Category: International law
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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…
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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…
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Madeline Gleeson & Theodore Konstadinides: The UK’s Rwanda policy and Lessons from Australia
In November 2023, the Supreme Court of the UK dealt a critical blow to the government’s proposal to send certain asylum seekers to the Republic of Rwanda. In AAA and Others v the Home Secretary, the Court ruled that removal to Rwanda would be unlawful because that country was not, at the time, a ‘safe country’. The government…
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Sir Jonathan Jones QC (Hon): The Northern Ireland Protocol, International Law and the Attorney General
The Times recently (11 May 2022) reported that the Attorney General, Suella Braverman, had received, and given, legal advice to the effect that proposed government action in relation to the Northern Ireland Protocol was compatible with international law. As I write, we have still not seen details of either the proposals or the legal arguments…
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Nicholas Reed Langen: Confronting Climate Change in the Courts
Talk is cheap. Governments, particularly wealthy, western ones, have been quick to make promises on climate change. They swear blind that they understand the threat the world faces, and that they will implement a policy response commensurate with it. Few nations have adopted this rhetoric as determinedly as the UK, with the British government promising to…
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Rhona Smith: ‘Building Back Better’ – obligations behind the soundbite
Whilst PM Boris Johnson and President Joe Biden may dispute who first used the tag ‘Build Back Better’ in the context of COVID-19 recovery planning, the phrase is, as one journalist did note, actually from United Nations documentation on disaster reduction and risk management. The 2015 UN Sendai Framework for Disaster Reduction sits alongside the…
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Ewan Smith: “British Laws for British Ministers !”
Introduction We now have a government under law, except in a limited, specific way. The Advocate General, Lord Keen, and the Head of the Government Legal Department, Jonathan Jones, have resigned in protest. Their reasons were revealed in an illuminating article about the dispute between the Attorney General, Solicitor General and Advocate General published in…
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Ronan Cormacain: The United Kingdom Internal Market Bill and Breach of Domestic Law
Huge controversy has already been generated over provisions in the United Kingdom Internal Market Bill granting Ministers the power to disapply the Withdrawal Agreement. Most of the debate (Elliott, Armstrong) has been focused on the potential breaches of international law. This could severely damage the reputation of the United Kingdom in the world. However, what…
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Bethany Shiner and Tanzil Chowdhury: The Overseas Operation (Service Personnel and Veterans) Bill and Impunity of the British State
The Overseas Operation (Service Personnel and Veterans) Bill was introduced in the House of Commons in March 2020 and is due its second reading on 23 September 2020. In short, the Bill aims to limit prosecution and civil proceedings against military personnel, as well as to enable the UK government to derogate from the European…
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Kenneth Armstrong: Can the UK Breach the Withdrawal Agreement and Get Away With It? – the United Kingdom Internal Market Bill
Amidst increasing concern about the UK Government’s intentions in respect of implementation of the EU-UK Withdrawal Agreement and the Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen took to Twitter to state: I trust the British government to implement the Withdrawal Agreement, an obligation under international law & prerequisite for any…