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03 April 2026 / Nicholas Dobson
Issue: 8156 / Categories: Features , Public , Judicial review , Human rights
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A tale of two coppers

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Nicholas Dobson examines the vindication of two officers who took action against the Police Federatio
  • In a recent Administrative Court case, the removal from office of two Police Federation branch representatives was found unlawful.
  • The reasons cited in the judgment included ultra vires and disproportionate actions breaching Art 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

‘It was the best of times, it was the worst of times….’ So famously opens Dickens’ 1859 novel A Tale of Two Cities, set in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution. The work is scathing both about cruel aristocratic tyranny and consequent revolutionary bloodlust. But while modern UK public bodies have a duty to act fairly in line with the principles of natural justice, Parisian revolutionary tribunals had no such constraints. Dickens remarked: ‘Before that unjust Tribunal, there was little or no order of procedure, ensuring to any accused person any reasonable hearing.’

However, even today, public law rules may be innocently misunderstood and misapplied, leading to unjust

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