Today's Supreme Court’s judgment in Shvidler v Foreign Secretary addresses key issues about the role of courts generally and appellate courts in particular when it comes to applying the proportionality test — and a powerful dissent from Lord Leggatt discloses a sharp division of judicial opinion about the proper nature of the judicial role in this context.| Public Law for Everyone
Following a catastrophic administrative error placing the lives of thousands of Afghans at risk, the UK government obtained a super-injunction, enabling it to attempt to clear up the mess it had cr…| Public Law for Everyone
Calls for withdrawal and kneejerk defences of the status quo each risk oversimplifying the UK’s developing political debate about the European Convention on Human Rights. The implications of each position must at least be properly understood if the debate is to be a meaningful one. As the UK’s Labour government increasingly pursues an agenda apparently […]| Public Law for Everyone
The following, which is republished here with permission, is the foreword to the July 2025 issue of the Solicitors Journal, in which I note that the rule of law today finds itself under challenge i…| Public Law for Everyone
The Assisted Dying Bill has been approved by the House of Commons. But to become law, it also needs the approval of the House of Lords. What constitutional role will the Lords play in this process — and would it be undemocratic for the unelected upper chamber to block the Bill? The Terminally Ill Adults […]| Public Law for Everyone
The UK’s Justice Secretary has promised domestic legislation and called for wider ECHR reform because, she says, the application of human rights is now ‘out of step with common sense’. What does this tell us about the government’s broader commitment to human rights in the face of political pressure and shifting public opinion? In a […]| Public Law for Everyone
Lord Reed is right to argue that the role of the judiciary needs to be explained and defended more carefully than ever thanks to the challenges wrought by the rise of populism. And if experience el…| Public Law for Everyone
The Supreme Court’s judgment in R (The Spitalfields Historic Building Trust) v London Borough of Tower Hamlets [2025] UKSC 11 traverses some important ground concerning the principle of legality and heightened-scrutiny rationality review — and serves as a reminder that a good deal of work remains to be done if doctrine and principle are to […]| Public Law for Everyone
The judgment of Chamberlain J in KP v Foreign Secretary revisits and clarifies some fundamentals about the nature of substantive judicial review. In doing so, it reminds us that the ‘proporti…| Public Law for Everyone
Peter Hennessy and Andrew Blick’s new book, Could it Happen Here?, is a wake-up call to those who care about the health of British democracy. National complacency about our constitutional and…| Public Law for Everyone
Government proposals to streamline judicial review of decisions authorising major infrastructure projects have been branded ‘Trumpian’. As well as being misplaced, such criticisms risk …| Public Law for Everyone
The new Attorney-General’s recent lecture on the rule of law makes all the right noises. But it remains to be seen whether the Labour Government will be willing to put its money, and its actions, w…| Public Law for Everyone
The Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill has been published with much fanfare, following the conclusion a treaty between the UK and Rwanda that provides for some asylum-seekers to be remo…| Public Law for Everyone
