‘Twenty years ago today, on 26 June 2003, each of the five Law Lords in Aston Cantlow v Wallbank [2004] 1 AC 546 gave separate, detailed opinions on a matter at the cusp of public law and private law. Was the Parochial Church Council (PCC) of a beautiful parish church in Warwickshire responsible for the cost of necessary repairs to its fabric, or were the owners of a neighbouring farm subject to chancel repair liability? The church of St John the Baptist, Aston Cantlow, some three miles outside Stratford-upon-Avon, dated from Saxon times. In the first Elizabethan era, it is where William Shakespeare’s parents were married. In the second Elizabethan era, it attracted a judicial inquiry into the very nature of the Church of England.’
UK Constitutional Law Association , 26th June 2023
Source: ukconstitutionallaw.org
