R (Miller) v The Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union – Substance over Form?
In a ground-breaking decision, the High Court issued a declaratory order that ‘the Secretary of State does not have power under the Crown’s prerogative to give notice pursuant to Article...
Worker Status for App-Drivers: Uber-rated?
In what has been heralded as the ‘employment case of the year’, the Central London employment tribunal has ruled that Uber drivers are workers within s.230(3)(b) of the Employment Rights...
EU Rights as British Rights
According to a carefully argued contribution by Professor Finnis in the Miller debate, rights under the European Communities Act 1972 ‘are not “statutory rights enacted by Parliament”’; they are only...
The Least Dangerous Branch: Whose Role is it to Protect Parliamentary Sovereignty? Miller and the Human Rights Implications of Brexit
One of the extraordinary outcomes of the Brexit referendum has been the insistence that the Government is entitled to exercise its powers in relation to the Brexit process without involving...
Miller: Winning Battles and Losing Wars
The claimants in Miller won the first round of the legal battle, since the High Court concluded that Parliament’s approval had to be forthcoming before Article 50 could be triggered....
A First Take on Miller – with a Note on the Human Rights Perspective
The High Court today handed down its decision in Miller v Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union. As has now been widely reported, the High Court found that...
An English Duty to Have ‘Due Regard’ – An Effective Means of Upholding Children’s Rights?
In its Third Report of Session 2016–17, scrutinising the Children and Social Work Bill, the Joint Committee on Human Rights recommends the introduction in England of a duty on public...
Having Regard to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child
The Third Report of the Joint Committee on Human Rights for the Session 2016-7 has recommended the inclusion of a clause in the Children and Social Work Bill which would...
Brexit: Foundational Constitutional and Interpretive Principles: II
This should be read with the previous posting. They are both designed to reveal underlying issues of constitutional and interpretive principle that pertain to Brexit. The previous post considered constitutional...
Brexit: Foundational Constitutional and Interpretive Principles: I
The post-referendum discourse has been marked by vibrant political and legal exchange in Parliament and the courts. This is not the place for detailed engagement with all such arguments, nor...
Legislating for Trans Equality: Recent Developments in the United Kingdom and Ireland
In January 2016, the House of Commons Select Committee on Women and Equalities published a landmark report on ‘Transgender Equality’. Among the Committee’s many recommendations was a proposal to amend...
Joint Committee on Human Rights Calls on UK Government to Justify ‘Presumption to Derogate’
The UK Parliament’s Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR) has written to the Secretary of State for Defence, Michael Fallon, requesting details about the Government’s proposal to derogate from the...
