The draft EU (Voter Registration) Regulations 2016

Draft EU Referendum (Voter Registration) Regulations 2016 (PDF) Draft EU Referendum (Voter Registration) Regulations 2016 (Text) Here are the draft regulations that will (if approved by resolutions of both Houses of Parliament this morning) extend the voter registration deadline for the EU referendum. Thanks to Rich Greenhill for alerting me to their being online. Click […]

Miranda: the Court of Appeal’s interpretation of “terrorism”

I’ve already criticised what I think is a fundamental contradiction undermining the Court of Appeal’s judgment in the Miranda case. But there’s another aspect of the judgment that I must mention, which may well be of more lasting importance. The power used to stop and question David Miranda is conferred by paragraph 2(1) of Schedule […]

The self-contradictory Miranda appeal ruling

I’ve been following for some time David Miranda’s challenge to the lawfulness of his questioning at Heathrow airport in 2013. I wrote shortly after his detention; I covered his application for an injunction; I published his grounds for judicial review; I live-tweeted the judicial review hearing and analysed Lord Justice Laws’s judgment against Miranda; and […]

Proportionality, at length: the Supreme Court’s “QASA” ruling

The Supreme Court has in today’s judgment in R (Lumsdon) v Legal Services Board ruled lawful the Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates, as approved by the Legal Services Board. The scheme will require advocates to seek accreditation, which will require performance assessment by trial judges. The judgment’s unsurprisingly been welcomed by the Legal Services Board, […]

R (Miranda) v Home Secretary: witness statement of Detective Supt. Caroline Goode

A few weeks ago I published the witness statement of Oliver Robbins served on behalf of the Home Secretary in the Miranda case. That statement referred (at para. 32) to a further statement to be served by the police, also in opposition to David Miranda’s application for an injunction. Now I can also publish that […]

Geoffrey Robertson QC: there is a hidden agenda

Geoffrey Robertson’s was another impressive speech today. He reminded us of the days of the “dock brief” and of what Stephen Sedley has called the “great sleep” of public law in the middle of the 20th century – just before legal aid was created, he reminded us. He ended by attacking the government’s “hidden agenda”: […]

Dinah Rose QC: a declaration of a lack of interest

Here’s Dinah Rose’s speech at the “Save Justice” demonstration in front of the Ministry of Justice this afternoon. She began with a “declaration of a lack of interest” as someone who’s never done criminal legal aid work. I must thank Joshua Rozenberg, who kindly helped with sound.

Hunt’s handling of the NewsCorp-BSkyB deal was unlawful

Yesterday’s big news was the relevation at the Leveson Inquiry of the e-mails from Frédéric Michel to his NewsCorp colleagues about his contact with Jeremy Hunt, or at least with Jeremy Hunt’s special adviser, while Hunt was preparing to decide whether or not to refer NewsCorp’s bid for BSkyB to the Competition Commission. To recap, […]

Children’s Rights Alliance v Justice Secretary: campaign groups and human rights

It’s not unusual nowadays for campaign groups of all kinds to take judicial review proceedings against public authorities: it’s now well established that their knowledge of and involvement in matters of public interest means they can have a sufficient interest entitling them to challenge public law decisions within the area of their expertise. The key […]

R (Bailey) v Brent: law against the cuts (and politics)

As a resident of Brent in north-west London, I’m not sure what I think about the Labour council’s planned library cuts. I’m not happy that any should be cut. I don’t want social care to be cut any more than it needs to be, either, or any of the other important things councils do. And […]