Uk Law Weekly

After the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 reduced the availability of legal aid in the UK the Lord Chancellor sought to take this further by preparing a draft order that would introduce a residency test. The Public Law Project challenged this measure on the basis that it would be ultra vires and unjustifiably discriminatory.

When does criminal liability lead to civil liability? That was the question the supreme court had to answer in the Scottish case of Campbell v Gordon [2016] UKSC 38 in the context of the Employers' Liability (Compulsory Insurance) Act 1969. A literalist approach to the statute would leave Campbell unable to claim from his former employer for damages while a more purposive approach would allow the statute to be used to protect his rights in the civil courts. Music from bensound.com

A ferry crash off the coast of Egypt in February 2006 led to the deaths of 1,000 people. Since then families of victims have pursued the chairman of the ferry company Mamdouh Ismail for justice. Egyptian authorities requested that the Home Secretary serve the judgment of the Egyptian courts on Ismail but would doing so breach Article 6 ECHR? Music from bensound.com

The Labour party leadership contest took another turn this week as the NEC decided to appeal a decision that would have allowed as many as 150,000 new supporters to vote. Was this a simple case of contract interpretation for the Court of Appeal or are there wider issues of democracy in UK politics at play?

Jeremy Corbyn was given a huge boost to his chances of re-election to the Labour leadership position today as the High Court decided that new members who had joined after the 'freezing point' of 12th January 2016 should be allowed to vote in the upcoming leadership contest.

A bonus episode that looks at the decision in National Aids Trust v NHS England [2016] EWHC 2005 (Admin) that states the NHS are not prevented from providing the groundbreaking new drug PREP to those who are most at risk from contracting HIV. Music from bensound.com

The case of Goluchowski v District Court in Elblag, Poland [2016] UKSC 36 distinguishes between European Arrest Warrants in accusation and conviction cases.

The people of the Chagos Islands were forcibly removed from their homes in the 1960s by the British government. For the last 50 years they have been fighting a legal battle to return and this case is the latest installment from the UK Supreme Court.

A bonus flashback podcast that takes a fresh look at Carlill v Carbolic Smokeball Co. [1892] EWCA Civ 1, [1893] 1 QBD 484. Examines unilateral offers and the elements of a contract under UK law.