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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

Harneys—Maggie Kwok & George Weston

Harneys—Maggie Kwok & George Weston

Harneys senior leadership appointments

Freeths—Keith Browne & Jim Jordan

Freeths—Keith Browne & Jim Jordan

Freeths strengthens London Construction and Engineering practice with two strategic senior hires

Anthony Collins—Laura Moss

Anthony Collins—Laura Moss

Anthony Collins announces strategic hire to deepen skills base in the social business sector

NEWS
More than 100 teams from the legal and financial services sectors competed in five sports at the 51st Law Society RFC Festival of Sport earlier this month
Part-time status need only be an effective cause of less favourable treatment, rather than the sole cause, the Supreme Court has held in Augustine v Data Cars
Britain’s new acknowledgement that Israel’s occupation is unlawful, and accompanying settlement-goods ban and sanctions, is significant but overdue, argue Danny Friedman KC and Victor Kattan in NLJ this week
New planning fee rises, wider trade union access rights and a service-by-email trap feature in Stephen Gold’s latest Civil Way
Existing defamation law can respond to AI ‘hallucinations’, but allocating responsibility will prove harder where outputs reach users without human intervention
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