The UKCLA Blog
-
Sam Guy & Joe Tomlinson: Rising Caseloads in Judicial Review – A Question of AI?
Across many parts of the administrative justice system, caseloads appear to be rising. Tribunals handling administrative appeals are currently experiencing record backlogs. Public sector ombudsmen are observing similar trends. This has renewed focus on a perennial question in these institutions: what drives these caseloads? Increasingly, institutions must now ask a follow-up question: is use of…
-
Announcement: International Conference, 11–13 November 2026: Max Planck Institute for the Study of Crime, Security and Law, Fürstenbergstr. 19, Freiburg, Germany (hybrid): Host: The Max Planck Center for Democracy, Security and Human Rights
While the proportionality principle has long stood as a hallmark of German legal scholarship and is a widely adopted framework for adjudicating conflicts between individual rights and collective interests, its first sub-test, legitimacy review (i.e., the requirement that state action pursue a legitimate aim), remains strikingly underdeveloped in both doctrine and theory. Courts and scholars…
-
Announcement: Lecture by Lord Justice Singh
The Faculty of Advocates’ Human Rights and Rule of Law Committee is delighted to be hosting an upcoming lecture by Lord Justice Singh, a member of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales. The lecture will take place on Thursday 19 November 2026 at 5.30pm in Laigh Hall, Parliament House. In this special lecture –…
-
Gareth Evans: Revisiting Senedd reform: Post-implementation review of the Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Act 2024
The Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Act 2024 (“the Act”) introduced major structural and electoral changes to Senedd Cymru (Welsh Parliament) which took effect for the election on 7 May 2026. These included an increase to the size of the Senedd from 60 to 96 members, and the introduction of a new, Closed Proportional List…
-
Announcement: Public Law Current Survey Co-Editor
The General Editors and Editorial Committee of Public Law are seeking to appoint a Co-Editor of the journal’s “current survey” section (to work alongside Dr Sarah Nason (Bangor University)) and invite expressions of interest from those who may be interested in helping to support the production of Public Law. Public Law publishes four issues per…
-
Joanna Bell & Hayley J Hooper: Not in my (Constitutional) Backyard: How Not to Speed Up Planning Challenges
Important issues of UK constitutional law can arise in the most unusual of places. Some of the most important cases on undergraduate reading lists, for example, concerned disputes about fishing licences and whether goods could be measured in imperial, rather than metric, units. In this blog we draw attention to a proposal which, if enacted, would be of…
-
Announcement: Postdoctoral positions in the Department of Public Law at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Crime, Security and Law
The Department of Public Law at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Crime, Security and Law in Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany (Director: Prof. Dr. Ralf Poscher) is seeking to recruit several Postdocs (f/m/div) incl. possibility to earn post-doctoral lecturing qualification (habilitation) at the earliest possible starting date. For further information, please see here:…
-
Richard Martin: Scenes from the Garvaghy Road, 2026: Protest, Police and Public Law in Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland’s so-called marching season is usually petering out by now. This year looks to be different. On Sunday 27 September, after a 28-year wait and a flurry of last-minute legal challenges, the Orange Order was given permission for 35 of its members to complete the return leg of its march from Drumcree parish church…
-
Patrick Graham: Legality, Legitimacy, and Durability – The Limits of Constitutional Reform in Northern Ireland
There is some unreality to the current clamour for reform of Northern Ireland’s devolved government. The three major non-unionist parties, as well as the British and Irish governments, have proposed or are open to substantial changes in the teeth of unionist opposition. That debate too often overlooks cross-community consent as a principle shaping constitutional form,…
-
Francesca Jackson: Jamaica’s petition to King Charles on slavery reparations under s.4 Judicial Committee Act 1833: A constitutional analysis
On Monday 7th September 2026, Jamaica filed a petition with King Charles asking him to refer three specific questions on transatlantic slavery to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (‘JCPC’) under s.4 of the Judicial Committee Act 1833 (‘JCA’). The questions focus on whether enslavement in Jamaica was ever lawful and whether there is an obligation on…
-
David Erdos: Vince v Associated Newspapers: Have UK Data Protection’s Journalism Provisions Come of Age?
In Vince v Associated Newspapers [2026] EWCA Civ 899, the Court of Appeal held that an unfair processing compensation claim under data protection law provided redress against the seriously misleading publication of a juxtaposed headline and captioned photographs, even though this claim had not been raised in initial proceedings and redress was ruled out in…
-
Thomas Horsley: Legislative Design in the Shadow of the UK Internal Market Act: The Food Price Cap (Scotland) Bill
The Scottish Government’s proposals to introduce statutory price caps on essential food items provide a new test of the practical effects of the United Kingdom Internal Market Act 2020 (UKIMA) on devolved policymaking. This post examines its initial approach to navigating the UKIMA, outlined in a public consultation published on 1 September 2026. The Scottish…
-
Julio Alberto Barajas-Servin: When Electoral Lies Become Justiciable
Wales has done something unusual – it has enacted a duty to prohibit electoral lies before deciding what the prohibition will look like. Since 27 June 2026, section 13 of the Government of Wales Act 2006 has required the Welsh Ministers to make provision against false or misleading statements of fact made to affect who…
-
Announcement: UKCLA Blog Editorial Team
Professor Se-shauna Wheatle is stepping down as one of the editors of the UK Constitutional Law Association Blog. We would like to thank Se-shauna, on behalf of the wider public law community, for all her work over the last few years. Her place on the editorial team will be taken by Dr Ben Yong of Durham University.…
-
Chris Rowe: Requalifying Article 8: The Immigration and Asylum Bill
The Immigration and Asylum Bill is the government’s third attempt to directly change how judges interpret and apply Article 8. Below I assess the likely impact of the proposed changes in the context of the previous reform efforts in 2012 and in particular 2014. I argue that (a) as previously the Bill does not require the courts to decide Article…
-
Dane Luo: The Protection of “Purported Determinations” in the New Generation of Ouster Clauses
Recently enacted clauses expressly include define a “determination” to include a “purported determination” or state that a court may not question a “determination or purported determination”. It is obvious what is happening. This drafting technique is a direct response to judicial decisions such as the landmark cases in Anisminic and Privacy International. In this post,…
-
Lewis Graham and Leah Trueblood: A right to information in domestic law: five points of interest for public lawyers
In a recent decision, the Upper Tribunal (‘the UT’) has found that the operation of section 44 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (‘FOIA’) breaches the right to access information under Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights (‘ECHR’). The decision will obviously be of interest to lawyers working in the field…
-
Robert Craig: Uncomfortable, But Not Unconstitutional – The Transition to a New Prime Minister
Despite Keir Starmer’s landslide majority just two years ago, the former Prime Minister announced his resignation from the premiership on 20 July. The departure of yet another prime minister, in short order, follows a series of political misjudgements that saw his support in both parliament and country drain away. The only candidate to replace Mr…
-
Ben Yong: The Civil Service: A Public Good, Not the Enemy Within
Reform Party MP Danny Kruger is concerned. The UK, he says, has ‘a bloated, paralysed centre of government and a mutinous bureaucracy’; and that ‘Real power is held not by the elected government but by the permanent Civil Service’. So he has set out some proposed changes for the civil service should Reform become the…
-
Joanna Bell: The Immigration and Asylum Bill (Part 1): a proposal to rewire the relationship between asylum appeals and the Home Office
The system which handles appeals against the Home Office’s asylum and immigration decisions looks set, once again, to be overhauled. If enacted, Part 1 of the Immigration and Asylum Bill would replace the existing First-tier Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum chamber) (FTIAC) with a new body known as the Independent Immigration Appeals Authority (IIAA) (clause 1).…
-
![Crash Krylova: Trans People in Prison: For Women Scotland v Scottish Ministers [2026] CSOH 59](https://ukconstitutionallaw.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/crash_wigley.jpg)
Crash Krylova: Trans People in Prison: For Women Scotland v Scottish Ministers [2026] CSOH 59
Introduction On 19 June 2026, the Outer House of the Court of Session handed down judgment in the case of For Women Scotland v Scottish Ministers [2026] CSOH 59 (“For Women Scotland 3”). This piece is intended as a critique of that judgment, exploring the relevance of the Equality Act 2010 and the Schedule 22(1)…
-
Bhavya Johari – The Political Constitution’s Broken Promise: Arms, Sanctions and Accountability after Al-Haq
In September 2024, the Government suspended around thirty arms export licences to Israel, having found a clear risk that United Kingdom equipment might be used to commit serious violations of international humanitarian law. It exempted one category, creating a carve-out for components made in the United Kingdom for the F-35 combat aircraft, which continued to…
-
Hleb Buziuk: Independent by Assertion: The Immigration and Asylum Bill and the Re-Departmentalisation of Adjudication
On 13 July 2026, the Immigration and Asylum Bill is scheduled to receive its second reading in the House of Commons. Public attention has fixed on Part 2 and its Article 8 clauses. This post is about Part 1 (clauses 1-16 and Schedules 1-3), which has attracted less commentary but may prove the more consequential.…
-
Announcement: UKCLA Blog Summer Break
The UKCLA blog will shortly take its annual summer break, running from Friday 17 July to Monday 24 August. Thank you to all of our authors and readers in the first part of 2026. Se-shauna Wheatle, Leah Trueblood, and Paul Scott.
-
Aaditya Bajpai: Not a Ministry of Truth: The State’s Positive Duty to Prevent Algorithmically Amplified Misinformation from Triggering Rights-Harming Violence
Introduction “A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes”. This line is credited to Mark Twain, but the thought is older. Jonathan Swift complained three centuries ago that falsehood flies while truth comes limping after. What has changed since Swift is not human credulity but infrastructure. The…
-
Hleb Buziuk: Downward Self-Correction: The AGNI Reference and the Mirror Principle in Reverse
The literature on section 2 of the Human Rights Act 1998 has largely been preoccupied with a single direction of travel: how far domestic courts may go beyond the Strasbourg case law, or against it. Those are the questions behind Ullah, behind the refusal to follow Strasbourg in Horncastle, and behind the long debate over whether there is a ‘ceiling’ on domestic rights…
-
Dimitrios Kivotidis: Economic Analysis of the British Constitution: Preliminary Thoughts
This post is part of a series on ‘Economic Aspects of the Constitution’. The other posts in the series will be available here. Whether one subscribes to the notion of the ‘ancient constitution’ or not, it is not the most controversial claim to make that the British constitution is one of the most resilient in the world, originating…
-
Eleana Kasoulide: The Internal Administrative Law of Designing Digital Public Services
Digitalisation has become an inseparable aspect of delivering public services, inspiring conversations around the impacts of digitalisation on citizens and of what it means for states to transition into being e-governments. Despite these ongoing discussions a largely overlooked topic is the process by which digital public services are designed and delivered in the first place.…
-
Alistair Mills: The Interpretation of Policy and the Proscription of Palestine Action
As is well known, the group “Palestine Action” has been subject to proscription by the Home Secretary under the Terrorism Act 2000. The Court of Appeal has recently handed down judgment in litigation challenging the designation: Secretary of State for the Home Department v R (Huda Ammori) [2026] EWCA Civ 721. The Divisional Court had…
-
Call for Papers: Keele Law Review.
The Keele Law Review is pleased to announce a call for submissions for its 7th volume (2027) on the theme of ‘Private Power, Democracy, and Human Rights’. The increasing concentration of private economic and technological power raises profound questions for democratic governance, constitutionalism, accountability, and the protection of human rights. Multinational corporations, digital platforms, financial actors, and…
-
Francesca Jackson: Princesses, the Privy Purse, and Parliament: Constitutional Issues Raised by the Royal Residences Report
Following the release of the Report by the National Audit Office (‘NAO’) (‘the Report’) on royal residences, it has emerged that King Charles pays the rent on properties occupied by his nieces, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie. The properties are provided through The Royal Household, thus it is presumed that Charles pays the rent to The Household…
-
Andrew Woodhouse: Power Failure – Electricity Nationalisation and The Erosion of the Public Corporation’s “Three Freedoms” (1947-1967)
This post is part of a series on ‘Economic Aspects of the Constitution’. The other posts in the series will be available here. In 1966, as England won their last men’s football World Cup, the Observer noted that the win would offer some relief from the “economic gloom” pervading the country. Public sector wages were frozen,…
-
Paul F Scott: Economic Security and the NSIA 2021
This post is part of a series on ‘Economic Aspects of the Constitution’. The other posts in the series will be available here. Introduction Section 12 of the Justice and Security Act 2013, the statute which made ‘closed material procedures’ available in civil proceedings generally, requires the Secretary of State to prepare an annual report which…
-
Sara Closs-Davies, Dominic de Cogan and Amy Lawton: Devolving Power, Dividing Outcomes – The Social Consequences of UK Fiscal Devolution
This post is part of a series on ‘Economic Aspects of the Constitution’. The other posts in the series will be available here. Fiscal devolution in the United Kingdom (UK) is often examined through a technical lens. Yet some of its most significant implications and impacts are social. Tax devolution was introduced with the implicit promise…
-
Adrian Kreutz: Dualism, Constitutional Conservatism, and Politically Sensitive Judicial Review
1. Introduction Recent public law cases concerning dualism––the operative divide between international and domestic jurisprudence––have prompted renewed debate about the constitutional role of judicial review in the United Kingdom. At first glance, decisions such as R (FDA) v Minister for Cabinet Office [2024] EWHC 1729 (Admin); and R (Al Haq) v Secretary of State for…
-
Conor McCormick: Monitoring the Judiciary
Judges primarily decide cases, but they also make strategic decisions aimed at maintaining the constitutional authority of the judiciary as a whole. Doctrines, bundling, timing, and public engagement are among the means by which trust, arguably the most important foundation of judicial authority, is acquired and disbursed. It can be difficult to identify and evaluate…
-
Adam Tomkins: Money and the Making of the British Constitution
This post is part of a series on ‘Economic Aspects of the Constitution’. The other posts in the series will be available here. When constitutional lawyers recall the Revolution of 1688 we tend to be better at remembering why Parliament wanted William III to replace James II than why William was so eager to ascend…
-
Announcement: Public Law Conference: Public Law and the Future of Constitutional Democracy, Cape Town, 1-4 July 2026
The 2026 Public Law Conference will be held at the Faculty of Law, University of Cape Town on the theme ‘Public Law and the Future of Constitutional Democracy’, during 1-4 July 2026. The Conference is co-organised by the University of Cape Town, Stellenbosch University, University of the Western Cape, and University of Melbourne. The Public…
-
Yossi Nehushtan and Faye Thomas: Retrospective Rule Making, the Rule of Law, and UK Immigration Policy
In this post we differentiate between two types of retrospective rule making (RRM): RRM in the strong sense and RRM in the weak sense. We then argue that both types of RRM may violate the rule of law to a similar extent, and that both can be morally indefensible, and potentially illegal. We conclude by…
-
Nikos Skoutaris: Fault Lines: The UK’s Asymmetric Constitution and the Problem of Self-Determination After May 2026
For the first time in the history of devolution, nationalist or independence-oriented parties lead all three devolved nations simultaneously: Sinn Féin in Northern Ireland, Plaid Cymru in Wales, and the SNP in Scotland. Meanwhile, Reform UK topped the national equivalent vote in England. The United Kingdom’s political geography has been fundamentally redrawn. What has not…
-
Dane Luo: Andy Burnham and the Constitution – The Conventions on the Appointment of the Prime Minister
After disastrous local government election results for the Labour Party, speculation has been rife about an internal leadership challenge to Prime Minister Keir Starmer. On Thursday 14 May 2026, the Member of Makerfield, Josh Simons, announced he was resigning his Manchester-based seat (formally given effect by an appointment to an ‘office of profit under the…
-
Call for Papers – Extended Deadline: UKCLA Early Career Workshop in Constitutional Law and Theory
UKCLA Early Career Workshop in Constitutional Law and Theory – University of Bristol – 10 June 2026 *Final call for papers – deadline extended to Sunday 24th May 2026* Bristol University’s Centre for European and Public Law (CEPL), and Liverpool University’s Public Law Unit are pleased to announce a one-day workshop for PhD candidates and…
-
Thomas Poole and Elena De Nictolis: The English Devolution and Community Empowerment Act 2026
After months of parliamentary debate, the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Act 2026 (‘English Devolution Act’) received Royal Assent on 29 April 2026. The Act has important implications for the relationship between central and local government and the long-running ‘English question’ in UK constitutional politics. This post situates the Act within almost three decades of…
-
![Colin Murray: Hollowing out Northern Ireland’s Post-Brexit Rights Protections in Re Dillon [2026] UKSC 15](https://ukconstitutionallaw.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/colin-murray-e1537817418282.jpg)
Colin Murray: Hollowing out Northern Ireland’s Post-Brexit Rights Protections in Re Dillon [2026] UKSC 15
The Good and Faithful Servants One of the foundational assertions of judicial approaches to legislation in the UK comes from Willes J in Lee v Bude and Torrington Railway Co: We sit here as servants of the Queen and the legislature. Are we to act as regents over what is done by Parliament with the…
-
Gareth Evans: The Senedd Election: What are the next steps for government formation in Wales?
On 7 May 2026, the people of Wales went to the polls to elect the seventh Senedd Cymru. For a number of reasons, this was always destined to be a change election in Wales: using a new voting system to return an expanded Senedd of ninety-six members, together with significant changes to the Senedd membership…
-
Lewis Graham: Judicial Ideology and Supreme Court Appointments
Appointing Supreme Court Justices When a vacancy arises on the UK Supreme Court (UKSC), how is it filled? And what considerations are taken into account when deciding on which qualified candidate to appoint? The answer to the first question is easy enough to answer: the Lord Chancellor convenes an ad hoc selection commission, which must…
-
Simon Karsunke: What comes next? The way forward on UK House of Lords reform
On 18 March 2026 the House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill became the House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Act 2026. Following one final vote on the evening of the 10th of March 2026 in the House of Lords , and after having offered additional life peer appointments to Conservative peers, the Labour government has succeeded…
-
Jonathan Collinson: A New Independent Appeals Body for Immigration and Asylum: Accountability, Transparency, and Oversight
This post examines questions of accountability, transparency and oversight in the context of the UK government’s proposal for a new Independent Appeals Body for immigration and asylum decisions, replacing the existing First-tier Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber) (hereafter, FtT). It is prompted by the government’s official consultation which, amongst other things, asked: What mechanisms should…
-
Call for Papers: UKCLA Early Career Workshop in Constitutional Law and Theory, University of Bristol
Bristol University’s Centre for European and Public Law (CEPL), and Liverpool University’s Public Law Unit are pleased to announce a one-day workshop for PhD candidates and early-career researchers working in constitutional law and theory. This workshop will provide an opportunity for participants to present their research, receive constructive feedback from established scholars, and engage in…
-
Antoinette Nestor: “We’re Going on a Bear Hunt”: Real-World Consequences and Environmental Assessment after Finch
Environmental Impact Assessments in the UK increasingly resemble We’re Going on a Bear Hunt. In Michael Rosen’s story, every obstacle presents the same catch phrase: “We can’t go over it. We can’t go under it. Oh no! We’ve got to go through it!” The Supreme Court’s judgment in Finch insists on the same approach. It makes clear that public authorities cannot…
-
Adam Tomkins: On ABJ: Proscribed Organisations, Proportionality, and Freedom of Speech
In R v ABJ [2026] UKSC 8 a unanimous Supreme Court ruled that the offence of expressing support for a proscribed organisation, as defined in the Terrorism Act 2000, is not a disproportionate interference with the right to freedom of expression under the European Convention on Human Rights. The Court’s verdict was no surprise: the…
-
Ronan Cormacain: Mandarin: Shining a light on prerogative legislation in the Chagos Islands
The British Indian Ocean Territory Constitution Order 2004 is legislation made by Royal Prerogative. Section 9 provides that there is no right of abode in the Chagos Islands. In R (Mandarin) v HM BIOT Commissioner (31 March 2026) the British Indian Ocean Territory Supreme Court ruled that section 9 was irrational and quashed it. I argue that the judgment…
-
Francesca Jackson: King Charles, President Trump and the State Visit: Some Constitutional Considerations
Buckingham Palace has finally announced that the King and Queen’s planned visit to the US will indeed go ahead at the end of April 2026. After US President Donald Trump launched a string of verbal attacks on the UK Prime Minister, there had been growing calls for Keir Starmer to cancel the King’s visit, which…
-
Chloe Reddock: A Plan 2 far?
In 2025, the Student Loans Company reported that graduates in England leave university with an average debt of £53,000, repayable with interest. Understandably, many regard this as unjust when less than three decades ago, students’ university tuition and maintenance fees were state-funded. Widespread discontent expressed by Plan 2 borrowers who studied between September 2012 and July 2023…
-
Sam Guy: Are judicial reviews in the Planning Court taking too long?
The current government has placed much emphasis on the perceived delays and chilling effects to the delivery of major infrastructure projects as a result of judicial review challenges by project opponents (framed as so-called ‘NIMBYs’ or ‘blockers’), and has introduced some reforms targeted at minimising the impacts of these challenges following an independent review commissioned by the…
-
Conference: The Future of Constitutional Reform in the United Kingdom
The public law team at the University of Manchester Law Department, in collaboration with the UK Constitutional Law Association (UKCLA), is holding a two-day conference on the topic of “The Future of Constitutional Reform in the United Kingdom” on Wednesday 20 and Thursday 21 May 2026 in Manchester, United Kingdom. The conference has two key…
-
Tom Mullen and Charlie Peevers: A Legal Black Hole in UK Waters? The Case of the MV Bella 1
The Facts On 7 January, United States military forces, supported by British forces, intercepted the oil tanker originally known as the Bella 1, then renamed the Marinera, in the Atlantic Ocean south of Iceland. The ship was sailed towards the UK, arrived in the Moray Firth on 13 January and anchored there in UK territorial…
-
Joe Tomlinson and Jed Meers: Will AI Create a Caseload Problem for Justice?
Why is demand important in justice? Justice systems are predominantly analysed in terms of the quality of justice they provide and their level of accessibility. However, justice systems, like all public institutions, operate under resource constraints and must allocate those resources efficiently to achieve the best possible outcomes. In practice, a perpetual challenge for justice…
-
Rob Mullins: “Biological Sex”, Social Segregation, and the Freedom to Reassign Sex
Following the Supreme Court’s decision in For Women Scotland Ltd v The Scottish Ministers [2025] UKSC 16 (“FWS”), there has been much public debate about the lawfulness of policies adopted by employers and service providers that permit trans people to access toilets and changing room facilities in their acquired sex. To date, the issue of the lawfulness…
-
Daniella Lock: In Defence of the Divisional Court’s Palestine Action Ruling
This post responds to important issues raised by Dane Luo and Gabriel Tan with regard to one of the grounds upheld by the Divisional Court in the judicial review of Palestine Action’s proscription (R (Ammori) v Home Secretary [2026] EWHC 292 (Admin)). The ground was upheld on the basis that the Home Secretary’s proscription decision considered…