Lord Sales, The Developing Jurisprudence of the Supreme Court on Convention Rights – Supreme Court
‘Lord Sales: The Developing Jurisprudence of the Supreme Court on Convention Rights’
Supreme Court, 5th June 2023
Source: www.supremecourt.uk
Category: statutory interpretation
Humanism and religious instruction in schools: the landmark case of Bowen – Law & Religion UK
‘The High Court decision in R (on the Application of Bowen) v Kent County Council [2023] EWHC 1261 (Admin) makes it clear that local authorities cannot exclude humanist representatives from their Standing Advisory Councils for Religious Education (SACREs). Although many SACREs already include humanists and this interpretation has been articulated in soft law, the judgment of Constable J is unambiguous on that point and presents a significant step forward. However, the judgment also highlights how the protection of non-religious beliefs continues to be controversial and lacking in clarity. This post will explore this welcome decision while highlighting the unresolved matters concerning freedom of non-religious beliefs.’
Law & Religion UK, 30th May 2023
Source: lawandreligionuk.com
The UK Bill of Rights: Changes to Human Rights Protection may Impact Climate Litigation – Oxford Human Rights Hub
‘Across the world, human rights-based arguments are increasingly deployed in climate litigation against public bodies. However, in the UK, potential reforms to the Human Rights Act 1998 (HRA) – an Act which allows claimants in domestic courts to rely on the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) – could seriously impact the ability of these cases to succeed in the future.’
Oxford Human Rights Hub, 22nd May 2023
Source: ohrh.law.ox.ac.uk
New Judgment: Commissioners for His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs v SSE Generation Ltd [2023] UKSC 17 – UKSC Blog
‘SSE Generation Ltd, the respondent, claimed capital allowances on expenditure incurred when constructing a hydro-electric power station at Glendoe, Fort Augustus in Scotland. Such allowances may be deducted from income for the purpose of calculating a company’s trading profits subject to corporation tax. Commissioners for His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (“HMRC”) disputed certain allowances claimed by SSE for tax years 31 March 2006 to 31 March 2012 on the basis that in their view certain relevant assets did not give rise to allowable expenditure under the Capital Allowances Act 2001 (the “Act”).’
UKSC Blog, 17th May 2023
Source: ukscblog.com
High Court Considers Cart JR Ouster Clause – EIN Blog
‘Oceana, R (On the Application Of) v Upper Tribunal (Immigration And Asylum Chamber) [2023] EWHC 791 (Admin) is a High Court judgment on a preliminary issue as to jurisdiction in a claim for judicial review; essentially a ‘Cart JR’ following the partial ouster of the High Court’s ‘Cart’ jurisdiction by the coming into force of section 2 of the Judicial Review and Courts Act 2022 on 14 July 2022.’
EIN Blog, 9th May 2023
Source: www.ein.org.uk
Can an adult child seek maintenance from their parents? – Family Law
‘There have recently been two cases in which adult children have begun court proceedings seeking a formal court order to force their parents into providing ongoing financial support to them.’
Family Law, 12th April 2023
Source: www.familylaw.co.uk
Highways: only a touch of frost – Local Government Lawyer
‘In his fourth and final article in a short series which focuses on case law which may assist in the defence of claims against Highways Authorities under s.41 of the Highways Act 1980, and inspired at least in part by the wintery weather sweeping across the country, Jack Harding focuses on snow and ice on the highway.’
Local Government Lawyer, 17th March 2023
Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
New Judgment: R (on the application of VIP Communications Ltd (In Liquidation)) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2020] UKSC 10 – UKSC Blog
‘This appeal raised an issue of statutory construction. It arises in the context of a type of equipment known as commercial multi-user GSM (Global Systems for Mobile Communications) gateway apparatus (“COMUGs”). GSM gateways are telecommunications equipment containing one or more SIM cards, as used in mobile phones. They enable phone calls and text messages from landlines to be routed directly on to mobile networks. When a call is routed through a GSM gateway, the only data transmitted over the network is the number and location of the SIM card in the GSM gateway. It does not transmit information such as the identity of the calling party and (in the case of a mobile phone) the user’s location, as would ordinarily be the case without a GSM gateway.’
UKSC Blog, 8th March 2023
Source: ukscblog.com
New judgment: Rakusen v Jepsen and others [2023] UKSC 9 – UKSC Blog
‘This appeal is about Rent Repayment Orders. These are orders that can be made against landlords that have committed certain housing-related offences. They require a landlord to repay an amount of rent paid by a tenant (or pay to a local housing authority an amount of universal credit paid in respect of rent). The question which arises is whether they can only be made against a tenant’s immediate landlord, or whether they can be made against a landlord higher up in a chain of tenancies (e.g. the landlord of the tenant’s immediate landlord) – referred to as a “superior landlord”.’
UKSC Blog, 1st March 2023
Source: ukscblog.com
Rent Repayment Orders – just the immediate landlord – Nearly Legal
‘The issue for the Supreme Court was whether the wording of section 40 and 41 Housing and Planning Act 2016 meant that a rent repayment order could be made against only a tenant’s immediate landlord, or also against a superior landlord (where the occupying tenant’s landlord themselves had a tenancy of the property) where that landlord had also committed a relevant offence.’
Nearly Legal, 5th March 2023
Source: nearlylegal.co.uk
NewsCorp Supreme Court VAT ruling has wide implications – OUT-LAW.com
‘A ruling by the UK Supreme Court provides guidance on when UK legislation should be interpreted in a way that accounts for technological, scientific or societal changes that occur after the legislation has been enacted.’
OUT-LAW.com, 27th February 2023
Source: www.pinsentmasons.com
New Judgment: DCM (Optical Holdings) Ltd v Commissioners for His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (Scotland) [2023] UKSC 7 – UKSC Blog
‘Under the Value Added Tax Act 1994 (the “VAT Act“), “newspapers” are “zero-rated”, meaning Value Added Tax (“VAT“) is not charged on them. The question in this case is whether, between 30 August 2010 – 4 December 2016 (the “relevant period“), zero-rating extended beyond print newspapers to digital editions of newspapers, such as editions for e-readers, tablets, smartphones and websites.’
UKSC Blog, 22nd February 2023
Source: ukscblog.com
Mohamed Moussa: The ‘Absent Word’ Canon and Asymmetrical Sovereignty – UK Constitutional Law Association
‘The UK Supreme Court (UKSC) recently issued its unanimous judgment which found the draft Scottish Independence Referendum Bill to be outside the legislative competence of the Scottish Parliament. While the facts of this case are distinctively different from previous Scottish cases, a common theme remains in the Court’s insistence on ‘ordinary meaning of words’ as its ‘general approach to the interpretation of the Scotland Act’. According to such an approach, the Court prioritises ‘the language carefully chosen by the Parliamentary drafter and enacted by Parliament’ as ‘[t]he best way of ensuring a coherent, stable and workable outcome’. The purpose of this blog post is not to explore the facts of this particular case. Rather, it focuses on the UKSC’s repeated stress of textualism. A similarity is found in the Court’s textual interpretation of Section 28(7), which was understood to affirm the doctrine of parliamentary sovereignty and served as the crux of its previous cases on devolution. The aim of the post is to show the questionable nature of the Court’s textual fidelity and highlight that it runs counter to foundational canons of interpretation. For space constraints, my argument focuses mainly on Section 21 from the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (Incorporation) (Scotland) Bill Reference (UNCRC Incorporation Bill case) after briefly discussing section 17 of the Scottish Legal Continuity Bill.’
UK Constitutional Law Association, 20th December 2022
Source: ukconstitutionallaw.org
Court of Appeal rules on power to prosecute consumer offences outside local authority area – Local Government Lawyer
‘The Court of Appeal has handed down a key ruling in conjoined appeals on the power of a local authority to prosecute consumer offences outside its area.’
Local Government Lawyer, 1st November 2022
Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
Case Preview: Unger and Anor (in substitution for Hasan) v Ul-Hasan (deceased) and Anor – UKSC Blog
‘In this post, Grant Arnold, a paralegal in the litigation team at CMS, previews the decision awaited from the Supreme Court in Unger and Anor (in substitution for Hasan) v Ul-Hasan (deceased) and Anor.’
UKSC Blog, 17th October 2022
Source: ukscblog.com
Supreme Court rules on directors duty to act in interests of creditors – OUT-LAW.com
‘Company directors need to remain wary of their duty to consider the interests of creditors in certain circumstances, despite a new UK Supreme Court ruling that they are likely to welcome, experts have said.’
OUT-LAW.com, 10th October 2022
Source: www.pinsentmasons.com
Stephen Tierney: The Lord Advocate’s Reference: Referendums and Constitutional Convention – UK Constitutional Law Association
‘Section 29(1) of the 1998 Act provides that an Act of the Scottish Parliament is not law so far as any provision of the Act is outside the legislative competence of the Parliament. A provision is outside that competence so far as it “relates to reserved matters” (s.29(2)(b)), and whether or not it relates to a reserved matter is to be determined by “reference to the purpose of the provision, having regard (among other things) to its effect in all the circumstances” (s.29(3)).’
UK Constitutional Law Association, 4th October 2022
Source: ukconstitutionallaw.org
New Judgment: BTI 2014 LLC v Sequana SA and others [2022] UKSC 25 – UKSC Blog
‘This appeal raised questions of considerable importance for company law. It provides the first opportunity for the Supreme Court to consider the existence, content and engagement of the so-called “creditor duty”: the alleged duty of company directors to consider, or to act in accordance with, the interests of the company’s creditors when the company becomes insolvent, or when it approaches, or is at real risk of, insolvency.’
UKSC Blog, 5th October 2022
Source: ukscblog.com
Shona Wilson Stark and Raffael Fasel: Unconstitutionally Legal: How the UK Supreme Court Should Decide the Lord Advocate’s Reference – UK Constitutional Law Association
‘On 28 June 2022, the Lord Advocate referred to the UK Supreme Court (“UKSC”) the question of whether the Scottish Parliament has the power to legislate for a second independence referendum (“Indyref 2”) without an Order enabling it do so under section 30 of the Scotland Act 1998 (a “section 30 Order”). Assuming the UKSC will accept the reference, we argue that it should rule that the Scottish Parliament has no legal power to pass legislation facilitating an independence referendum without a section 30 Order. However, we propose that this does not prevent the UKSC from attempting to break the deadlock by declaring that the UK Government is acting unconstitutionally in a political sense if it does not make a section 30 Order. Of course, there is no guarantee that a section 30 Order would be issued – we consider alternative pathways to an Indyref 2, including possible invocations of constituent power, in a forthcoming article – but we argue that this would be a constitutionally proper and desirable approach for the UKSC to take.’
UK Constitutional Law Association, 3rd October 2022
Source: ukconstitutionallaw.org
