House of Lords judgments, 2001

Where the resolution of proceedings before a final national court depends on uncertain questions concerning the meaning of European Community plant-health…

On a sole natural parent’s application for adoption, section 15(3)(b) of the Adoption Act 1976 requires a reason sufficient to justify permanently excluding…

Under the double criminality rule, an offence is within the jurisdiction of a requesting or requested state when that state has power to try it. Jurisdiction…

For confiscation under Criminal Justice Act 1988, a person derives a pecuniary advantage when he evades or defers a debt arising from the offence. The…

A local authority may exercise a statutory power only for the public purpose for which it was conferred. Politicians may hope that a lawful policy will bring…

When fresh evidence is received on an appeal against conviction, the Court of Appeal must decide for itself whether the conviction is unsafe. Its task concerns…

Under English law, an order restraining foreign proceedings operates in personam. It neither binds the foreign court nor determines that court’s jurisdiction.…

An English exclusive jurisdiction agreement will ordinarily be enforced unless the party suing elsewhere establishes strong reasons for departure from the…

A mortgage covenant expressed to be joint and several may make each mortgagor liable for money advanced to any one of them. Where an interpretation clause…

Section 22(4) of the Human Rights Act 1998, read with sections 7(1)(b) and 7(6), does not permit a convicted person to rely on an alleged Convention breach at…

Articles 2, 3 and 9 of the Convention do not confer a right to assisted suicide. Article 2 protects life and cannot yield a right to die through another’s…

An authorised vehicle examiner may require a transport operator, without prior notice or suspicion of falsification, to hand over tachograph records for…

A landlord considering consent to an assignment must act on grounds connected with the landlord and tenant relationship and the subject matter of the lease.…

A contractual power permitting a creditor to sell assets belonging to its debtor and apply the proceeds towards the debt creates a charge. Where the assets…

Tree-root encroachment may remain a continuing nuisance while the roots dehydrate soil and inhibit rehydration. Impairment of the load-bearing qualities of…

Section 9 of the Interception of Communications Act 1985 excludes evidence of an unlawful interception and its fruits where the interceptor belongs to a…

Entrapment is not a substantive defence. Where law-enforcement officers have created crime by conduct so seriously improper that prosecution would compromise…

The exclusion from fairness review for plain terms defining the main subject matter or concerning the adequacy of price or remuneration must be construed…

A professional adviser’s liability for economic loss depends on the scope of the duty undertaken. A person engaged only to supply specified information is…

Under section 6(4) of the Prescription and Limitation (Scotland) Act 1973, a creditor may be induced to refrain from claiming even without consciously deciding…

Contract damages do not generally compensate distress caused merely by breach. However, damages may be awarded where a major or important part of the…

Victimisation under section 2(1) of the Race Relations Act 1976 requires less favourable treatment for which the protected act was a conscious or unconscious…

Deportation in the interests of national security does not require a direct or immediate threat targeted at the United Kingdom. Support for terrorism abroad…

A statutory provision deeming a foreign transferee’s income to be the transferor’s income for income tax purposes does not, without express words, remove the…

A shadow director falls within the extended statutory meaning of “director” in the Income and Corporation Taxes Act 1988. Living accommodation and benefits in…

Undue influence is established by proof that influence was abused so that consent was not the product of free will. The claimant bears the legal burden. Proof…

For the purposes of section 1 of the Housing Act 1988, a dwelling-house is a place where a person lives and makes a home. A single room may qualify. The…

Article 3a(3) of Council Directive 89/552/EEC requires a member state to prevent broadcasters under its jurisdiction from exercising exclusive rights so that a…

An accused charged with indecent assault upon a girl under 16 is entitled to an acquittal if he may honestly have believed that she was 16 or over, provided…

For an offence of knowingly participating in the fraudulent evasion of an import prohibition, the prosecution must prove that the goods were prohibited and…

A statutory power permitting execution in one United Kingdom jurisdiction of an arrest warrant issued in another applies according to the warrant’s apparent…

Copyright in the typographical arrangement of a composite publication protects the arrangement of the published product as a whole. It does not create…

For possession under section 5 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971, the prosecution must prove control of the thing and knowledge of its existence. It need not…

Damages for personal injury are compensatory. Each head of loss must first be identified and calculated by comparing like with like. Statutory rules governing…

A statutory saving or transitional provision must be construed in its context and according to its evident purpose. A provision preserving accrued benefit…

Under the Drug Trafficking Offences Act 1986, the Crown Court assesses a convicted defendant’s realisable property solely to fix the amount of a monetary…

Where a worker’s fluctuating hours form a recognisable annual cycle which includes school holidays, the worker is treated as engaged in work throughout that…

A cosmetic product covered by Council Directive 76/768/EEC is excluded from Council Directive 93/42/EEC on medical devices. The attachment of a CE marking…

A prohibition under article 2 of Regulation (EEC) 3541/92 against satisfying Iraqi claims relating to contracts or transactions affected by the sanctions…

The VAT exemption for the leasing or letting of immovable property is an autonomous Community law concept and must be construed strictly. A right to place an…

Exemplary damages in tort are not confined to causes of action for which such damages had been awarded before 1964. Their availability turns on the character…

Article 17(5)(c) of the Sixth Council Directive (77/388/EEC) permits a member state to use different methods to apportion residual input tax. A use-based…

For small companies’ corporation tax relief, the word “may” in section 416(6) of the Income and Corporation Taxes Act 1988 expresses conditionality. It does…

Prisoners retain the fundamental rights of access to a court, access to legal advice and confidential communication with legal advisers. General statutory…

Evidence of previous sexual behaviour between a complainant and an accused may be relevant to consent, although it cannot itself prove consent on the occasion…

An appurtenant common right of pasture for a fixed number of animals is severable from the dominant land and may become a right in gross. Section 187(1) of the…

Article 6(1) may apply when an administrative planning or compulsory-purchase decision directly determines civil rights. It does not require policy and…

An employer may be vicariously liable for an employee’s deliberate and criminal wrongdoing. The decisive question is whether the tort was so closely connected…

The use of a trade mark by a bare exclusive licensee does not, merely because the proprietor lacks quality control, make the mark liable to mislead. A mark…

A power and duty to deal with a certified pension scheme surplus permits an employer, subject to the scheme and actuarial certification of reasonableness, to…

An unincorporated association may be a taxable person making taxable supplies to its members. A supply arises where an association provides facilities or…

A contractual commencement notice which activates reciprocal commercial obligations may remain effective despite an unknown latent defect. Its effect depends…

Under Carriage of Goods by Sea Act 1992, a bill of lading holder is subject to contractual liabilities only when rights of suit have vested under section 2 and…

Untargeted misfeasance in public office may arise where a public officer knowingly acts unlawfully with knowledge of probable injury, or consciously disregards…

Liability for knowingly aiding unlawful discrimination under section 33(1) of the Race Relations Act 1976 requires assistance in doing the particular act made…

Under section 33(1) of the Race Relations Act 1976, a person aids another by knowingly giving more than negligible help or assistance towards an act made…

The common law cannot provide a general damages remedy for unfairness in the manner of dismissal. Such a remedy would duplicate the statutory right under Part…

Under regulation 4 of the Prosecution of Offences (Custody Time Limits) Regulations 1987, each legally distinct offence charged in a magistrates’ court…

Where regulation 11(2) of the Housing Benefit (General) Regulations 1987 requires an authority to reduce an unreasonably high eligible rent, the authority must…

For an affray under section 3(1) of the Public Order Act 1986, a defendant must use or threaten unlawful violence towards another person who is actually…

Under article 1(4) of the Second EEC Motor Insurance Directive 84/5/EEC, knowledge that a vehicle is uninsured includes actual knowledge and deliberate…

A general release is construed by ordinary objective principles. It may extend to unknown or unforeseen claims where sufficiently clear language and the…

A court of final instance must seek a preliminary ruling where the resolution of proceedings depends upon the interpretation or validity of Community…

The Ramsay approach is not a free-standing rule invalidating tax-motivated transactions. The court must identify the statutory concept, construe it purposively…

Domestic procedural rules governing directly effective Community rights must make enforcement neither impossible nor excessively difficult. They must also be…

For VAT purposes, the essential features of a transaction must be assessed from the perspective of a typical consumer. A service that is economically a single…

Proceedings in the High Court under Part VI of the Criminal Justice Act 1988 to restrain or realise property are civil proceedings. They retain that character…

For section 238(4)(b) of the Insolvency Act 1986, consideration is identified as a matter of substance and fact. It may include the value of a linked…

Under section 39(5) of the Marine Insurance Act 1906, blind-eye knowledge of unseaworthiness is subjective. It requires a firmly grounded suspicion of the…