“There we were, 16 grown men,” complained the Labour minister Richard Crossman on joining the Privy Council in 1964: For over an hour we were taught how to stand up, how to kneel on one knee on a cushion, how to raise the right hand with the bible in it, how to advance three paces towards the Queen, how to take the hand and kiss it, how to move back 10 paces without falling over the stools – which had been carefully arranged so that you did fall over them.  Ministerial memoirs have left us with many similar accounts, but the reference to kissing the monarch’s hand has caused a degr ..read more

The UKCLA blog will shortly take its annual summer break, running from Monday 29th July to Monday 2nd September. Thank you to all of our authors and readers in the first part of 2024 – we hope you have a great summer, and we look forward to reopening for submissions in September. Se-shauna Wheatle, Paul Scott and Mike Gordon ..read more

The recent general election saw the Labour Party being elected with a majority of 171 seats in Parliament. The following morning, in his first speech as Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer claimed the nation had given the Labour Party a “clear mandate”. Similarly, the new Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves, stated the British people had voted for change and she had “begun the work necessary to deliver on that mandate” by implementing the economic ideas set out in the Labour Party’s manifesto. Lastly, in one of his first acts as Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, Ed Mili ..read more

Barely 24 hours after Labour’s victory at the polls, Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s top team of MPs began to line the path to No. 10 Downing Street, hoping to have their shadow portfolios translated into long-awaited ministerial roles.  First among the parade of MPs was Angela Rayner, who was appointed Secretary of State for Housing, Communities, and Local Government and Deputy Prime Minister.  While her brief at the newly renamed Ministry of Housing certainly comes with formidable influence, it is the penultimate Cabinet role of Deputy Prime Minister that sends the stronge ..read more

It is not that often that first instance judges in judicial review claims disagree as to the approach to be taken in the context of a core question relating to judicial review. When it happens, administrative lawyers are bound to take notice. This has most recently occurred in the context of rationality challenges to decisions taken by the Secretary of State for Justice to reject Parole Board recommendations to release or transfer to open conditions. The most interesting aspect of this recent phenomenon is that the High Court has managed to hand down, on our count, 13 reported decisions over ..read more

On 5 June 2024, the Administrative Court gave its final word on relief in the (relatively) long running ECPAT UK judicial review (see R (ECPAT UK) v Kent County Council [2024] EWHC 1353 (Admin)). The case centred on Kent County Council’s (‘KCC’) failure to meet its statutory duty to look after unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (‘UAS children’) arriving at its coast and the Home Secretary’s systematic, routine and (ultimately) unlawful use of hotels to accommodate them outside of the care system. While the Court’s findings of illegality on the part of both defendants were uncontroversial ..read more

“BEING A JUDGE IN ISRAEL; TAKING JUDGING SERIOUSLY”: ONLINE GUEST LECTURE BY JUSTICE RUTH RONNEN, THE SUPREME COURT OF ISRAEL PART OF THE GLOBAL SOUTH NETWORK JUDGES GUEST LECTURE SERIES 25 AUGUST 2024, 10:00 am UK time/12:00pm Israel time Previously, the Global South Network invited all to attend the guest talk of Honourable Justice Ali Muhanna, President Supreme Constitutional Court of Palestine titled “The Supreme Constitutional Court of Palestine: Past, Present, and Future” as part of the GSN judges guest lecture series of the Global South Network (GSN).  Now, the ..read more

Far from being settled, after Brexit the debates around the place of the UK in Europe continue to be a central aspect of British politics. They remain so ahead of the 2024 general election. The question of the application in the UK of the European Convention on Human Rights seems to be a central point of contention amongst political parties. This post analyses the 2024 manifestos of the main British parties on this matter from a comparative perspective. The focus is on the manifestos of those political parties with more sceptical and critical approaches to the European Convention on Human Righ ..read more

The Liberal Democrat, Conservative and Labour manifestos offer markedly different visions for the future of devolution in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland after the 2024 UK General Election . At one extreme, the Liberal Democrats offer fundamental constitutional reform. If elected, they have promised to ‘transfer greater powers away from Westminster and Whitehall’ by ‘[strengthening] the voices of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland’ as part of a ‘written constitution for a federal United Kingdom’. They would, inter alia, ‘complete’ the further devo ..read more

If an application for asylum is refused, the applicant can appeal to the First-tier Tribunal. The latest tribunal statistics show a sharp increase in the number of asylum appeals lodged in the tribunal. In the year 2023/2024, there were 29,172 appeals lodged, which can be compared to 8,019 appeals lodged during the previous year—a 264% increase. The surge in cases particularly occurred in the second half of 2023/2024, with Q3 and Q4 seeing 12,721 and 10,207 new asylum appeals respectively—each of these quarters alone represent more appeals than in the entire previous year. The tribunal compl ..read more