‘The Supreme Court will hear the appeal in R (Jwanczuk) v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (UKSC/2023/0152) on 11 and 12 March 2025. One of the issues is the circumstances in which courts in England and Wales may depart from decisions of appellate courts in Northern Ireland and Scotland regarding laws of inter-jurisdictional operation (that is, laws passed by the Westminster Parliament that apply throughout the UK, or where identical or materially similar laws have been enacted in multiple jurisdictions). On one hand, the classical exposition of stare decisis is that it operates vertically, such that decisions by extra-hierarchical courts are never binding. But if stare decisis is concerned with predictability and enabling the public to legitimately rely on past decisions in carrying out their affairs, those aspirations would not be met if the same provisions were given two different meanings depending on whether one is north or south of the Tweed (or if one is to the east or west of the Irish Sea in Great Britain or Northern Ireland).’
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UK Constitutional Law Association, 22nd January 2025
Source: ukconstitutionallaw.org
