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Jade Weiner - 10th December 2020
On 09 November 2020, Mr Justice Turner of the High Court, handed down a judgment that denied the jurisdiction of the English Court to adjudicate the liability of BHP Plc and BHP Ltd on the merits, for the catastrophic consequences caused by the 2015 Fundão dam collapse. The judgment struck out the claims of over […]
- 10th December 2020
On 17 November 2020, the European Court of Human Rights (the Court) delivered B and C v. Switzerland, a case concerning the deportation of a homosexual Gambian national. While the Court noted that the mere existence of laws criminalising homosexual acts did not render deportation contrary to Article 3 ECHR, it concluded that the Swiss […]
Reuven (Ruvi) Ziegler - 10th December 2020
In an article criticising the notion that the government will be determining the scope of permissible private gatherings this Christmas, Lord Jonathan Sumption claimed that ‘For Christians, Christmas is a celebration of the birth of a redeemer. For everyone, it is a celebration of life.’ This is not an uncommon attempt to universalise and, in the process, secularise […]
Phoebe Woo - 10th December 2020
In the judgment handed down by the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal (‘CFA’) on 27 November 2020 (Leung Kwok Hung v Commissioner of Correctional Services [2020] HKCFA 37), it was held that the Commissioner of Correctional Service (‘the Commissioner’) has acted discriminatorily against the Applicant by requiring him to have his hair cut while […]
Ramy Abdu - 9th December 2020
The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) continues to stand out as a region with repeated and serious abuses of human rights. We are on the cusp of the 10th anniversary of the so-called Arab Spring, which erupted with such blazing hope for change among the next generation. In the years since, Egypt has sunk […]
Geoffrey Allsop - 9th December 2020
On 20 November 2020, the South African Constitutional Court delivered judgment in Mahlangu v Minister of Labour (“Mahlangu”). This case concerned the constitutionality of barring private domestic workers (or their dependents) from instituting compensation claims for workplace related injury, disease or death under the Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases Act (“COIDA”). COIDA creates […]
Sfiso Nxumalo - 9th December 2020
Section 10 of the Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act (“the Equality Act”) has not been without controversy and robust opprobrium. Since its inception, numerous legal academics and practitioners have, rightly, questioned the constitutionality of this provision. On 22 September 2020, the question regarding the constitutionality of section 10 of the Equality […]
Mariam Kizilbash - 8th December 2020
Until the summer of this year, Pakistan did not have any adequate state legislation or any other mechanism in place that enforced the rights of persons with disabilities (“PWDs”). It had ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (“the Convention”) in 2011 but there had been no specific domestic implementation of […]
Daniil Ukhorskiy - 8th December 2020
On Saturday 21 November, despite a nationwide lockdown, thousands took to the streets across France to protest the loi de securité globale (global security law) being debated in the General Assembly. The original Bill was largely uncontroversial, with most provisions simplifying existing policing law. The government took this opportunity to tack on the highly divisive […]
Andrea McArdle - 4th December 2020
Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s long tenure on the U.S. Supreme Court produced a limited but meaningful body of work in fair housing cases. Although overshadowed by her historic rulings on gender-based discrimination, among other Constitutional and administrative law issues, the impact of her record interpreting the Fair Housing Act’s (FHA) broadly framed policy aims has not […]
Pedro R. Borges de Carvalho and Amy Pearl Douglas - 24th November 2020
This piece briefly contextualises and reports on the final stretch of the Responsible Business Initiative (RBI) legislative process in Switzerland and delves into the legal provisions of the competing drafts to be submitted to a referendum in late November. On 29 November 2020, Swiss citizens will vote on the Responsible Business Initiative (RBI), a new […]
- 23rd November 2020
On 11 November 2020, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPCSC) decided to disqualify four members of the emergency sixth-term Hong Kong Legislative Council (the “Decision”), as they solicited external interference, vowed to vote against government bills indiscriminately, and objected to the National Security Law (NSL). Thus, the sanctity of Article 34 of […]