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Article 14, Disability, HB and Bright-Line Rules

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21 May 2012 By Dave@nearlylegal Housing Law

In Burnip v Birmingham CC, Trengove v Walsall MBC, and Gorry v Wiltshire C [2012] EWCA Civ 629, the Court…

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Agriculture and Fisheries Law

Case Comment: Bloomsbury Intl Ltd & Ors v Sea Fish Industry Authority & Anor [2011] UKSC 25

1 Jul 2011 By UKSC blog

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…

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Animals Law

Tail docking – the Animal Welfare Act 2006

22 Nov 2011 By Andrew Keogh

The practice of tail docking is contentious. It involves the amputation of a puppy’s tail and is performed without…

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Civil Procedure

Case Comment: R (Cart) v The Upper Tribunal; R (MR (Pakistan)) v The Upper Tribunal (IAC) [2011] UKSC 28

4 Jul 2011 By UKSC blog

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…

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Company Law

Case Comment: Holland v HMRC [2010] UKSC 51

12 Jan 2011 By UKSC blog

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…

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Consumer Law

A charge for credit isn’t credit

7 Jul 2010 By Nearly Legal

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 [...]

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Contract Law

Case Comment: Rainy Sky S.A. & Ors v Kookmin Bank [2011] UKSC 50

8 Nov 2011 By UKSC blog

By Oliver Gayner and Cathryn Hopkins, Olswang

In Rainy Sky v Kookmin Bank, in which judgment was handed down on Wednesday, the…

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Corporate Commercial Law

Case Comment: NML Capital Limited v Republic of Argentina [2011] UKSC 31

22 Jul 2011 By UKSC blog

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…

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Criminal Law

Case Comment: R v Gnango [2011] UKSC 59

13 Jan 2012 By UKSC blog

By Anita Davies
In the case preview for R v Gnango, it was suggested that the question facing the Supreme…

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Discrimination Law

Case Comment: R (E) v Governing Body of JFS & Ors [2009] UKSC 15

21 Dec 2009 By UKSC blog

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 …

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Dispute Resolution

Mediation: what is it all about?

19 Dec 2011 By PainSmith

Mediation and Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) have become buzz words used by litigators over the past few years. Sadly…

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Education Law

Case Comment: R (G) v The Governors of X School [2011] UKSC 30

18 Jul 2011 By UKSC blog

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…

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Employment Law

Case Comment: Homer v Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police [2012] UKSC 15 & Seldon v Clarkson Wright and Jakes [2012] UKSC 16.

15 May 2012 By UKSC blog

This post was originally posted on the EUtopia Blog and is reposted here with thanks.
On 25 April 2012 the Supreme…

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Equity

Case Comment: Re Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander Ltd and Re the Insolvency Act 1986 [2011] UKSC 48

9 Nov 2011 By UKSC blog

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…

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EU Law

Case Comment: FA (Iraq) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2011] UKSC 22

6 Jun 2011 By UKSC blog

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…

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Family and Child Law

Case Comment: Re S [2012] UKSC 10

19 Mar 2012 By UKSC blog

By Madeleine Reardon, 1 Kings Bench Walk
Just 9 months after dealing with its last Hague Convention case, Re E [2011]…

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Housing Law

Article 14, Disability, HB and Bright-Line Rules

21 May 2012 By Dave@nearlylegal

In Burnip v Birmingham CC, Trengove v Walsall MBC, and Gorry v Wiltshire C [2012] EWCA Civ 629, the Court…

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Human Rights Law

The Right to Protest Contained by Strasbourg: An Analysis of Austin v UK & The Constitutional Pluralist Issues It Throws Up

30 Mar 2012 By UKSC blog

This piece was originally posted on the UK Constitutional Law Blog and is reposted here with thanks.
The last few days…

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Immigration and Asylum Law

Case Comment: Fairness versus diplomacy: protecting witnesses in national security cases, W (Algeria) v SSHD [2012] UKSC 8

15 Mar 2012 By UKSC blog

By Alison Macdonald, Matrix
On 7 March 2012, the Supreme Court gave judgment in seven linked cases, now known as W…

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Information Law

Case Comment: Sugar (Deceased) v BBC & Anor [2012] UKSC 4

3 Apr 2012 By UKSC blog

By Daniel West, Olswang LLP

On 15 February 2012, the Supreme Court handed down judgment in the case of Sugar (deceased)…

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Insolvency and Bankruptcy Law

Case Comment: Belmont Park Investments v BNY Corporate Trustee and Lehman Brothers Special Financing [2011] UKSC 38

24 Aug 2011 By UKSC blog

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…

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Insurance Law

What has been the most significant Supreme Court case to date and why?

30 Mar 2012 By UKSC blog

Below is the second essay from our runners up in the UKSC Blog essay competition. Jamie Dunn from the University…

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Intellectual Property Law

Case Comment: Human Genome Sciences v Eli Lilly [2011] UKSC 51

15 Dec 2011 By UKSC blog

By Dr Stuart Baran
In order to be patented, an invention must be “susceptible of industrial application”; this is provided…

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Legal History

A digression on equity and the Court of Chancery

25 May 2011 By Tessa Shepperson

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…

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Local Government Law

Case Comment: Brent LBC & Ors v Risk Management Partners Ltd [2011] UKSC 7

16 Feb 2011 By UKSC blog

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 …

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Media and Entertainment Law

Case Comment: Spiller v Joseph and others [2010] UKSC 53

2 Dec 2010 By UKSC blog

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.  …

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Personal Injury Law

Case Comment: Sienkiewicz v Greif (UK) Ltd; Knowsley MBC v Willmore [2011] UKSC 10

24 May 2011 By UKSC blog

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,…

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Planning and Environment Law

Planning Enforcement Orders

11 May 2011 By Linda Felton

The Localism Bill is set to proceed to the Report Stage in the House of Commons on 17th May, followed by…

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Property Law

Roger Jones and Katherine Jones v. William Henderson Gray and Edna Drummond Ross or Gray, [2011] CSOH 204, 13 December 2011

5 Jan 2012 By CaseCheck

Outer House case concerning the creation of a servitude right of access by prescriptive possession. Mr and Mrs Gray owned 40 Montgomerie Drive, Fairlie and a lane running to it from Montgomerie Drive.  Mr and Mrs Jones owned 38 Montgomerie Drive and sought declarator that a servitude right of pedestrian and vehicular access had been created in favour of no 38 over part of the lane leading to the rear of their property and garage.
The Joneses also said that the Grays had erected a lockable post and fence in front of their garage so as to obstruct access to it from the lane and sought a decree ordaining removal of the obstructions and interdict preventing the Grays from interfering with the disputed area.
Section 3(2) of the Prescription and Limitation (Scotland) Act 1973 provides:
“If a positive servitude over land has been possessed for a continuous period of twenty years openly, peaceably and without judicial interruption, then, as from the expiration of that period, the existence of the servitude as so possessed shall be exempt from challenge.”
In support of their action, the Joneses claimed that their predecessors in title had taken access over the disputed area including daily access to the garage with their car and with their sailing dingy from time to time between April 1979 and June 2007.  The access had been free and uninterrupted and it was consistent with exercise as a matter of right. The Joneses had taken access over the disputed area from June 2007 for parking their car in the garage, unloading their car and getting from the lane to the garage doors.
The Grays argued that the Joneses had not adequately specified the continuity, volume and frequency of the possession in their pleadings nor had they demonstrated that possession had been continuous for the prescriptive period or that it was open and ‘as of right’. They contended that the action should be dismissed on the basis the Joneses arguments were irrelevant and/or that they did not give fair notice of important matters to the Grays.
Lord Doherty was not satisfied that the case should be dismissed. Applying the test set out in Jamieson v Jamieson (1952), it was not a case which would necessarily fail even if all of the Joneses arguments were proved. Several of the issues between the parties involved questions of fact and degree which would be capable of determination after a proof (e.g. whether possession was continuous). Lord Doherty was also not persuaded that there was a lack of fair notice on important matters. The crux of the Grays’ complaint was that the use of the word “included” suggested that the Joneses would be able to lead evidence of other unspecified modes of access of which no notice had been given. Lord Doherty considered that use of the word “included” did not reserve them a free hand to do so and if it were to happen the Grays would be entitled to object to such evidence being led.
A proof before answer was allowed.

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Public and Administrative Law

Election Offence

5 Nov 2010 By Andrew Keogh

Watkins v Woolas, QBD, 5 November 2010
In the General Election held on 6 May 2010 Philip Woolas (“the Respondent”), who…

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Regulatory Law

Case Comment: R (Coke-Wallis) v ICAEW [2011] UKSC 1

31 Mar 2011 By UKSC blog

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,…

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Tax Law

Case Comment: R (Davies & Anor) v HMRC; R (Gaines-Cooper) v HMRC [2011] UKSC 47

30 Oct 2011 By UKSC blog

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…

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Trusts and Estates Law

Introduction to inheritance tax

21 Feb 2011 By Tom Hiskey

A short video introducing the principles of inheritance tax in England & Wales.

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Welfare and Benefits Law

Case Comment – R (McDonald) v Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea [2011] UKSC 33

1 Aug 2011 By UKSC blog

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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