All Articles: Cases

More big cases

I can’t keep up! If things ever quieten down I’ll do a few more weighty analysis posts but in the meantime these alerter ones must

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Big Gay Case Allowed

UPDATE: see proper post here with analysis. Sorry for the headline, which is in fact an accurate description of what has happened. Although from the

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Withdrawing representation

I re-Tweeted this a few days ago but thought it was worth highlighting for those who (arguably sensibly) do not follow the Free Movement Twitter

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Points Based System hearing

[UPDATE: read about result here] I dropped into court this afternoon to see how the PBS challenge was going. Unfortunately I missed what sounds like

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No notice removals suspended

No-notice removals have been suspended following a legal challenge brought by Medical Justice. The no-notice policy has been covered here previously and was the subject of a

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Stats

I’m up late this evening with plenty more work still do to, and like many bloggers (er, all of us, I suspect) will check my blog

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Removals to war zones

The Court of Appeal has again revisited the vexed question of removals to war torn countries like Somalia in the major new case of HH

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Major Article 8 case law

There have been two interesting recent cases on Article 8. The most recent and far and away most important is SS (India) v Secretary of

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Greek case dismissed

The Big Fat Greek Test Case has been dismissed. Read all about it here. Permission has been granted to appeal to the Court of Appeal,

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Greek third country cases

The Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights has intervened in a Strasbourg case on Greek refugee protection – or rather lack of it: The Commissioner

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New fresh claims case

The Court of Appeal has re-visited the proper approach to deciding whether fresh asylum claims meet the rule 353 test. The case is R (on

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ECO loses in Supreme Court

The appeal to the Supreme Court against the Court of Appeal judgment in DL (DRC) and ZN (Afghanistan) [2008] EWCA Civ 1420 succeeded yesterday, on the

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3rd country cases

There were developments last week in the world of third country removal cases, and now seems like a good moment to review the current position.

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Family life

I thought I’d highlight another case that came out before Christmas and which I didn’t have time to write up at the time. I’m sometimes

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Rule 320 case law

The first case I’ve seen dealing with the notorious Immigration Rule 320 no-return provisions came out shortly before Christmas, although judgment was actually handed down

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New removals policy

UKBA have changed their removals policy, and not in a nice way. The announcement letter to stakeholders is available here and does not really tell

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New cases

The luggage carousel of the UK courts has deposited a collection of interesting new cases. I’ll take them one at a time. Probably the most

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I can’t keep up! If things ever quieten down I’ll do a few more weighty analysis posts but in the meantime these alerter ones must suffice. Firstly, the Medical Justice challenge to no-notice removals has succeeded: R (on the application of Medical Justice) v Secretary of State for the Home...

27th July 2010
BY Free Movement

The Government has laid a new Statement of Changes (HC 382) that incorporates the parts of the Points Based System policy guidance ruled unlawful in the Pankina and English UK cases. This reinstitutes the three month £800 requirement and the minimum of level of English language qualification required by foreign...

23rd July 2010
BY Free Movement

The Points Based System test case, Pankina, is not being appealed by UKBA. This has been confirmed by Treasury Solicitors. Interim guidance has apparently been issued to UKBA caseworkers. More information and links if/when I get a chance.

...
21st July 2010
BY Free Movement

I’ve been so busy I forgot to post a link to this recent piece on The Guardian’s Comment Is Free site. I have an excuse to mention that now because the Court of Appeal has considered and rejected an appeal against findings by Immigration Judge Woodcraft in a domestic violence...

14th July 2010
BY Free Movement

HJ (Iran) and HT (Cameroon) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2010] UKSC 31 represents a fundamental change in UK asylum law. The previous settlement, established by the case of Iftikar Ahmed [2000] INLR 1, was a very British and pragmatic one. Essentially, the question of whether future...

12th July 2010
BY Free Movement

Firstly, I am well aware that this blog is seriously behind with a lot of the developments that have taken place in the last fortnight. And a lot has happened. I’ve actually read more or less everything now (iPad + public transport to far flung courts = well-read but pretentious...

10th July 2010
BY Free Movement

UPDATE: see proper post here with analysis. Sorry for the headline, which is in fact an accurate description of what has happened. Although from the half of the judgment I’ve managed to read so far, their Lordships prefer to refer to ‘practising homosexuals’. A bit like the apocryphal ‘popular beat...

7th July 2010
BY Free Movement

The appeal against the Home Office interpretation of the Points Based System has succeeded in the Court of Appeal. Regular readers may remember I went along to and reported on part of the hearing. The case is Secretary of State for the Home Department v Pankina [2010] EWCA Civ 719....

23rd June 2010
BY Free Movement

I re-Tweeted this a few days ago but thought it was worth highlighting for those who (arguably sensibly) do not follow the Free Movement Twitter account. The Times reported a case called Richard Buxton (Solicitors) v Mills-Owens & Anor [2010] EWCA Civ 122 in which the Court of Appeal held...

8th June 2010
BY Free Movement

UPDATE: challenge successful. Penningtons have dropped me a line with some interesting information about a challenge to the new English language requirements for foreign Tier 4 students. The challenge is being brought by English UK, a national association of over 400 English language centres. The hearing is listed for 29-30...

3rd June 2010
BY Free Movement

[UPDATE: read about result here] I dropped into court this afternoon to see how the PBS challenge was going. Unfortunately I missed what sounds like a masterclass in the morning from Michael Fordham QC, who led the assault on the vires of the entire PBS scheme, which is enacted through...

25th May 2010
BY Free Movement

Attorney General Trstenjak has given his opinion in the Lassal case (referred to the ECJ by the Court of Appeal) and has concluded that five years of residence under previous Directives does impart a right of permanent residence under the Citizens Directive (Directive 2004/38/EC). See paragraphs 81 to 93 and...

25th May 2010
BY Free Movement

No-notice removals have been suspended following a legal challenge brought by Medical Justice. The no-notice policy has been covered here previously and was the subject of a damning judgment by Mr Justice Collins when two children were taken from foster care by UKBA without warning for same day removal. The...

23rd May 2010
BY Free Movement

Supreme Court press release here and judgment here. The reasoning is remarkably short: the Court simply disagrees with Laws LJ on the ordinary and natural meaning of the words ‘has been granted asylum’.

...
12th May 2010
BY Free Movement

Quick alert courtesy of the Supreme Court website. Judgment in ZN (Afghanistan) is at last to be handed down tomorrow, and the Court is today starting a three day hearing of appeals against HJ (Iran) and HT (Cameroon) [2009] EWCA Civ 172, on the issue of homosexuality and refugee status....

10th May 2010
BY Free Movement

I’m up late this evening with plenty more work still do to, and like many bloggers (er, all of us, I suspect) will check my blog stats in idle moments. It’s all part of the narcissistic nature of the beast. An old colleague once teased me about reaching the half...

30th April 2010
BY Free Movement

UKBA got away with an appeal against a finding of misfeasance in public office in the new case of Muuse v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2010] EWCA Civ 453, but lost on the award of exemplary damages. In the course of judgment Lord Justice Thomas held that...

28th April 2010
BY Free Movement

The Court of Appeal has again revisited the vexed question of removals to war torn countries like Somalia in the major new case of HH (Somalia) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2010] EWCA Civ 426. The issues at stake have also been the subject of a major...

27th April 2010
BY Free Movement

A sea change is needed on the detention of foreign nationals in the United Kingdom. Periods of detention have grown and grown in recent years. The Home Office never ask ‘should we detain this person’, they merely ask ‘can we detain this person.’ In a civilised country, the ultimate sanction...

22nd April 2010
BY Free Movement

There have been two interesting recent cases on Article 8. The most recent and far and away most important is SS (India) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2010] EWCA Civ 388, handed down yesterday. The Court of Appeal holds that the now withdrawn seven year children policy,...

16th April 2010
BY Free Movement

Just a quick alerter post. This actually happened a couple of weeks ago but I was insanely busy at the time, then forgot to mention it. Permission was granted by the Court of Appeal in MS and others (family reunion: “in order to seek asylum”) Somalia [2009] UKAIT 00041 on...

13th April 2010
BY Free Movement

  BA (Nigeria) [2009] UKSC 7 in the Supreme Court did not create a right of appeal against refusal of a human rights claim. A right of appeal to the tribunal can only ever exist where an ‘immigration decision’ is made, as exhaustively and (almost*) exclusively defined at section 82...

12th April 2010
BY Free Movement

The Big Fat Greek Test Case has been dismissed. Read all about it here. Permission has been granted to appeal to the Court of Appeal, though. No news on what will happen to other cases stayed behind Saaedi but they’ll probably stay stayed. Read about the third country removals litigation...

31st March 2010
BY Free Movement

The Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights has intervened in a Strasbourg case on Greek refugee protection – or rather lack of it: The Commissioner concluded that current asylum law and practice in Greece are not in compliance with international and European human rights standards, expressing at the same...

18th March 2010
BY Free Movement

Judgment is out in JS (Sri Lanka), an appeal to the Supreme Court from KJ (Sri Lanka) in the Court of Appeal. Judgment here, summary here. The Secretary of State’s appeal was dismissed and the Court of Appeal judgment largely upheld, other than in respect of too tightly defining liability...

17th March 2010
BY Free Movement

Further to my alerter post on this last month, the judgment is now available in the damning Third Country removals case on children. It is called R (on the application of T) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2010] EWHC 435 (Admin). As expected, the judgment is scathing....

12th March 2010
BY Free Movement

In the case of MD (Jamaica) & Anor v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2010] EWCA Civ 213 the Court of Appeal has dismissed two appeals against refusals under the long residence immigration rules. In both cases the immigrants had short gaps in their lawful residence and had...

11th March 2010
BY Free Movement

The Court of Appeal has re-visited the proper approach to deciding whether fresh asylum claims meet the rule 353 test. The case is R (on the application of YH) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2010] EWCA Civ 116 and it effectively supersedes WM (DRC) and interprets the...

9th March 2010
BY Free Movement

Mr Justice Collins has given a scathing judgment in a grant of permission to a judicial review challenge to the practice of the Home Office’s Third Country Unit (TCU) in detaining and removing children to supposedly safe third countries such as Greece and Italy. The case was heard yesterday and...

19th February 2010
BY Free Movement

I’ve just come across an interesting little judgment on mandatory refusal cases. It is only a permission decision so it has limited precedent value, but it is worth highlighting. The case is SA (Pakistan) v SSHD [2009] EWCA Civ 1510 and concerns the mandatory refusal grounds set out at Immigration...

18th February 2010
BY Free Movement

The appeal to the Supreme Court against the Court of Appeal judgment in DL (DRC) and ZN (Afghanistan) [2008] EWCA Civ 1420 succeeded yesterday, on the day it was heard. Judgment is to follow. The case turns on the question of whether a recognised refugee who has now been granted...

16th February 2010
BY Free Movement

There were developments last week in the world of third country removal cases, and now seems like a good moment to review the current position. The Dublin II Regulation (not its official title) enables EU states to return an asylum seeker to the country through which the asylum seeker first...

13th February 2010
BY Free Movement

I thought I’d highlight another case that came out before Christmas and which I didn’t have time to write up at the time. I’m sometimes asked where I find the time to write this blog. Today is a good example: I’ve prepped my case like a good barrister and I’m...

1st February 2010
BY Free Movement

The first case I’ve seen dealing with the notorious Immigration Rule 320 no-return provisions came out shortly before Christmas, although judgment was actually handed down ages ago, in April 2009. The case is MA (Nigeria) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2009] EWCA Civ 1229. Lord Justice Ward...

28th January 2010
BY Free Movement

I’m back and even have time on my hands to do some catching up, as a three day case just went very short on me. Quite a lot seems to have happened in the last month. I thought I would start with the case of JO (Uganda) v Secretary of...

27th January 2010
BY Free Movement

This is another from last week’s luggage carousel – I’m still catching up, I’m afraid. In the case of JA (Ivory Coast) & Anor v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2009] EWCA Civ 1353 the Court of Appeal has allowed the appeal of a woman with HIV/AIDS (albeit...

22nd December 2009
BY Free Movement

UKBA have changed their removals policy, and not in a nice way. The announcement letter to stakeholders is available here and does not really tell half the story. In essence, the 72 hour notice period for removals is to be waived in a wide range of cases and no-notice removals...

21st December 2009
BY Free Movement

The case of TK (Tamils, LP updated) Sri Lanka CG [2009] UKAIT 00049 is next on the carousel. As can be seen from the title, it deals with the current situation on the ground in Sri Lanka since the military defeat of the LTTE in May 2009. The country guidance...

16th December 2009
BY Free Movement

The luggage carousel of the UK courts has deposited a collection of interesting new cases. I’ll take them one at a time. Probably the most important of these is KH (Afghanistan) v SSHD [2009] EWCA Civ 1354, a long-awaited decision from the Court of Appeal on medical treatment, Article 3...

15th December 2009
BY Free Movement

Many thanks to the encyclopedic John O of NCADC for this information. The Court of Appeal has allowed an appeal against the reasoning of the tribunal in AP and FP (Citizens Directive Article 3(2); discretion; dependence) India [2007] UKAIT 00048 and has found that in European Community free movement law,...

8th December 2009
BY Free Movement
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