Supreme Court judgments, 2012

A repudiatory breach of an employment contract does not automatically end the contract. It ends only when the innocent party accepts the repudiation through a…

Police observation of a person’s movements in public does not, without more, interfere with the right to respect for private life under article 8. The question…

The legislative competence of the Scottish Parliament is determined by construing the particular rules in the Scotland Act 1998 according to their ordinary…

Information supplied by an alleged victim of child abuse may attract public interest immunity, but the immunity is not absolute. The public interest in…

The prohibition of disability discrimination in employment under the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 applies only where the statutory definition of…

A statutory provision may be in force as law without being in effective operation. Nevertheless, where Parliament fixes the date by which a statutory scheme…

A claim for damages arising from completed acts or omissions which allegedly breached a Convention right may proceed by ordinary action. Judicial review is…

Vicarious liability is not confined to a contract of employment. A relationship may suffice where its essential incidents make it akin to employment. Relevant…

A Norwich Pharmacal disclosure order must be a necessary and proportionate response to the circumstances. The court must balance the applicant’s interest in…

Article 1F(c) of the Convention relating to the Status of Refugees must be interpreted restrictively and applied cautiously. It is reserved for extreme conduct…

A devolved legislature may remove or modify a pre-commencement ministerial function where that change is incidental or consequential to another provision…

The statutory right to institute and conduct a private prosecution is subject to the Director of Public Prosecutions’ power under section 6(2) of the…

A confiscation order under Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 must be read and applied compatibly with article 1 of the First Protocol. The Crown Court must refuse an…

A threat of eviction can engage an obligation of absolute warrandice even though the challenger does not yet hold the real right to the property. The purchaser…

It is not clear whether the categories in Article 7(3) of Directive 2004/38/EC exhaust the circumstances in which a Union citizen who has ceased work may…

Habeas corpus may issue against a respondent who lacks physical custody where the respondent has control in fact, or there are reasonable grounds for…

A court may strike out an equal pay claim under section 2(3) of the Equal Pay Act 1970 only where an employment tribunal offers the more convenient forum for…

A foreign judgment imposing personal liability in insolvency avoidance proceedings remains a judgment in personam. It is enforceable at common law only where…

A national limitation rule governing the enforcement of rights derived from European Union law must not make their exercise practically impossible or…

A decision which changes a specific development project is not a modification of a plan or programme under the Strategic Environmental Assessment Directive…

Paid annual leave for civil aviation crew must carry remuneration corresponding to normal remuneration. It includes payments intrinsically linked to…

Where the statutory conditions for confiscation are satisfied, the Crown Court must make a confiscation order even if the offender receives an absolute or…

A building is a “house” under section 2(1) of the Leasehold Reform Act 1967 only if it is both designed or adapted for living in and reasonably called a house.…

Under section 13(4) of the State Immunity Act 1978, state property is susceptible to enforcement only where its current or intended use is for commercial…

When one of several joint secure tenants dies, the tenancy remains vested in the surviving joint tenant by survivorship. There is no transmission of title.…

Refugee protection cannot be refused because an applicant could avoid persecution by concealing a protected belief or characteristic, or by pretending loyalty…

Under section 63A(2) of the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 and section 54A(2) of the Race Relations Act 1976, a claimant must first prove facts from which…

In care proceedings, the ordinary practice is to make no costs order against a party, including a local authority, unless its behaviour was reprehensible or…

Part 5 of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 does not give the High Court power to make a civil recovery order in respect of property outside England and Wales.…

When a public authority decides whether to exercise a discretionary power to achieve a public objective, it may, and generally must, consider the cost to the…

For the purposes of section 3(2) of the Immigration Act 1971, an immigration rule includes every requirement which an applicant must satisfy as a condition of…

The power and duty to make immigration rules, and the power to grant leave outside those rules, derive from the Immigration Act 1971. They are statutory…

Under Schedule 9 to the Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1997, the first-stage listing of an old mineral site is an administrative and preliminary…

A court may dispense with parental consent to adoption under section 31(3)(d) of the Adoption and Children (Scotland) Act 2007 only where the child’s lifetime…

Under section 28 of the Family Law (Scotland) Act 2006, fairness governs compensation for economic advantages and disadvantages arising from cohabitation. The…

The statutory withdrawal of privilege against self-incrimination in intellectual property proceedings should receive its ordinary scope. Once Parliament has…

A trade mark proprietor may control the first marketing in the EEA of genuine branded goods previously marketed outside the EEA. Articles 5 and 7 of the Trade…

A civil court may strike out a statement of case for abuse of process at any stage, including after a fair trial has established liability and quantified…

In extradition proceedings engaging the family-life rights of dependent children, the children's best interests are a primary consideration and must receive…

In extradition proceedings affecting dependent children, their best interests are a primary consideration. The court must ascertain those interests clearly and…

Under section 2(1) of the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 1970, a local authority must identify a disabled person’s needs, decide which needs require…

An issuing “judicial authority” for a European arrest warrant includes a public prosecutor who is competent to issue the warrant under the law of the issuing…

When deciding whether to make an order concerning parental responsibilities or contact under section 11 of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995, the court must…

An extradition appeal must be filed and some notice of it given to every respondent within the statutory permitted period. The statute does not require service…

Tax paid to a public authority pursuant to an apparent statutory obligation, but not lawfully due, is recoverable under the Woolwich principle without any…

In article 14 challenges concerning state benefits, even sex discrimination is justified where the policy choice is not manifestly without reasonable…

A time-charter indemnity for consequences arising from compliance with charterers’ employment orders is broad, but excludes ordinary risks and costs assumed…

Direct age discrimination may be justified only by public-interest social-policy objectives which are consistent with the state’s employment, labour-market or…

A neutral criterion is indirectly age discriminatory where it places employees nearing compulsory retirement at a particular disadvantage because they lack…

Employers’ liability policies covering disease “sustained” or “contracted” during the insurance period respond when the process leading to a long-tail…

A development plan is interpreted objectively according to its language and context. Its meaning is a question of law for the court. The application of broad…

For article 32(1) of the Refugee Convention, a refugee is lawfully in a contracting state only if the state’s domestic law gives the refugee a right to be…

The Reynolds public interest defence protects a defamatory publication where the information was of real public interest and the publisher acted responsibly in…

For limitation purposes, an injury is attributable to an act or omission when there is a real, rather than fanciful, possibility of a causal link. Knowledge…

The article 13(b) inquiry in an international child abduction case concerns what will happen if the child returns. A parent’s anxieties may create a grave risk…

The Special Immigration Appeals Commission may make an absolute and irrevocable order preventing the onward disclosure of a witness’s identity and evidence.…

An order requiring an appellant to provide security for appeal costs under Supreme Court Rules 2009, Rule 36(1), is discretionary and should be made sparingly.…

Client money is held on the statutory trust created by CASS 7 from the firm’s receipt of it, not only upon segregation. On a primary pooling event, however…

For offences committed before 24 March 2003, the confiscation regime under the Drug Trafficking Act 1994 remains available by virtue of the applicable…

Information held by a public service broadcaster for any significant journalistic, artistic or literary purpose falls outside the Freedom of Information Act…

A procedural rule cannot impose a substantive restriction on an otherwise unrestricted statutory right of appeal. A rule governing how an application for…

Article 2 may require a hospital to protect an informal psychiatric patient from suicide. The duty arises where the hospital has assumed responsibility and…

Section 94(1) of the Employment Rights Act 1996 has an implied territorial limitation, but its application is not confined to fixed categories of overseas…