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Wychavon DC v EM is a double decision, so to speak, by Judge Mark on a housing benefit matter, with…
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Agriculture and Fisheries Law
Case Comment: Bloomsbury Intl Ltd & Ors v Sea Fish Industry Authority & Anor [2011] UKSC 25
Bloomsbury International Ltd v Sea Fish Industry Authority and DEFRA [2011] UKSC 25 has its origins in a claim brought by importers unhappy with the imposition of a levy. For the purpose of financing its activities, the Authority has the power, pursuan…
Animals Law
Tail docking – the Animal Welfare Act 2006
The practice of tail docking is contentious. It involves the amputation of a puppy’s tail and is performed without…
Civil Procedure
Case Comment: R (Cart) v The Upper Tribunal; R (MR (Pakistan)) v The Upper Tribunal (IAC) [2011] UKSC 28
The Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007 radically reshaped the landscape of tribunal justice in the United Kingdom. The Act took the diverse array of tribunals that previously existed and, for the first time, consolidated most of them within a s…
Company Law
Case Comment: Holland v HMRC [2010] UKSC 51
On 24 November 2010, the Supreme Court handed down judgment in Holland v The Commissioners for Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs and another [2010] UKSC 51. The panel consisted of Lords Hope, Saville, Walker, Collins and Clarke.
The case concer…
Consumer Law
A charge for credit isn’t credit
Southern Pacific Securities 05-2 Plc v Walker & Anor [2010] UKSC 32 A brief note on this case, which concerned the enforceability of a credit agreement secured on the Walker’s property. Our report on the Court of Appeal decision is here, and there is little to add in this note, because the Supreme Court in [...]
Contract Law
Case Comment: Rainy Sky S.A. & Ors v Kookmin Bank [2011] UKSC 50
By Oliver Gayner and Cathryn Hopkins, Olswang
In Rainy Sky v Kookmin Bank, in which judgment was handed down on Wednesday, the…
Corporate Commercial Law
Case Comment: NML Capital Limited v Republic of Argentina [2011] UKSC 31
The Argentinian debt crisis of 2001 – 2003, and subsequent restructurings, have kept commercial lawyers busy all over the globe as investors have sought to recoup as much of their investments into the country as possible. In NML Capital v Argentina…
Criminal Law
Case Comment: R v Gnango [2011] UKSC 59
By Anita Davies
In the case preview for R v Gnango, it was suggested that the question facing the Supreme…
Discrimination Law
Case Comment: R (E) v Governing Body of JFS & Ors [2009] UKSC 15
On 16 December judgment was handed down in the widely reported JFS case. The appeal itself was heard by the Supreme Court sitting as a nine judge court, reflecting the importance of the issues raised by the appeal. The judgments are ordered not by the …
Dispute Resolution
Mediation: what is it all about?
Mediation and Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) have become buzz words used by litigators over the past few years. Sadly…
Education Law
Case Comment: R (G) v The Governors of X School [2011] UKSC 30
The Supreme Court (by a 4:1 majority) has allowed an appeal by The Governors of X School, overturning the Court of Appeal’s decision that a teaching assistant’s rights under Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights had been breached b…
Employment Law
Case Comment: O’Brien v MoJ [2010] UKSC 34, Opinion of Advocate General Kokott (C-393/10)
By Claire Darwin, Matrix
In August 2010, the Supreme Court unanimously referred the appeal of Mr O’Brien QC, a former fee-paid…
Equity
Case Comment: Re Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander Ltd and Re the Insolvency Act 1986 [2011] UKSC 48
In its recent decision in Re Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander Ltd and Re the Insolvency Act 1986 [2011] UKSC 48, the Supreme Court unanimously overturned the High Court’s decision in Mill & Ors v HSBC Trustee (C.I.) Ltd & Ors [2009] EW…
EU Law
Case Comment: FA (Iraq) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2011] UKSC 22
The Supreme Court has decided that guidance is needed from the CJEU on a number of issues relating to the scope of the principle of equivalence.
This is the principle of EU law which requires that the procedural rules relating to the domestic enforceme…
Family and Child Law
Case Comment: Re E [2011] UKSC 27
The Supreme Court’s decision in Re E can be seen in some ways as guiding interpretation of Article 13(b) of the Hague Convention ‘back on track’, following the decision of the ECHR last year in Neulinger and Shuruk v Switzerland [2011] 1 FLR 122….
Housing Law
HB and necessaries
Wychavon DC v EM is a double decision, so to speak, by Judge Mark on a housing benefit matter, with…
Human Rights Law
Case Comment: Gale v Serious Organised Crime Agency [2011] UKSC 49
In Gale v Serious Organised Crime Agency, the UK Supreme Court sent a simple message to Strasbourg: if we are duty bound to follow decisions of the ECtHR then, at least in this area, they need to be clearer. A new decision from the Grand Chamber on thi…
Immigration and Asylum Law
Case Comment: R (Bibi & Anor) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2011] UKSC 45
In 2008 the government adopted a new policy to combat forced marriages. It amended paragraph 277 of the Immigration Rules to ban the entry for settlement of foreign spouses or civil partners unless both parties were aged 21 or over. The government clai…
Information Rights and Privacy Law
Case Comment: Ofcom v The Information Commissioner [2010] UKSC 3
On 27 January the Court (Lords Hope, Saville, Mance, Collins and Lady Hale) handed down judgment in Ofcom v The Information Commissioner ([2010] UKSC 3), the case concerning disclosure of information about mobile phone masts in the UK which has been s…
Insolvency and Bankruptcy Law
Case Comment: Belmont Park Investments v BNY Corporate Trustee and Lehman Brothers Special Financing [2011] UKSC 38
On 27 July, amidst the traditional flurry of judgments handed down at the end of the Trinity term, a 7 strong Supreme Court (Lords Phillips, Hope, Walker, Hale, Mance, Collins and Clarke) gave its ruling in the Belmont Park case, concerning the applic…
Insurance Law
Case Comment: AXA v Lord Advocate – Insurers’ human right not to pay for putting asbestos in employees’ lungs?
This post was orginally posted on the UKHR blog and is reposted here with permission and thanks.
AXA General Insurance Ltd & Ors v Lord Advocate & Ors (Scotland) [2011] UKSC 46 (12 October 2011)
When you breathed in asbestos fibres from your du…
Intellectual Property Law
Case Comment: Human Genome Sciences v Eli Lilly [2011] UKSC 51
By Dr Stuart Baran
In order to be patented, an invention must be “susceptible of industrial application”; this is provided…
Legal History
A digression on equity and the Court of Chancery
Foundations of landlord and tenant law – part 3 I had thought of leaving this bit out, as it is not essential to landlord and tenant law. But it is an important part of our legal history and comes into all sorts of things, so I thought I had better just mention it. Anyway it…
Local Government Law
Case Comment: Brent LBC & Ors v Risk Management Partners Ltd [2011] UKSC 7
Court of Appeal decision overturned in first procurement case to reach Supreme Court.
On 9 February 2011, the Supreme Court handed down its first procurement law judgment ([2011] UKSC 7). In this case (on appeal from [2009] EWCA Civ 490), a five-judge …
Media and Entertainment Law
Case Comment: Spiller v Joseph and others [2010] UKSC 53
The Supreme Court yesterday handed down judgment in the case of Joseph v Spiller ([2010] UKSC 53), the first time it has considered a libel case since its inception. The panel consisted of Lords Phillips, Rodger, Walker and Brown and Sir John Dyson. …
Personal Injury Law
Case Comment: Sienkiewicz v Greif (UK) Ltd; Knowsley MBC v Willmore [2011] UKSC 10
On 9 March 2011, the Supreme Court handed down its judgment in the joint appeal of Sienkiewicz v Grief (UK) Ltd; Knowsley MBC v Willmore [2011] UKSC 10. The seven-judge bench, consisting of Lord Phillips, Lord Rodger, Lady Hale, Lord Brown, Lord Mance,…
Planning and Environment Law
Planning Enforcement Orders
The Localism Bill is set to proceed to the Report Stage in the House of Commons on 17th May, followed by…
Property Law
Roger Jones and Katherine Jones v. William Henderson Gray and Edna Drummond Ross or Gray, [2011] CSOH 204, 13 December 2011
Outer House case concerning the creation of a servitude right of access by prescriptive possession. Mr and Mrs Gray owned…
Public and Administrative Law
Election Offence
Watkins v Woolas, QBD, 5 November 2010
In the General Election held on 6 May 2010 Philip Woolas (“the Respondent”), who…
Regulatory Law
Case Comment: R (Coke-Wallis) v ICAEW [2011] UKSC 1
Can a professional or regulatory body suspend one of its members, when it had let him off at a first disciplinary hearing, but then found against him at a second? That was the issue in Coke-Wallis, where the Supreme Court was asked by Mr Coke-Wallis,…
Tax Law
Case Comment: R (Davies & Anor) v HMRC; R (Gaines-Cooper) v HMRC [2011] UKSC 47
On 19 October 2011, the Supreme Court (Lord Hope, Lord Walker, Lord Mance, Lord Clarke and Lord Wilson) released its decision in the joined cases of R (Davies & Anor) v The Commissioners for Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs and R (Gaines-Coop…
Trusts and Estates Law
Introduction to inheritance tax
A short video introducing the principles of inheritance tax in England & Wales.
Welfare and Benefits Law
Case Comment – R (McDonald) v Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea [2011] UKSC 33
By Stephanie Smith, Olswang
In this case, the issue for their Lordships was the lawfulness of the respondent council’s proposal to…
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