Supreme Court judgments, 2017

A grant of British citizenship obtained through a false identity is not a nullity merely because the applicant used fraud to acquire the qualifications for…

A statute binds the Crown only through express words or necessary implication. Necessary implication asks whether, considering the statutory language, context…

Permission to serve proceedings outside the jurisdiction requires a plausible evidential basis for an applicable gateway. Where disputed facts can be assessed…

A local planning authority determining environmental impact assessment development must publish intelligible and adequate main reasons. The reasons must…

For the one-year limitation period under section 7(5)(a) of the Human Rights Act 1998, alleged incompatibility may consist of a continuing course of conduct.…

Damages for a negligent valuation are assessed by comparing the lender’s actual position with the position it would have occupied had the valuation not been…

A measure restricting intra-EU trade may be justified on public health grounds where it is appropriate to achieve the chosen level of protection and the…

For the five-year short negative prescription governing obligations to make reparation, loss occurs as an objective fact. Under section 11(3) of the…

A claim to carry a trading loss from a later tax year back to an earlier year must be included in the taxpayer’s return for the later year. This remains so…

A derivative right of residence under article 20 TFEU protects an EU-citizen child from being obliged in practice to leave the Union. It confers no right to a…

The retention of a transgender person’s previous name, title and gender does not conflict with the Gender Recognition Act 2004. Recognition in the acquired…

Judicial review is neither an appeal nor a proceeding in the nature of an appeal for the purposes of section 120(7) of the Equality Act 2010. An appeal…

A statutory scheme providing a specific right to interest on overpaid VAT may impliedly exclude concurrent common law claims where those claims would defeat…

Article 5(1)(a) requires prisoners detained solely for public protection to receive a real opportunity for rehabilitation. A violation arises only in rare…

Under Rule F of the York-Antwerp Rules 1974, expenditure which successfully mitigates an expense of a kind allowable in general average is deemed to be general…

Cheating at gambling is assessed objectively in the context of the particular game. It normally involves a deliberate act designed to gain an advantage which…

A planning obligation under section 75 of the Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1997 need not relate to a particular permitted development. It must…

Police officers have a directly effective EU right to equal treatment in employment, including dismissal, and must have access to effective and equivalent…

A debt under a letter of credit is ordinarily situated where the issuing bank resides and the debt is recoverable. There is no special rule locating it at the…

Where an assisting offender knowingly fails to provide agreed assistance, section 74(3) of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 gives the specified…

State immunity restricts access to a court consistently with article 6 only where customary international law requires the forum state to recognise the…

A local authority may be vicariously liable for abuse committed by foster parents where their care is an integral part of the authority’s child-care services…

A design and build contract may require both compliance with a prescribed design or standard and achievement of specified performance criteria. The obligations…

A court must not impose or maintain a condition on an appeal if the condition would probably prevent the appellant from pursuing it. The appellant bears the…

Under section 49(2) of the Health and Social Care Act 2001, NHS-funded nursing care is neither confined to tasks which only a registered nurse can perform nor…

Tribunal rules, directions and orders must be observed. Although procedural authorities concerning the courts of England and Wales do not apply directly to…

Where the state seeks to remove an EEA national for attempting a marriage of convenience, it must prove the abuse. The appellant need not prove that the…

A court has jurisdiction to release a litigant from an undertaking accepted by the court. It cannot vary the voluntary promise itself, although release may be…

For financial provision on divorce in Scotland, the proportion of pension rights constituting matrimonial property is determined by time rather than by…

A statutory power to prescribe tribunal fees does not authorise measures which effectively prevent access to justice. Fees are unlawful where there is a real…

A licensing authority may charge successful applicants a reasonable fee covering both application-processing costs and the costs of administering and enforcing…

Where an occupational pension scheme provides a survivor’s pension for a member’s spouse, the spouse’s entitlement must be determined under the law in force…

EU legislation ordinarily applies immediately to the future effects of situations arising under earlier law, but not to legal situations which became…

Money paid as a reward for an employee’s work is taxable employment income even when, with the employee’s agreement, arrangement or acquiescence, it is paid to…

Where a person facing extradition risks serious harm from non-state actors, the risk does not itself establish prospective treatment contrary to article 3. The…

When damages for breach of contract are assessed, a benefit is brought into account only if it was caused by the breach or by a successful act of mitigation.…

Certification of an arguable human rights appeal for determination from abroad is lawful only if removal pending appeal would respect Convention rights.…

The statutory scheme governing the NHS in England did not require the Secretary of State to arrange free abortion services for UK citizens usually resident in…

Direct sex discrimination occurs where sex itself determines access to differently configured services and women consequently face a substantially greater risk…

Under section 2 of the Apportionment Act 1870, salary payable under an annual employment contract accrues equally on each calendar day unless the contract…

Modern insolvency legislation must be construed according to its language and scheme. Earlier authorities under materially different legislation do not…

National planning policy is guidance and a material consideration. It remains subordinate to the statutory development plan. Paragraph 49 of the National…

A local housing authority deciding whether it was reasonable for a homeless applicant to accept a final offer must consider all her personal circumstances…

A safe-port undertaking is assessed prospectively when the port is nominated. It is not a continuing warranty. The port is safe if a reasonable shipowner…

Under EU public procurement law, damages against a contracting authority are required only where the three Francovich conditions are satisfied. The breach must…

A successful litigant who incurred conditional-fee success fees and after-the-event insurance premiums in reliance on the statutory costs regime could retain…

Damages do not include loss which has been avoided. A benefit is collateral only where its character is independent of the circumstances giving rise to the…

A hospital’s general policy prohibiting detained patients from possessing specified articles, supported by powers of search and confiscation, may constitute…

A decision to prosecute a person reasonably suspected of a Convention-compliant criminal offence does not engage article 8 merely because the prosecution may…

A personal claim in unjust enrichment requires a transfer of value from the claimant to the defendant. The familiar four questions concerning enrichment are…

For the purposes of section 444(1) of the Education Act 1996, a child attends school “regularly” by attending in accordance with the school’s attendance rules.…

Indirect discrimination does not require a claimant to explain why a provision, criterion or practice disadvantages a protected group, or to show that the…

A tribunal dealing with substantial litigants represented by experienced counsel may assume that the parties have carefully identified the issues requiring…

Legislation may exclude a reasonable-belief-as-to-age defence following an earlier police charge only where its application strikes a fair balance under…

Contractual interpretation is a unitary and iterative exercise directed to the objective meaning of the parties’ language. The court reads the disputed wording…

A pre-commencement conditional fee agreement remains within the transitional protection of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 when…

The Court of Protection may make only a decision which the person lacking capacity could have made. It must select the option which serves that person’s best…

Factual causation and foreseeability do not alone establish liability for professional negligence. The claimant must prove that the loss arose from a risk…

When deciding whether a possible miscarriage of justice should be referred to the High Court, the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission must make an…

For the third-party protections in section 393 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 to apply, a regulatory notice must identify the person. It is…

An aggregation clause permitting claims arising from similar acts or omissions in a series of related matters or transactions requires an identifiable…

The family provision jurisdiction qualifies testamentary freedom but does not create forced heirship. For a claimant other than a spouse or civil partner…

The grounds for resisting enforcement of a New York Convention award, and the circumstances in which security for the award may be required, form a statutory…

A permanence order under the Adoption and Children (Scotland) Act 2007 requires strict sequential analysis. The court must first find, on the balance of…

A non-domestic hereditament undergoing redevelopment must be valued in its actual physical condition on the material day. The assumption of reasonable repair…

For jurisdiction in tort under article 5.3 of the Council Regulation (EC) No 44/2001, the relevant connecting factor is the place where the event causing the…

Statutory assumptions about planning permission under the Land Compensation Act 1961 operate in a claimant’s favour but are not exhaustive. They do not prevent…

For a partner unlawfully present in the United Kingdom, the requirement of “insurmountable obstacles” to continuing family life abroad means very significant…

A minimum income requirement for family migration is lawful in principle where it rationally advances legitimate immigration and economic aims. A facial…

Article 5.1(c) of the European Convention on Human Rights permits short preventive detention where the police reasonably consider it necessary to prevent an…

A survivor’s pension scheme may distinguish between married or civil partners and unmarried cohabitants only where the difference is objectively justified. A…

Police have common law powers, reinforced by section 32 of the Police (Northern Ireland) Act 2000, to prevent crime. Since organising or joining an unnotified…

The prerogative power to make and terminate treaties does not permit ministers, without statutory authority, to alter domestic law, remove statutory rights or…

A bus operator’s duty to make reasonable adjustments for wheelchair users is not satisfied by a policy under which the driver merely requests an unreasonably…

State immunity is personal. A claim against domestic defendants does not implead a foreign state merely because it requires findings about that state’s…

During an armed conflict outside a Convention state, article 5 of the European Convention on Human Rights may accommodate detention authorised by international…

The doctrine of Crown act of state is a narrow rule of substantive law. It may preclude tort liability for an inherently governmental exercise of sovereign…