Tag: Axa Insurance
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Carwyn Jones: Is Dicey dicey?
For nearly a hundred and fifty years, parliamentary sovereignty or supremacy (the terms are used interchangeably) has been taken as immutable and unchanging by the UK Parliament and the courts. As devolution has developed, the concept deserves greater examination to see whether the concept is as sound as it has been supposed. There is nothing…
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Kenneth Campbell: Constitutional Dogs That Barked and Dogs That Did Not: The Scottish Continuity Bill in the Supreme Court
Introductory Somewhat overshadowed by the Wightman saga, and the unscheduled Conservative leadership demarche, the UKSC decision in the UK Withdrawal from the European Union (Legal Continuity)(Scotland) Bill compatibility reference was handed down in the same week in December. It will be argued this decision contains more of lasting constitutional significance which lies both in the…
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Hayley J. Hooper: Balancing Access to Justice and the Public Interest: Privacy International and Ouster Clauses in the Broader Constitutional Context
In November 2017, the Court of Appeal in R (Privacy International) v Investigatory Powers Tribunal unanimously held that a so-called “ouster clause” in respect of the of the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) was lawful. This decision may appear odd as out of step with what appears to be a steady march towards increasingly concrete principles…
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Ewan Smith and Alison Young: “That’s how it worked in 2014, and how it would have to work again”
On the 9th of March, writing for the BBC, Laura Kuenssberg, the political editor of the BBC said “it’s up to the Westminster government to permit another [Scottish] referendum.” Six days earlier, Sarah Smith, the Scotland editor of the BBC said: “The Prime Minister knows she could easily prevent another referendum by simply refusing to…
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Jeff King and Nick Barber: In Defence of Miller
Miller v Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union has stimulated quite a bit of debate. Some criticism of the decision has been well-informed and thoughtful, whilst some of it has been, to put it charitably, less worthy of engagement. In this post we respond to what we view as the strongest arguments against…
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Ben Christman: An Unholy Resurrection in the Court of Session
Relaxed standing tests for judicial review are critical to maintain the rule of law. Too restrictive, and the executive may act unlawfully – safe in the knowledge that judicial oversight is precluded by the courts’ doors being closed to the public-spirited litigant. In certain circumstances, restrictive standing tests can leave illegal executive action essentially unchallengeable.…
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Se-shauna Wheatle: The Residual Powers of the Court
There has, justifiably, been much debate about the implications of the judgments of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom in R (Jackson) v Attorney General [2005] UKHL 56, [2006] AC 262 and AXA General Insurance Ltd v The Scottish Ministers [2011] UKSC 46, [2011] 3 WLR 871. What is perhaps the most constitutionally significant…
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Aileen McHarg: The Dog That Finally Barked: Constitutional Review under the Scotland Act
The reviewability of Acts of the Scottish Parliament (ASPs) at common law has, understandably, attracted considerable interest of late, on this blog and elsewhere. However, the Supreme Court’s decision in AXA General Insurance Ltd v the Scottish Ministers [2011] UKSC 46 confirmed that the primary means of challenging ASPs is upon the grounds laid down…
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Mike Gordon: What is the Point of Exceptional Circumstances Review?
A great deal of the controversy surrounding the recent case of Axa General Insurance Ltd v Lord Advocate [2011] UKSC 46, already much discussed on this blog, stems from the notion of ‘exceptional circumstances review’. The Supreme Court’s decision that it has the authority as a matter of common law to reject Acts of the…
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Tarun Khaitan: How to interpret Constitutional Statutes?
Most of us will be aware of the famous remarks of Lord Justice Laws in Thoburn v Sunderland City Council (2002) that constitutional statutes are immune from implied repeal, and therefore somewhat entrenched against Parliament. The issue of the entrenchment of the UK constitution against non-sovereign legislatures, such as the devolved legislatures and the European…