14 March 2025
In an unusual case, a father recently called habeas corpus on behalf of his own children who had been placed in foster care. In this week’s NLJ, Nicholas Dobson covers The Father v Worcestershire County Council in which the Supreme Court discussed the application of the ancient writ in a very modern setting.
Dobson, who writes on local government, public law & governance, notes that habeas corpus is ‘an ancient common law prerogative writ by which the sovereign exercises a right to inquire into why any of his subjects have been deprived of liberty. Although recorded by Blackstone in 1305, this appears to have been used before Magna Carta in 1215’.
More than eight centuries later, could it be reinvented in a family law setting?
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