House of Lords judgments, 2004

A derogation from the right to liberty under article 5 of the European Convention on Human Rights must be confined to measures strictly required by the…

Direct racial discrimination arises from less favourable treatment on racial grounds where relevant circumstances are the same or not materially different.…

A commercial settlement is construed objectively. Its language is read in the relevant context as a reasonable person in the parties’ position would understand…

For VAT purposes, a transaction comprising several elements must be classified by reference to its essential features and economic reality. Elements forming a…

Taxing provisions must be given a wide and practical meaning which takes account of the composite effect of transactions intended to have commercial unity. A…

Tax legislation is construed purposively and applied to the transaction viewed realistically. The approach associated with W T Ramsay Ltd v Inland Revenue…

For the third-party money-laundering offences under section 49(2) of the Drug Trafficking Act 1994 and section 93C(2) of the Criminal Justice Act 1988, the…

Article III, rule 2 of the Hague and Hague-Visby Rules governs the manner in which a carrier must perform the cargo-handling functions it has contractually…

Legal advice privilege protects confidential lawyer–client communications made for the purpose of obtaining or giving legal advice. It is not confined to…

Neither article 8 nor article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights has inherent precedence. The court must focus intensely on the specific rights in…

The extent of a European patent is determined by purposively construing its claims through the eyes of the skilled reader. Article 69 of the European Patent…

A patent claim containing several features must first be analysed to determine whether they form one invention. Features constitute a single invention where…

Section 12(3) of the Human Rights Act 1998 does not impose a rigid probability test for every interim order restraining publication. The applicant’s prospects…

Article 6(2) does not prohibit statutory presumptions or reverse burdens in criminal proceedings. A legal burden is compatible with the presumption of…

Where a statute creates a specific offence and imposes a time limit for prosecuting it, the prosecution cannot evade that restriction by charging the same…

Where a surgeon negligently fails to warn a patient of a small but established risk inherent in proposed surgery, causation may exceptionally be established if…

Section 17 of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 protects the secrecy of the interception-warrant regime. It does not prevent a court from…

Article 7(1) of the European Convention on Human Rights compares the penalty actually imposed with the penalty which the law authorised when the offence was…

The retention of lawfully obtained fingerprints, DNA profiles and samples after an acquittal or discontinuance does not, according to the majority, engage…

A court may enforce a judgment from a non-Convention state without directly assuming responsibility under article 6 for the foreign proceedings. The Convention…

A compensatory award for unfair dismissal under section 123(1) of the Employment Rights Act 1996 compensates economic loss. It cannot include compensation for…

The statutory unfair-dismissal code excludes a common-law claim for loss arising from the dismissal itself or the unfair manner of dismissal. It does not…

A judge may appear biased where, as a government law officer, the judge previously promoted legislation and publicly committed the Government to a view about…

Reasons for a planning decision must be intelligible and adequate. They must explain why the matter was decided as it was and resolve the principal important…

Under the Disability Discrimination Act 1995, the reasonable-adjustment duty may arise when an employee becomes unable through disability to perform the…

An employer’s absolute duty under regulation 7(1) of the Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations 1992 is to maintain equipment so that it remains…

Article 14 prohibits unjustified discrimination within the ambit of another Convention right. Where legislation grants succession rights to unmarried…

A failure to diagnose a congenital learning difficulty and provide suitable teaching may constitute personal injury where its untreated effects impair mental…

The enforceability of a contract executed on a company’s behalf depends on whether the signatories had actual or apparent authority under ordinary principles…

Article 8 may be engaged by the foreseeable effects of immigration removal on a person's mental health, even where removal would not violate article 3…

A removal or extradition decision may engage rights under the European Convention on Human Rights other than article 3, even though the anticipated violation…

Section 27(1) of the Capital Gains Tax Act 1979 fixes the time of a disposal under a completed contract. It does not determine the identity of the person…

For insolvency set-off, a debt need not have become due and payable before the insolvency date. It is enough that, before that date, a contractual or statutory…

The determination of entitlement to a social-security funeral payment is a co-operative and inquisitorial process. The department must ask the questions needed…

Misuse of private information is engaged where the publisher knows or ought to know that the claimant reasonably expects the information to remain private. The…

Community law required a post-operative trans person who had successfully transitioned to be recognised in the acquired gender within the fields governed by…

Once personal injury to a primary victim is reasonably foreseeable, a negligent defender is liable for all physical or psychiatric injury causally resulting.…

Compensation for compulsory acquisition is the fair financial equivalent of the land taken. Open-market value includes existing potentiality and pre-existing…

Compensation under section 133 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988 is directed to wrongful convictions resulting from a serious failure in the investigation or…

A person whose conviction is quashed qualifies for statutory compensation only if the conditions in section 133 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988 are satisfied.…

A statutory power to license a business and impose reasonable conditions does not, without clear language, authorise a licensing authority to regulate the…

A highway authority’s statutory duty to maintain a highway concerns its physical fabric. It does not require warning signs or road markings to alert drivers to…

A prescriptive easement may arise from long, open and uninterrupted user even though the unauthorised user constituted a criminal offence. The decisive…

An employer must take reasonable care to protect an employee from foreseeable psychiatric injury caused by occupational stress. The employer must act on what…

The procedural obligation under article 2 to investigate a death caused by force is consequential upon the death. Section 6 of the Human Rights Act 1998…

Where article 2 requires an effective investigation into a death, the statutory question how the deceased came by the death extends beyond the immediate means…

Where an inquest is used to discharge the state's procedural obligation under article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights, it should ordinarily…

Property subject to a crystallised floating charge is, to the extent of the secured debt, a separate fund belonging beneficially to the charge-holder. The…

Under Scots law, delivery of a disposition does not transfer the real right in land. The purchaser remains uninfeft until the disposition is recorded or…

For services supplied during an approved alteration to qualify for zero-rating under item 2 of Group 6 of Schedule 8 to the Value Added Tax Act 1994, the…

Section 80(1)(a) of the Police Act 1996 permits disclosure of information received by the Police Complaints Authority only so far as disclosure is necessary…

An assignment by way of security may encompass future improvements to specified patent rights. A contractual discharge of the assignor’s personal obligations…

Residence is of a person’s own choice for the purposes of section 199(1)(a) of the Housing Act 1996 only where the person chose the particular district as the…

In criminal proceedings, prosecution material which may weaken the prosecution case or strengthen the defence must ordinarily be disclosed. Material which is…

After a jury has returned its verdict, evidence about matters intrinsic to its deliberations is generally inadmissible. The rule protects frank collective…

For the purposes of section 34 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994, a defendant relies on a fact when counsel, acting on instructions, puts a…