Human rights

R (on the application of Age UK) v Secretary of State for Business, Innovation & Skills, [2009] EWHC 2336 (Admin)

It is one thing for the courts to protect citizens from the arbitrary use of prosecutorial discretion resulting in abuse of process; quite another to require prosecutors to spell out the public interest criteria they will apply in relation to particular crimes, not least to particular instances of particular crimes. Circumstances are infinitely variable, especially when a case is hypothetical. Ms Purdy may never be assisted in suicide, by her husband or anyone else. For all we know, she may—like Mrs Pretty—end up dying a natural death in an English hospice. In short, Purdy seems unprecedented, unsound and unconstitutional.

“Bombed—lost everything”. That was how one London Citizens Advice bureau memorably recorded the nature of the legal problems for the newly dispossessed “streams” of clients approaching the nascent service. War was declared on 3 September 1939 and the first bureau opened its doors the next day.

Jacqueline Renton reports on the human rights’ approach to non-consensual marriage

What happens when Strasbourg gets it wrong?

An Afghani wife from Pakistan has won the right to join her refugee husband in the UK because refusal by the Appeal Immigration Tribunal violated her Art 8 rights.

Seamus Burns commends the move towards greater transparency in assisted suicide cases

The government faces being sued over its involvement in the extraordinary rendition of two men who were arrested in Iraq.

Storage proposals fail to meet Convention requirements

Ministers condemned for avoiding essential Parliamentary scrutiny & accountability