House of Lords judgments, 2005

The restrictions imposed by section 21 of the Crown Proceedings Act 1947 do not apply to proceedings invoking the supervisory jurisdiction of the Court of…

A minister of religion may hold ecclesiastical office and also work under a legally binding contract. Office-holding and the spiritual character of the duties…

For article 17 of the Warsaw Convention 1929, the accident is the cause of bodily injury, not the injury itself. It ordinarily requires an unexpected or…

A court or judicial tribunal may not admit a statement established to have been obtained by torture. The rule applies irrespective of where, by whom or under…

The Landlord and Tenant (Covenants) Act 1995 provides statutory routes by which tenants and landlords may obtain release from liabilities that would otherwise…

The judicial determination of the minimum term for a mandatory life prisoner forms part of sentencing and therefore of the criminal trial. Article 6 of the…

Under section 38(6) of the Children Act 1989, a court may direct an examination or assessment only where it is truly an assessment of the child. It may include…

Under Part 1 of the Extradition Act 2003, “conduct” means the conduct alleged or relied upon in the Part 1 warrant. Section 65(2) cannot apply if any part of…

Where legislation withdraws support from an asylum-seeker and the state also prevents that person from working, the resulting regime constitutes treatment for…

A statutory reverter under section 2 of the School Sites Act 1841 occurs only when land ceases to be used for the relevant statutory educational purpose. The…

A person temporarily admitted under statutory written authority, and complying with the attached conditions, is “lawfully present” for paragraph 4 of the…

Criminal public nuisance requires an unwarranted act, or omission to perform a legal duty, which endangers the life, health, property or comfort of the public…

A transaction containing several important elements may constitute a single supply for VAT purposes even though none is ancillary to another. The court must…

A statutory scheme permitting a successful litigant’s conditional-fee success fee to be recovered from an unsuccessful media defendant is compatible in…

Article 5(4) of the European Convention on Human Rights gives a detained patient a practical and effective right to take proceedings. It does not require…

Anticipation requires both disclosure and enablement. The prior art must disclose subject matter whose performance necessarily infringes the patent. A merely…

A statutory mental-health code issued for guidance is not binding instruction. Hospitals must give it great weight and may depart from it only for cogent…

The capacity in which the Crown exercises executive power in an overseas territory is determined principally by the territory’s constitutional machinery, not…

Legislation enacted under the procedure in section 2(1) of the Parliament Act 1911 is primary legislation. Subject to the express exceptions, that procedure…

Where a defendant risks disclosure of previous convictions because he has attacked prosecution witnesses, that risk does not ordinarily prevent a jury from…

Where Parliament assigns disputes about tax assessments or relief to specialist commissioners, a taxpayer who can still obtain the disputed relief must…

A national court of final instance must refer a question of Community law where its resolution is necessary and the answer is not acte clair. It was unclear…

Article 6(1) of the European Convention on Human Rights does not confer an absolute right to an oral hearing at every stage of criminal proceedings. For a…

A sentence of detention during Her Majesty’s Pleasure imposed under section 53(1) of the Children and Young Persons Act 1933 for murder committed before 30…

A court postponing a determination in confiscation proceedings under section 72A of the Criminal Justice Act 1988 must specify a period. It need not fix the…

Failure to comply with a statutory procedural requirement does not automatically invalidate the resulting act. The court should avoid rigid classification of…

A statutory child-support scheme may replace a carer’s private right to recover maintenance with enforcement by a public authority. Under the Child Support Act…

Money held by an intermediary is a potential emolument under section 43(11)(a) of the Finance Act 1989 if the governing arrangements create a realistic…

When deciding whether a life-sentence prisoner qualifies for accelerated release under the Northern Ireland (Sentences) Act 1998, the Sentence Review…

A Parole Board empowered to withhold sensitive material from a prisoner’s representative may, in rare and exceptional cases, appoint a special advocate where…

Where a cause of action arises for recovery of a debt secured by a mortgage, section 20 of the Limitation Act 1980 continues to govern the limitation period…

A tribunal exceeds its powers under section 68(2)(b) of the Arbitration Act 1996 only when it purports to exercise a power which it does not possess. An…

For matrimonial jurisdiction under section 5(2) of the Domicile and Matrimonial Proceedings Act 1973, habitual residence need not be lawful under immigration…

A charge is floating where, until a future event or intervention, the chargor may use the charged assets and withdraw them from the security in the ordinary…

In an application to return a child summarily to a non-Convention country, the individual child’s welfare is paramount under the Children Act 1989. Hague…

Under Schedule 2 to the Immigration Act 1971, a person remains “liable to detention” while the Secretary of State intends to remove that person and removal…

Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights bars removal where substantial grounds show a real risk of treatment contrary to that article in the…

Article 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights requires a practical evaluation, rather than mechanical application of a sequence of questions. The claim…

Contempt of Court Act 1981, section 8(1), does not prevent a juror from making a bona fide disclosure of jury misconduct to the court to prompt an…

An organisation is proscribed under the Terrorism Act 2000 where the name listed in Schedule 2 is an umbrella or generic description encompassing that…

Where excise goods subject to a duty-suspension arrangement are unlawfully diverted to the consumer market, they are “made available for consumption” within…

Under section 28(3) of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990, an unmarried man becomes the legal father of a child conceived with donor sperm only if…

A statutory power carries incidental powers only where they are necessary to make the express power effective for its legislative purpose. It is insufficient…

Article 3 does not ordinarily entitle an alien facing removal to remain in a contracting state so as to continue receiving medical, social or other assistance…

The duty under section 3 of the Human Rights Act 1998 remains a process of statutory interpretation. It permits a strong presumption of compatibility with…

Sex-specific survivor benefits may remain objectively justified while Parliament phases out protection for a class which has suffered historical economic…

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990 empowers the statutory authority to license embryo testing for tissue compatibility. An embryo’s suitability…

A bond trustee’s contractual obligation to accelerate bonds may arise once the relevant event of default has been established between the trustee and…

In civil proceedings, similar fact evidence is legally admissible when, assuming it to be true, it is logically probative or disprobative of an issue. It need…

When a confession admitted by the trial judge may, in the jury’s view, have been obtained by oppression or other improper means within section 76(2) of the…

Police officers investigating crime do not generally owe victims or witnesses a common law duty to protect them from psychiatric harm caused by the manner of…

Healthcare professionals investigating suspected child abuse generally owe no common law duty of care to a parent suspected of causing the harm. Their duty is…

A statement which is wholly exculpatory or neutral when made is not a confession under sections 76 and 82(1) of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984…

A statutory reprimand or final warning may be imposed on a young offender without the consent of the offender or an appropriate adult. The scheme requires a…

Section 63 of the Mental Health Act 1983 authorises treatment without consent for any mental disorder from which a detained patient is suffering. Its operation…

Refugee status under article 1A(2) of the Refugee Convention requires a current well-founded fear of persecution for a Convention reason. The cessation…

For possession of an imitation firearm under section 17(2) of the Firearms Act 1968, the accused must possess a thing which is separate and distinct from his…

A local housing authority’s statutory function of managing, regulating and controlling its housing includes regulating vehicle parking on its housing estates.…

Recovery of an overpaid social security benefit under section 71 of the Social Security Administration Act 1992 requires a misrepresentation or breach of a…

A court may test whether a professed belief is genuine, serious, sufficiently important, intelligible and compatible with human dignity. It may not assess the…

Damages under section 8 of the Human Rights Act 1998 are not automatic upon proof of a Convention violation. A finding or declaration will ordinarily provide…

A prison governor adjudicating a disciplinary charge must satisfy the common law requirement of objective impartiality. The question is whether a fair-minded…

When credible allegations of jury misconduct arise during deliberations, the trial judge must take effective action. Section 8(1) of the Contempt of Court Act…

A straight bill of lading, naming a consignee without being transferable to order or bearer, is a bill of lading within article I(b) of the Hague-Visby Rules…

A judge may never direct a jury to return a verdict of guilty. The rule applies even where the relevant facts are agreed, only one conclusion appears rational…

A fugitive from justice remains entitled to invoke the civil jurisdiction of the English courts. Under rule 32.3 of the Civil Procedure Rules 1998…

A solicitor who undertakes duties to two clients which cannot both be performed remains liable for breaching either duty. The duty owed to one client is not…

An advocate is judged by the standard applicable to any skilled professional working in difficult and time-constrained circumstances. Liability arises only…

In a joint trial, a jury may first determine one defendant’s guilt from that defendant’s out-of-court confession. It may then use the established fact of that…

Under section 77 of the Taxation of Chargeable Gains Act 1992, property may remain “derived property” after it has left the settlement containing the original…

The statutory rule requiring protected child witnesses to give evidence by video recording and live link is compatible with article 6. A fair trial requires an…

Contractual remoteness is assessed by reference to the parties’ reasonable contemplation when the contract was made. The two limbs of the rule in Hadley v…

In clinical negligence, a claimant must prove on the balance of probabilities that the breach caused actionable personal injury. A reduced chance of cure or…

A determinate-sentence prisoner who challenges revocation of a licence has no automatic right to an oral hearing. The Parole Board must, however, examine the…