Lord Reed ~ to succeed Lord Mance as Deputy President of the Supreme Court

Lord Reed will become Deputy President of the Supreme Court with effect from 6th June when Lord Mance, the existing Deputy, retires - No. 10 Downing Street 29th May and Supreme Court announcement.

Lord Reed became a Justice of The Supreme Court in February 2012.  After studying law at the universities of Edinburgh and Oxford, Lord Reed was admitted to the Faculty of Advocates in 1983, where he undertook a wide range of civil work. He served as a senior judge in Scotland for 13 years, being appointed to the Outer House of the Court of Session in 1998 and promoted to the Inner House in January 2008. He has sat as an ad hoc judge of the European Court of Human Rights.  Lord Reed is one of the two Scottish Justices of The Supreme Court. 

Abortion ~ Referendum in Ireland ~ Northern Ireland

On 25th May 2018, a Referendum on the Regulation of the Termination of Pregnancy was held in Ireland - BBC News 27th May - The Guardian 26th May.

The referendum question was whether to accept an amendment to Article 40 of the Irish Constitution so that provision can be made in law for the regulation of termination of pregnancy.  The Irish electorate voted by 1,429,981 votes to 723,632 in favour of amendment - i.e. 66.4% to 33.6% with a turnout of 64.13%.

Rendition ~ Will we ever know the full truth?

Earlier this month, the Attorney-General informed the House of Commons that litigation concerning alleged British involvement in extraordinary rendition had been finalised by agreement.  The claimants were Mr Abdel Hakim Belhaj and his wife Fatima Boudchar.  The litigation was hard fought by the British government but, in early 2017,  the government lost its eventual appeal to the Supreme Court.  Even then, it took over a year – and with the help of mediation – to reach a finalisation of the litigation and that was without any admission of legal liability.  Mrs Belhaj was paid a sum of £500,000 and received an apology.  Mr Belhaj sought only an apology which he received.  This post looks at these lamentable events.

GDPR comes on 25th May

GDPR is the General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 of the European Parliament and Council on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data.  The Regulation will be applicable as of May 25th, 2018 in all member states to harmonise data privacy laws across Europe.

The GDPR has direct effect across all EU member states and, as such, would apply in the UK without the need for additional legislation.   Nevertheless,

UK Supreme Court: Questions of Divorce and Civil Partnership

"Hypocrisy and lack of intellectual honesty which is so characteristic a feature of the current law ...." - Sir James Munby.

The appeal to the Supreme Court in Owens v Owens concerned a defended divorce petition.  See HERE for further details and links to video of the appeal hearings).

Defended divorce cases are nowadays relatively rare.

Contract ~ an interesting case

 English law of contract generally requires that the person seeking to enforce a contract has to have provided "consideration"  The requirement for consideration has been criticised but it remains a key element in the creation of most contracts.  The word "consideration" is a term of art and can be defined as - "An act or forbearance of one party, or the promise thereof, is the price for which the promise of the other is bought, and the promise thus given for value is enforceable" - Pollock on Contracts - approved by the House of Lords in - Dunlop v Selfridge [1915] AC 847. 

On 16th May the Supreme Court gave judgment in Rock Advertising Ltd v MWB Business Exchange Centres [2018] UKSC 24 - Lady Hale, Lord Wilson, Lord Sumption, Lord Lloyd-Jones, Lord Briggs. Watch the court handing down judgment.

European Union (Withdrawal) Bill passes the House of Lords

The Third Reading of the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill took place on 16th May and the Bill, as amended, now returns to the House of Commons.

The Lords agreed further amendments, mostly of a technical nature, to the Bill.  One particularly notable amendment was to insert a new clause dealing with Maintenance of EU environmental principles and standards.  This will require the Secretary of State to take steps designed to ensure that the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the EU does not result in the removal or diminution of any rights, powers, liabilities, obligations, restrictions, remedies and procedures that contribute to the protection and improvement of the environment.  This amendment passed by 294 to 244.