The government succeeded in blocking a potential judicial review, in a recent case on ouster clauses (Oceana). How concerned should we be about this development?
Writing in this week’s NLJ, Nick Wrightson, partner at Kingsley Napley, notes that the decision itself is narrow enough so as not to ‘significantly imperil the rule of law’. Looking ahead, however, he warns there may be trouble to come.
He writes: ‘The real concern… is that Oceana is proof of concept for a particular form of ouster clause, and the government is already identifying other opportunities to exclude judicial review using this “template”': for example, the Illegal Migration Act 2023, which contains ouster clauses very similar to the one considered in Oceana.
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