Extremist neo-Nazi group to be banned under terror laws – BBC News
‘Joining the far-right group Sonnenkrieg Divison is set to become illegal, under a proscription order to be put to MPs.’
BBC News, 24th February 2020
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
Conceptualising damages for housing conditions – they don’t add up – Nearly Legal
‘General damages will take two forms. The first, and probably least controversial, is that the tenant is not to be required to contribute towards the costs of the remedial works and, to the extent that there might be a contractual obligation to do so (e.g. by way of a service charge) damages need to be awarded: see Rendlesham Estates Plc v Barr Ltd [2014] EWHC 3968 (TCC), (2015) 1 WLR 3663 (a Defective Premises Act 1972 claim) and Daejan Properties Ltd v Griffin (2014) UKUT 0206 (LC) (a long leasehold service charge case).’
Nearly Legal, 23rd February 2020
Source: nearlylegal.co.uk
Sports therapist found guilty of Anglesey crossbow murder – The Guardian
‘A sports therapist has been found guilty of murdering a retired lecturer by shooting him with a crossbow at his remote island home in what police described as a “barbaric, medieval-style execution”.’
The Guardian, 24th February 2020
Source: www.theguardian.com
Men jailed after 29 immigrants found in van – BBC News
‘Four men have been jailed for their roles in bringing 29 immigrants to the country.’
BBC News, 24th February 2020
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
Forensic science failures putting justice at risk, says regulator – The Guardian
‘Innocent people are being wrongly convicted and criminals are escaping justice because of the failure of the forensic science system to meet basic standards, the regulator has said.’
The Guardian, 25th February 2020
Source: www.theguardian.com
“Brain dead” baby – Court of Appeal confirms High Court’s decision to allow “dignity in death” – Transparency Project
‘We reported earlier on the High Court’s decision to allow a hospital to withdraw mechanical ventilation from a baby, who had been starved of oxygen during his birth and had been declared “brain-stem dead” by doctors. Now the Court of Appeal have given their detailed reasons for refusing the parents’ application for permission to appeal.’
Transparency Project, 23rd February 2020
Source: www.transparencyproject.org.uk
BAILII: Recent Decisions
High Court (Administrative Court)
McGrath v London Borough of Camden [2020] EWHC 369 (Admin) (24 February 2020)
Court (Chancery Division)
Musst Holdings Ltd v Astra Asset Management UK Ltd & Anor [2020] EWHC 337 (Ch) (24 February 2020)
High Court (Commercial Court)
Wallis Trading Inc v Air Tanzania Company Ltd & Anor [2020] EWHC 339 (Comm) (21 February 2020)
Source: www.bailii.org
Cyclist settles case for £30,000 after hitting pedestrian who was looking at phone – The Guardian
‘A cyclist who knocked over a woman who was looking at her mobile phone while crossing a road and was then threatened with financially ruinous legal costs has settled the case.’
The Guardian, 24th February 2020
Source: www.theguardian.com
Patents – Conversant Wireless Licensing v Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd and Others – NIPC Law
‘This was an application by the claimant, Conversant Wireless Licensing SARL for disclosure of the licence agreements and assignments relating to 3G and 4G patents that had been entered by the defendants, Huawei Technologies Co Ltd., ZTE (UK) Limited and their British subsidiaries. Substantially the same application had been made to His Honour Judge Hacon at the case management conference in the action which took place in July 2019. The later application was heard by Mr Justice Birss who delivered judgment in Conversant Wireless Licensing SARL v Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd and others [2020] EWHC 256 (Pat) on 10 Feb 2020. The reference to the CMC in the transcript of Mr Justice Birss’s judgment is [2009] EWHC 1982 (Pat) but I think that must be a misprint for [2019].’
NIPC Law, 22nd February 2020
Source: nipclaw.blogspot.com
Alex Schymyck: Vulnerable Detainees in Prison Illustrate the Need for Consistency as a Ground of Review – UK Constitutional Law Association
‘In R (MR (Pakistan)) v Secretary of State for Justice & Others, the High Court rejected a claim that the inequality in procedural protections available to vulnerable immigration detainees, which depend significantly on the venue of detention, is irrational. The nature of the decision, which fails to properly evaluate the reasons advanced for the difference, highlights two problems caused by the Supreme Court’s refusal to accept consistency as a ground of review in R (Gallaher Group Ltd) v The Competition and Markets Authority. Firstly, the lack of a clear framework for how irrationality should be applied creates a risk that judges accept tangential or irrelevant justifications for inconsistency. Secondly, by keeping consistency within the irrationality framework without any articulation of how separation of powers concerns fluctuate in different contexts, there is a risk of overly deferential decisions. In MR (Pakistan) both of these risks materialised with seriously deleterious consequences for immigration detainees held in prisons.’
UK Constitutional Law Association, 24th February 2020
Source: ukconstitutionallaw.org
Call for English councils to be given powers to regulate Airbnb – The Guardian
‘Local councils in England must be given powers to regulate Airbnb and other short-term letting sites in order to alleviate the “intolerable” pressure they put on the availability of local housing, the Green party MP, Caroline Lucas, has said.’
The Guardian, 21st February 2020
Source: www.theguardian.com
Certainty of delivery of notices – Upper Tribunal on the burden of proof – Nearly Legal
‘A quick note on a Upper Tribunal (LC) appeal concerning whether services charge demands had been delivered. At first instance, the FTT had reached a decision about the reasonableness of the service charge demands, but in respect of the respondent, it held that the charges were not payable by the respondent because she had not received the demands.’
Nearly Legal, 22nd February 2020
Source: nearlylegal.co.uk
Let’s face it: use of automated facial recognition technology by the police – UK Police Law Blog
‘The case of R (Bridges) v Chief Constable of South Wales Police & Information Commissioner [2019] EWHC 2341 (Admin); [2020] 1 WLR 672 is said to have been the first claim brought before a court anywhere on planet earth concerning the use by police of automated facial recognition (“AFR”) technology. There could be nothing wrong with posting scores of police officers with eidetic memories to look out for up to a 800 wanted persons at public gatherings. So why not use a powerful computer, capable of matching 50 faces a second with a database of (under) 800 suspects, to do this job much more cheaply and instantaneously, flagging any matches to a human operator for final assessment? According to the Divisional Court in Bridges, this may, depending on the facts of each particular deployment, be lawful.’
UK Police Law Blog, 21st February 2020
Source: ukpolicelawblog.com
Chichester vicar jailed for ‘this is what God wants’ abuse – BBC News
‘A former vicar who sexually abused a woman and a girl, who he told “it was what God wanted”, has been jailed for eight years.’
BBC News, 21st February 2020
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
“Redesign legal services” to make them more accessible – Legal Futures
‘The way legal services are provided needs to change to recognise that a large portion of the population struggles with the law and needs more help with accessing it, a report from the Legal Services Board (LSB) has urged.’
Legal Futures, 24th February 2020
Source: www.legalfutures.co.uk
UN warns of rise of ‘cybertorture’ to bypass physical ban – The Guardian
‘Psychological torture is being exploited by states to circumvent the more widely understood ban on physically inflicting pain and may open the way to a future of “cybertorture”, the UN torture rapporteur has said.’
The Guardian, 21st February 2020
Source: www.theguardian.com
‘Misconceived’: ECtHR chief hits back at Sumption over rights – Law Society’s Gazette
‘Now is a dangerous time to roll back judicial power, the vice president of the European Court of Human Rights has said in a public rebuff to Lord Sumption’s high profile criticism of ‘law’s expanding empire’.’
Law Society's Gazette, 22nd February 2020
Source: www.lawgazette.co.uk
