Limits to the UK Supreme Court’s Reach: Northern Ireland, the Windsor Framework and Trans Rights – Administrative Court Blog
‘The judgment in For Women Scotland (FWS) Ltd v The Scottish Ministers [2025] UKSC 16 (“FWS”) has sent a great many sectors across the UK scrambling to find out what, exactly, they are supposed to do in its aftermath. The UK Supreme Court, issuing a decision in the immediate context of specific guidance around legislation on the make-up of boards in Scotland under the Gender Representation on Public Boards (Scotland) Act 2018, rejected the approach to the case adopted by the Inner House of the Court of Session and used its decision to adopt a determination of the general application of sex under the Equality Act 2010. As such, the case illustrates the challenges facing common law courts when they seek to make broad determinations on major pieces of legislation in the context of a specific set of arguments on the facts of one narrow case.’
Administrative Court Blog, 30th April 2025
