A Trilogy of Speeches

Lord Neuberger (President of the Supreme Court) delivered the Neill Lecture at Oxford on 10th February 2017.  He retires this year and the selection process for his successor is well underway.  The Supreme Court was created by the Constitutional Reform Act 2005 and replaced the Appellate Committee of the House of Lords.   Lord Neuberger was a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary from 2007 to 2009 and became Master of the Rolls on 1st October 2009.  In 2012 he was appointed President of the Supreme Court and, under his leadership, the Supreme Court has developed a remarkable degree of public acceptance largely because of the ways in which it communicates with the general public through televised hearings, prompt publication of judgments and press releases on the court website.  The handing down of judgments also appears on Facebook.  Additionally, members of the court are frequent guest speakers and the content of their speeches is always of considerable interest not only to lawyers but to the public.  Lord Neuberger's speech at Oxford is no exception and it may be read at - "20 years a judge: Reflections and Refractions" - Neill Lecture, Oxford Law Facility 10th February 2017.

Two libel cases

The law of defamation developed at common law but has been modified in various ways by Parliament.  For example, the Defamation Act 2013 (fully in force 1st January 2014) introduced a "serious harm requirement."

Judgments in the two decided cases are available via the Courts and Tribunals Judiciary website:

Hourani v Thomson and others [2017] EWHC 432 (QB) Warby J 

Monroe v Hopkins [2017] EWHC 433 (QB) Warby J 

Another amendment to the Brexit Notification Bill

The European Union (Notification of Withdrawal) Bill has been amended by the House of Lords at Report Stage.  This is in addition to an amendment made at Committee Stage.

Here is the amended version.  The amendment is aimed at securing Parliamentary approval for the outcome of Article 50 TEU negotiations with the EU.  The prior approval of both Houses of Parliament shall also be required in relation to any decision by the Prime Minister that the United Kingdom shall leave the European Union without an agreement as to the applicable terms.

The Bill will return to the House of Commons which may or may not accept this amendment.  The government does not wish the amendment to be in the Bill because they claim it will harm the UK's negotiating position.  For a contrary view see Jolyon Maugham QC's blog Waiting for Godot.

It may be worth noting that Article 50(2) requires the European Parliament to consent to a Withdrawal Agreement. Without consent, the European Council cannot conclude such an agreement.

The question of whether the UK could unilaterally revoke an Article 50 notice has not (yet) been answered.  On this see The Three Knights Opinion.

Youth Justice Developments

Report December 2016:

In December 2016 a "final report" on Youth Justice was published - Review of the Youth Justice System in England and Wales (Cm 9298).  The report contains numerous recommendations (Annex A) but perhaps paragraph 179 of the report offers a succinct summary: "

Our aim should be to create a 21st century system that moves away from justice with some welfare, to a welfare system with justice."

The Martin Partington blog has also looked at the report.

The Great Repeal Bill ~ Constitution Committee Report

It was at the Conservative Party Conference 2016 that the idea first appeared of a "Great Repeal Bill" to take the UK out of the EU.  Some of the early reaction to the idea was noted in this previous post.  An obvious concern about such a Bill is that it is likely to hand enormous powers to Ministers to make secondary legislation as they seek, item by item, to remove from domestic law the influence of the EU.  Regrettably, Parliamentary control over the enactment of such legislation is not always as rigorous as it might be.

The House of Lords Constitution Committee has issued this report on the proposed Great Repeal Bill - Great Repeal Bill should not be used to avoid parliamentary scrutiny

A whacking huge bill to leave the EU ?

It has been claimed that the European Union (EU) will "force" the UK to pay up to €60 billion when the UK leaves the EU - Business Insider UK 15th November 2016

On 4th March, the European Union Committee published "Brexit and the EU budget" - 15th Report of Session 2016-17 - House of Lords Paper 125.  The Report Summary notes that the budget will be a contentious issue during the UK's negotiations over leaving the EU.  The UK provides approximately 12% of the resources available to the EU budget, and is also a significant net contributor. The removal of the UK’s payments into the budget will require the other EU Member States to agree either to pay more into the budget, or draw less from it. Neither option is without difficulty, and those difficulties may colour the wider Brexit negotiations.   The UK government has stated that it is open to making payments towards specific programmes in order to cement a cooperative future relationship with the EU but there are already demands from the EU, for much wider contributions.

More on the Brexit Notification Bill

The House of Lords has amended the European Union (Notification of Withdrawal) Bill.   The amendment has become Clause 1(2) and is aimed at requiring Ministers to bring forward proposals to ensure that the "EU derived-rights" of European Union (or European Economic Area)  citizens in the UK are protected - see the Bill as amended.   Clause 1(2) reads:

"Within three months of exercising the power under subsection (1), Ministers of the Crown must bring forward proposals to ensure that citizens of another European Union or European Economic Area country and their family members, who are legally resident in the United Kingdom on the day on which this Act is passed, continue to be treated in the same way with regards to their EU derived-rights and, in the case of residency, their potential to acquire such rights in the future."