Gabriel Tan

The IPT has dismissed complaints made by two Guantanamo Bay detainees alleging public law illegality by UK security agencies in their ill-treatment by the US: www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/u...

The substantive findings/reasons for dismissing all substantive grounds are contained in a CLOSED judgment.

... obligations or if the UK withdrew from those treaties. The significance of the issue is that a state is bound by a norm of CIL in the absence of treaty obligations. It is not inconceivable that we, or some other national court, could at some point be called upon to determine that question.”

On whether non-refoulement is rule of CIL, and UKSC's consideration in Rwanda case:

“In the context of that appeal, we did not have to determine whether the principle amounts to a rule of customary international law.. It would have been highly relevant if there were not a number of binding treaty..

Lord Sales, "The UK Supreme Court’s approach to customary international law" (Presentation to ECtHR Judges)

supremecourt.uk/uploads/spee...

Good post from @finishedloading.bsky.social. An assertion by a public authority of compliance with unincorporated international law can't per se incorporate that law so as to give rise to enforceable + interpretable obligations in domestic law. To do otherwise might turn the clock back to 1688.

There were back to back interim relief hearings (application + appeal) in the Palestine Action case yesterday. Here, @finishedloading.bsky.social breaks down the judgments of the EWHC and EWCA denying interim relief against proscription to Palestine Action.

ALR and others: the human rights dimension This is the second in a three-part analysis of R (ALR and others) v Chancellor of the Exchequer [2025] EWHC 1467 (Admin). In this post, I will look at the core human rights challenges in the judgme…

Two recent blogs from the @admincourtblog.bsky.social team on the VAT exemption case:

Part I on Pepper v Hart by @anuragdeb.bsky.social is here: administrativecourtblog.wordpress.com/2025/06/19/a...

Part II on the ECHR dimension by me is here: administrativecourtblog.wordpress.com/2025/06/23/a...

I'm a fan of pepper in my food, but not Pepper in my case law*

Here, I use the private schools VAT JR to explain why.

*The slander of terrible jokes will not be tolerated.

CA has listed a hearing on 26 June for Liberty’s appeal against the HC’s refusal of permission to challenge the length of the EHRC’s Code of Practice consultation, 4 days before the consultation is to end.

@samuelwillis.bsky.social and I blogged below on the HC’s reasons for refusing permission.

Apply to join the Attorney General’s Senior Treasury Counsel (Civil) Group Applications to join the Attorney General’s Senior Treasury Counsel (Civil) Group are now open

The AG is creating a new Senior Treasury Counsel (Civil) Group, which "sits alongside proposed changes to the role of First Treasury Counsel, principally by relaxing the current requirement that the postholder undertakes work exclusively for government."

www.gov.uk/government/n...

It was a pleasure to reflect candidly on the role (both good and bad) social media use played in my pupillage application journey!

Anurag was one of the first legal SM contacts I interacted and then met with in person, so here’s a picture from our ALBA moot participation 3 years ago to reminisce!

Thank you, it's been a long old slog!

I am very pleased to have accepted an offer of traineeship at Matrix Chambers, commencing in October 2026.

I can't wait to get started working on the cutting-edge legal issues raised across Chambers' immense expertise in a range of practice areas.

Court of Appeal will hand down judgment in SSHD’s appeal against High Court’s judgment upholding Liberty’s serious disruption regulations judicial review this Friday.

… have to depend on submissions by advocates nor should it have to piece together a number of different documents in order to understand what happened.”

Singh LJ on D’s duty of candour in JR: “The Court should (in proper evidence, i.e. in a witness statement) be given a full, accurate and clear explanation of the decision-making process used by the public authority concerned and should not…

assets.caselaw.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ewca/civ/202...

The JCPC (Reed judgment) affirms that the duty of candour in JR applies at permission stage ([91]) and non-compliance with the duty ([93]) can be a factor in favour of granting permission.

caselaw.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ukpc/2025/14

This is a nowadays rare example of the UKSC applying the principle of interpretation that "courts should seek to interpret domestic law in a way that is compatible with the United Kingdom’s international treaty obligations" to find in favour of a C's construction of statute (here, the BNA 1981).

"[89]: In the present case we consider that this approach to interpretation... calls for consideration and protection of E3’s individual rights according to the principle of legality and under the Statelessness Convention... in so far as that does not compromise the statutory purpose."

"[88]: The legal effect of a failure to comply with a condition for the exercise of a power conferred by a statute, where that is not spelled out expressly, depends upon an inference as to Parliament’s intention as to what that effect should be..."

N3 (AP) (Appellant) v Secretary of State for the Home Department (Respondent) - UK Supreme Court If the Secretary of State withdraws an order depriving a person of citizenship because they accept that the order has made the person stateless, does this mean that the original order is of no effect ...

UKSC allows Cs' appeals in N3/ZA, holding that, where the SSHD withdraws citizenship deprivation decisions, the decisions are to be treated as having no effect for determining one's citizenship status in the period from the date of the order until it is withdrawn. www.supremecourt.uk/cases/uksc-2...

The contours of rationality Rationality review is a cornerstone of judicial review. Often referred to as a “backstop”, judicial review on grounds of rationality is probably the ground which public lawyers, when considering a …

The contours of rationality administrativecourtblog.wordpress.com/2025/02/21/t...

No Retrospective Effect of Remedial Order The Background This note concerns the Upper Tribunal’s decision in AET v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions [2025] UKUT 16 (AAC) (14 January 2025). Back in 2020, in the case of R (Jackson) v …

No Retrospective Effect of Remedial Order

administrativecourtblog.wordpress.com/2025/02/21/n...

No “own motion” duty in discretion fettering cases The classic formulation of the non-fettering principle comes from the famous British Oxygen Co case. In the words of Lord Reid, there is a “general rule” that “anyone who has to exercise a statutor…

No “own motion” duty in discretion fettering cases administrativecourtblog.wordpress.com/2025/01/31/n...

A really big decision on non-refoulement, raising a myriad of important issues, which I think is likely to reach the Supreme Court.

CA finds that, where SSHD considers a refugee poses a national security risk, there is no obligation to conduct a balancing exercise weighing the risk posed, against cost etc of any measures to ameliorate the risk, to lawfully revoke refugee status.

caselaw.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ewca/civ/202...

[27]: Procedural fairness is a hard-edged question of law and an appellate tribunal is not limited to overturning a decision on the basis that it was outside the range of reasonable outcomes; the question is simply whether the lower tribunal's decision is wrong.

www.judiciary.uk/judgments/ra...

Thank YOU – in our nerd group @lewisgrahamlaw.bsky.social we call mandatory orders the "Ollie Persey order" now

… and all the more so where the scope of any appeal is as limited as the Supreme Court has now held it to be.”

assets.caselaw.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ewca/civ/202...

Underhill LJ in related case heard by same CA constitution: “It is a matter of basic fairness that a person whom the Secretary of State proposes to deprive of British citizenship should have the opportunity to put forward reasons in opposition…