Expert witnesses

The decision of the Court of Appeal in Stanton v Callaghan [1998] 4 All ER 961 remained good law, and was binding on the lower courts. The fact that human rights considerations might question some of the policy assumptions behind a previous decision of a superior court was no basis for concluding that the decision was no longer authoritative.

There was no judgment of the European Court of Human Rights on the issue. A direct challenge to the decision or principle in play would be needed before a court could rely upon the passage of the Human Rights Act 1998, as a sufficient statutory change in the law to revisit a proposition spelt out a binding judgment in a superior court.