Latest Cases

Police – Disclosure of information. The claimant issued judicial review proceedings, challenging the regime which required disclosure of his 31-year-old conviction for assault occasioning actual bodily harm for which he had been given a two-year conditional discharge and been bound over to keep the peace for 12 months as a breach of his rights under art 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights. The Administrative Court, in dismissing the application, held that Parliament had been fully entitled to draw a 'bright line' between the offences requiring disclosure and those that did not. Further, if the disposal was always relevant, the 'bright line' might have to be redrawn, and the requisite approach would be disproportionate and unworkable. 

Practice – Pre-trial or post-judgment relief. The claimant was injured and her husband killed while on an excursion in Egypt which they had booked through their hotel. She issued proceedings in contract and tort against the defendant Canadian company on the basis that it was owner of the hotel. The defendant unsuccessfully challenged the grant of permission to serve proceedings out of the jurisdiction. The Court of Appeal, Civil Division, allowed the defendant's appeal in part. The appeal succeeded in respect of the claim for injuries and under the Law Reform (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1934 as the claimant could not show that 'damage' had been sustained within England since the accident had occurred in Egypt. The damage suffered in England had been consequential loss only, which was insufficient to found jurisdiction. The appeal failed in respect of its challenge to the contractual claim and under the Fatal Accidents Act 1976. 

Town and country planning – Enforcement notice. The appellant appealed against the decision of an inspector appointed by the first respondent Secretary of State, dismissing his appeal against an enforcement notice issued by the second respondent local planning authority. The Planning Court held that the decision could not stand insofar as it had concluded that there had been an intensification having amounted to material change of use, as there had been a defect of natural justice. However, the inspector had not erred in considering the commencement of the existing use, the issue of a further certificate and he had not breached the doctrine that an enforcement notice could not lawfully remove existing lawful uses. 

Town and country planning – Permission for development. The claimant local planning authority challenged the decision of the inspector appointed by the first defendant Secretary of State to grant planning permission for the construction of up to 150 dwellings on the basis of his adoption of 147 new dwellings per year for the full objective assessment of need for housing. The Planning Court, in dismissing the application, held that the inspector had been using his planning judgment to assess the appropriate full objective assessment of need and he had chosen the figure of 147, as he had been entitled to do. 

Constitutional law – Natural justice. The Privy Council, in dismissing an appeal by the former Premier of the Turks and Caicos and others appellants, who had been charged with, among other things, conspiracy to accept bribes in public office, ruled that a trial without a jury could proceed against them where no objective observer would fear that the trial judge would be unable independently to discharge his duty as a judge because he was in place for a limited period and where he had been entitled to order a trial by a judge alone. 

Family proceedings – Orders in family proceedings. In a family case in which the parents had married young and which involved high levels of parental conflict, the Family Division made various orders and held that the case was really an issue about contact, which the court would ensure took place. 

Barrister – Pupillage. The claimant law student issued judicial review proceedings, challenging the requirement that he retake the whole Bar Professional Training Course, rather than only the module he had twice failed. The Administrative Court, in dismissing the application, held that the claimant had not shown himself competent in that module by other means and that the Bar Standards Board (the BSB) could not have acted unlawfully in not having considered exempting the claimant from the requirements absent an application to do so. It further dismissed the claimant's claim the decision was disproportionate and found that the BSB had given reasons for its decision. 

Income tax – Corporation tax. The Upper Tribunal (Tax and Chancery Chamber) dismissed the appeal by Wintershall (E&P) Ltd against the decision of the First-tier Tribunal (Tax Chamber) to uphold the view taken by the Revenue and Customs Commissioners that the term 'adjusted ring fence profits' on which the supplementary charge was levied in terms of s 501A of the Income and Corporation Taxes Act 1988 meant Wintershall's 'ring fence profits' as adjusted to remove financing costs from the calculation, with the result that the aggregate chargeable gain arising from the transaction in the present case fell to be included in Wintershall's calculation of its liability to the supplementary charge. 

Criminal law – Appeal. The defendant was convicted of murder and wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, in circumstances where the victims had been stabbed in the street by a group of youths. The Court of Appeal, Criminal Division, dismissed the defendant's appeal, rejecting his contentions that there had been material non-disclosures or fresh evidence which undermined the safety of his conviction. 

Family proceedings – Jurisdiction. The Family Division had held the habitual residence of a child, S, was in the United Kingdom. The Court of Appeal, Civil Division, in dismissing the father's appeal, held that the judge's determination that the mother had always retained her habitual residence in the UK, and that that had not been lost during an extended stay in Morocco, was not perverse. His conclusion that S's habitual residence was effectively determined by her mother's habitual residence, given the degree of dependence that the one had had on the other, was uncontroversial.