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05 December 2025
Issue: 8142 / Categories: Features , Public , Judicial review , Human rights
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Public law update: December 2025

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The latest human rights & judicial review cases from the team at Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer
  • In human rights cases, courts are still grappling with the tension between fulfilling their constitutional role of ensuring accountability for executive interference with rights and respecting the judgment of the decision-maker.
  • The extent to which judicial review applies in a contractual context remains a difficult area, with inconsistency between recent case outcomes, showing the context-specific nature of such issues.
  • The courts continue to take a strict approach to delay in commencing judicial review proceedings, particularly in the planning and infrastructure context.

Interference with ECHR rights

In Shvidler v Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs [2025] UKSC 30, the Supreme Court dealt with combined appeals under the sanctions regime (where judicial review principles apply), raising issues under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The focus was the correct approach of both first instance and appellate courts in determining whether interferences with ECHR rights are proportionate.

The Supreme Court confirmed

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

Keystone Law—Milena Szuniewicz-Wenzel & Ian Hopkinson

Keystone Law—Milena Szuniewicz-Wenzel & Ian Hopkinson

International arbitration team strengthened by double partner hire

Coodes Solicitors—Pam Johns, Rachel Pearce & Bradley Kaine

Coodes Solicitors—Pam Johns, Rachel Pearce & Bradley Kaine

Firm celebrates trio holding senior regional law society and junior lawyers division roles

Michelman Robinson—Sukhi Kaler

Michelman Robinson—Sukhi Kaler

Partner joins commercial and business litigation team in London

NEWS
The government has pledged to ‘move fast’ to protect children from harm caused by artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots, and could impose limits on social media as early as the summer
All eyes will be on the Court of Appeal (or its YouTube livestream) next week as it sits to consider the controversial Mazur judgment
An NHS Foundation Trust breached a consultant’s contract by delegating an investigation into his knowledge of nurse Lucy Letby’s case
Draft guidance for schools on how to support gender-questioning pupils provides ‘more clarity’, but headteachers may still need legal advice, an education lawyer has said
Litigation funder Innsworth Capital, which funded behemoth opt-out action Merricks v Mastercard, can bring a judicial review, the High Court ruled last week
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