United Kingdom

Playing Hardball with the Queen

Playing Hardball with the Queen

The idea of constitutional hardball was introduced to the world by Mark Tushnet. The sport is played when political actors decide the stakes are so high that any lawful action...
NDAs in Discrimination Cases: UK Women and Equalities Select Committee Report & Collective/Individual Justice Dilemmas

NDAs in Discrimination Cases: UK Women and Equalities Select Committee Report & Collective/Individual Justice Dilemmas

In June 2019 the UK Parliament’s Women and Equalities Select Committee (‘WESC’) published a report on the use of non-disclosure agreements (‘NDAs’) in discrimination cases, focussing on settlement. This built...
Updates on the Modern Slavery Act 2015: government showing signs of long-awaited leadership

Updates on the Modern Slavery Act 2015: government showing signs of long-awaited leadership

In the past year, the UK government has made unprecedented efforts to increase its engagement with the Modern Slavery Act 2015 (MSA). Commentators have long criticised the Act for not...
Poverty in the UK is violating human rights. What’s next?

Poverty in the UK is violating human rights. What’s next?

Last week, we presented the findings of our investigation into poverty in the United Kingdom to the UN Human Rights Council. Some have asked why the UN Special Rapporteur on...
Arm Sales to Saudi Arabia: Evaluating the Clear Risk of Violations of IHL

Arm Sales to Saudi Arabia: Evaluating the Clear Risk of Violations of IHL

On Thursday 20 June, the Court of Appeal issued its open judgment in the appeal concerning the lawfulness of the grant by the UK Government of export licences for arms...
Boris Johnson combats allegations of misconduct in public office

Boris Johnson combats allegations of misconduct in public office

Boris Johnson has been summoned to appear in the criminal courts: Is the case just a political stunt or ground-breaking litigation? Following a crowd funding campaign, Mr Ball has brought...
Stocker v Stocker: dictionaries, domestic violence, and defamation

Stocker v Stocker: dictionaries, domestic violence, and defamation

The UK Supreme Court has ruled that a woman was not liable in defamation to her ex-husband for writing public messages on Facebook stating that “he tried to strangle me”....
Kimathi and Others v Foreign & Commonwealth Office

Kimathi and Others v Foreign & Commonwealth Office

Kimathi and Others v Foreign & Commonwealth Office [2018] EWHC 2066 (also known as the ‘Mau Mau litigation’, after the Mau Mau rebellion that was instrumental in Kenya’s independence movement)...
Scrapping s 21: The need for secure private tenancies in England and Wales

Scrapping s 21: The need for secure private tenancies in England and Wales

In a victory for tenants’ rights campaigners, the UK Government has announced it will consult on repealing s 21 of the Housing Act 1988 (“1988 Act”), which entitles landlords to...
UK Supreme Court’s Vedanta Case – Hope for Zambian Communities Affected by Mining Pollution

UK Supreme Court’s Vedanta Case – Hope for Zambian Communities Affected by Mining Pollution

The recent UK Supreme Court case, Vedanta Resources Plc and another v Lungowe and others, affirms the principle that UK companies operating abroad owe a duty of care to those...
Capping Economic Inequalities

Capping Economic Inequalities

Last week, the UK Supreme Court in DA, DS and others v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions upheld a series of legal reforms that capped the level of...
Privacy International: Reaffirming the Rule of Law

Privacy International: Reaffirming the Rule of Law

On Wednesday, the UK Supreme Court delivered its judgment in Privacy International. The issue was whether the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT), a body set up to review state surveillance decisions,...

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