight of the home secretary’s new powers to impose temporary exclusion orders for up to two years on British citizens returning from Iraq or Syria has been strongly criticised by the official counter-terror law watchdog.’
The Guardian, 26th November 2014
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
Iraqi Civilians v Ministry of Defence [2014] EWHC 3686 (QB); [2014] WLR (D) 496
‘The legal effect of UN Security Council Resolutions 1483 of 22 May 2003 and 1511 of 16 October 2003 was that they imposed a duty on the United Kingdom in its role as an occupying power in Iraq to detain individuals where to do so was necessary for imperative reasons of security. However, nothing in the language of the Resolutions authorised the taking of such a measure in so far as doing so violated the United Kingdom’s obligation to secure rights under article 5 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.’
WLR Daily, 7th November 2014
Source: www.iclr.co.uk
DD v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2014] EWHC 3820 (Admin); [2014 ] WLR (D) 495
‘A judgment as to whether article 3 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms had been breached in a case of alleged inhuman or degrading treatment was reached not simply by reference to the impact of the treatment complained of on the individual, but by also having regard to the necessity and proportionality of the underlying treatment, and the possible alternatives, in the manner of its execution.’
WLR Daily, 20th November 2014
Source: www.iclr.co.uk
‘Now that the furore of the Scottish independence referendum has passed, the attention of politicians and media has once again turned to the dangers of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). In his speech to the Conservative Party Conference in late September, Prime Minister David Cameron stated that the ECtHR needed “sorting out”. Three examples of its judgments were used to support this point: the prisoner voting litigation; the limits on deporting suspected terrorists, including Abu Qatada; and the extension of the HRA to the “battle-fields of Helmand”, an issue which the ECtHR has not directly adjudicated upon although it has given judgments concerning events in Iraq. Shortly after, the Conservative Party released its proposals for changing Britain’s human rights laws. Central to this is altering the relationship between the UK and the ECtHR so that its judgments are no longer binding over the UK Supreme Court and that it is no longer able to order a change in UK law. As any law student will know, this would be a waste of time as neither is currently possible in our dualist legal system. The judgments of the ECtHR are only binding in international law. To support these proposals, five examples of ECtHR judgments are given: prisoner voting; artificial insemination rights for some prisoners; limits on the deportation of foreign nationals who have committed crimes; and limits on the deportation of foreign nationals generally. The fifth example is the recent judgment on whole life tariffs which was misleadingly and erroneously portrayed as a decision that murderers cannot be sentenced to life imprisonment. It is clear that the Conservative Party is not expecting to receive votes from prisoners (who have no vote anyway), foreign nationals or members of the armed forces who also enjoy the protection of human rights law on the “battle-fields of Helmand”.’
UK Constitutional Law Association, 24th November 2014
Source: www.ukconstitutionallaw.org
‘The High Court has ruled that although information obtained unlawfully by the police is admissible in regulatory proceedings (even if not in criminal proceedings), it “carries little weight” in the assessment of competing interests required by Article 8(2).’
UK Human Rights Blog, 23rd November 2014
Source: www.ukhumanrightsblog.com
‘Mostyn J has pulled no punches in rejecting an application for a declaration that an incapacitated person, being looked after in her own home, has been deprived of her liberty contrary to Article 5. There is a very full account of the judgment on the Mental Capacity Law and Policy blog so I will keep this summary short.’
UK Human Rights Blog, 21st November 2014
Source: www.ukhumanrightsblog.com
Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council v KW and others: [2014] EWCOP 45; [2014] WLR (D) 493
‘Article 5 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms was not engaged where a person, often elderly, who was both physically and mentally disabled to a severe extent, was being looked after in her own home and where the arrangements had been made and paid for by a local authority rather than by the person’s own, or family, funds.’
WLR Daily, 18th November 2014
Source: www.iclr.co.uk
‘The classification requirements imposed by the Video Recording Acts are lawful, the Court of Appeal (Criminal Division) has ruled, on 14 November 2014, in R v Dryzmer and Play Media Distribution Ltd. The prohibition on supplying video recordings which have not been classified by the British Board of Film Classification is not rendered unlawful either by ECHR Article 10, on freedom of expression, or by TFEU Articles 34-36 on non-interference with trade. The reason is the same in both cases. Qualitative restrictions on grounds of public health and morals are justified.’
Panopticon, 18th November 2014
Source: www.panopticonblog.com
Sims (Appellant) v Dacorum Borough Council (Respondent) [2014] UKSC 63 (YouTube)
Supreme Court, 12th November 2014
‘At a time when the UK’s membership of the European Convention of Human Rights (“ECHR”) and our domestic Human Rights Act 1998 (“HRA”) is a hot political topic, it is timely that the Employment Appeal Tribunal (“EAT”) has handed down a judgment considering Article 6 ECHR in relation to special time limit provisions for discrimination complaints brought by those in the Armed Forces: Duncan v Ministry of Defence.’
Cloisters, 23rd October 2014
Source: www.cloisters.com
‘An exploration of Human Rights law as it developed and which draws criticism from the general public. The audience will be invited to consider what, if anything, they complain of in what is nowadays referred to as Human Rights law. The lecture will deal with topics raised and those which are more generally the subject of criticism. Time will be allowed for (structured and time limited) contributions from the audience.’
Full story
Gresham College, 5th November 2014
Source: www.gresham.ac.uk
‘In this article, I argue that there is an urgent need for a more rational approach to the debate about prisoners’ rights to vote – which has become an emotive issue in the United Kingdom. This is particularly so in light of the recent response from the United Kingdom government to ECtHR rulings, demonstrating an unparalleled defiance towards Strasbourg rulings. Due to this, the implications of the debate over prisoners’ voting rights extend beyond individuals, bringing into sharp focus a matter of broader significance to us all, namely the United Kingdom’s approach to democracy and human rights and its relationship with the European Court and the EU itself.’
Cloisters, 13th November 2014
Source: www.cloisters.com
‘Something that can take some housing practitioners by surprise is a Notice to Quit served, not by a landlord on a tenant, but by a tenant on a landlord (sometimes referred to by housing officers as a “notice to terminate”).’
Zenith Chambers, 13th November 2014
Source: www.zenithchambers.co.uk
‘With statutory regulation covering an ever increasing area in Environmental Law, the question arises as to whether private law remedies have a meaningful role to play in that arena?’
Full story (PDF)
Thirty Nine Essex Street, September 2014
Source: www.39essex.com
‘My first encounter with the fantasies that underpin English public law came in the 1980s. I had just starting teaching constitutional law and was taking my first year students through Dicey: the independent rule of law; the availability of remedies to all, without fear or favour; the common law’s marvellous protection of civil liberties; how great we were, how terrible the continent; and all the rest of it. Outside the classroom, striking miners were being routinely beaten up by the police, their picketing disrupted by road blocks, their liberty eroded by mass bail conditions. The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament was having its marches banned and its protests inhibited by ‘no-go’ areas arbitrarily erected by the police around American bases into which it had been decided to move a new generation of nuclear weapons. Some of my students were even beaten up themselves, on a march against education cuts in London – much to their surprise given what I was teaching them.’
UK Constitutional Law Association, 13th November 2014
Source: www.ukconstitutionallaw.org
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