header-logo header-logo

Unravelling (un)fairness

06 December 2018 / Nicholas Dobson
Issue: 7820 / Categories: Features , Public
printer mail-detail

Nicholas Dobson discusses public law fairness

  • Simple unfairness as such is not a ground for judicial review.
  • Substantive unfairness is not a distinct legal criterion.
  • Equal treatment is not a distinct principle of UK administrative law.

‘Fair’s fair,’ so they say; and have been doing since at least 1898. For it seems it was then that the phrase first hit the stage in a novel called Castle Inn . But while fair may be fair (connoting reciprocity of fair treatment), where does fairness stand in public law? And does domestic administrative law acknowledge equal treatment as a distinct legal principle?

These knotty issues were up for unravelling by the Supreme Court on 16 May 2018 in R (Gallaher Group Ltd and others) v The Competition and Markets Authority [2018] UKSC 25. Lord Carnwath gave the leading judgment, with which Lords Mance and Hodge agreed. Lords Sumption and Briggs gave concurring decisions.

Summary background

In March 2003, under the Competition Act 1998, the former Office of Fair Trading (OFT) began investigating alleged tobacco industry price-fixing arrangements.

If you are not a subscriber, subscribe now to read this content
If you are already a subscriber sign in
...or Register for two weeks' free access to subscriber content

MOVERS & SHAKERS

DWF—19 appointments

DWF—19 appointments

Belfast team bolstered by three senior hires and 16 further appointments

Cadwalader—Andro Atlaga

Cadwalader—Andro Atlaga

Firm strengthens leveraged finance team with London partner hire

Knights—Ella Dodgson & Rebecca Laffan

Knights—Ella Dodgson & Rebecca Laffan

Double hire marks launch of family team in Leeds

NEWS
The Supreme Court issued a landmark judgment in July that overturned the convictions of Tom Hayes and Carlo Palombo, once poster boys of the Libor and Euribor scandal. In NLJ this week, Neil Swift of Peters & Peters considers what the ruling means for financial law enforcement
Bea Rossetto of the National Pro Bono Centre makes the case for ‘General Practice Pro Bono’—using core legal skills to deliver life-changing support, without the need for niche expertise—in this week's NLJ
In this week's NLJ, Steven Ball of Red Lion Chambers unpacks how advances in forensic science finally unmasked Ryland Headley, jailed in 2025 for the 1967 rape and murder of 75-year-old Louisa Dunne. Preserved swabs and palm prints lay dormant for decades until DNA-17 profiling produced a billion-to-one match
Small law firms want to embrace technology but feel lost in a maze of jargon, costs and compliance fears, writes Aisling O’Connell of the Solicitors Regulation Authority in this week's NLJ
Charlie Mercer and Astrid Gillam of Stewarts crunch the numbers on civil fraud claims in the English courts, in this week's NLJ. New data shows civil fraud claims rising steadily since 2014, with the King’s Bench Division overtaking the Commercial Court as the forum of choice for lower-value disputes
back-to-top-scroll