24 Jan 2021 | Supreme Court Reform
Introduction This paper is a sequel to the earlier one published by Policy Exchange entitled “Should the UK Supreme Court be abolished?”[1] A number of commentators, as well as the contributors to this symposium, have discussed my proposal for an extended Final Court...
24 Jan 2021 | Supreme Court Reform
Full Disclosure The politically febrile aftermath of Miller I[1] and Miller II[2]is not an ideal time to consider the reform of our Supreme Court. Those decisions seemed, at the time, of enormous political significance, and partisans for the losing side (I am...
20 Jan 2021 | Publications
This short paper sets out ten ways in which the Overseas Operations Bill could be amended to improve its effectiveness and to minimise the risk of unintended consequences. None of the proposed changes are wrecking amendments. Like many parliamentarians, we share the...
27 Dec 2020 | Publications
This paper is the text of a submission made on behalf of Policy Exchange’s Judicial Power Project to the Independent Review of Administrative Law. It complements the related submission made by Sir Stephen Laws. Since its foundation, a little over five years ago,...
31 Jul 2020 | Publications
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27 Jul 2020 | In the Media
27 Jul 2020 | In the Media
10 Jun 2020 | Publications
Parliament must intervene to correct the Supreme Court’s misunderstanding of the process behind the detention of Gerry Adams in the 1970s, says Lord Howell, Minister of State for Northern Ireland at the time, in a research note for Policy Exchange. The paper follows...
31 May 2020 | Publications
The Supreme Court has allowed Gerry Adams’s appeal against his 1975 convictions for escaping from lawful custody. When a court quashes a conviction 45 years later, one might imagine that new evidence must have come to light. Not this time: the case turned on a...
4 May 2020 | Posts
Modern human rights law invites political challenges to law or policy and politicises adjudication in turn. The risks were on full display a year ago when the High Court roundly declared sections 20-37 of the Immigration Act 2014 to be racially discriminatory. I...
20 Mar 2020 | Human Rights and Political Wrongs, Publications
In this paper, which is the revised text of his recent lecture for Policy Exchange’s Judicial Power Project, John Larkin QC reflects on the state of the United Kingdom’s constitution. The paper discusses an aspect of an important provision of the European Convention...
26 Feb 2020 | News, Posts
In R. v Abdurahman [2019] EWCA Crim 2239, the Court of Appeal (Criminal Division) (CA(CD)) robustly, yet politely, rejected the view of the ECtHR’s Grand Chamber that the appellant had, in breach of Art.6.1 of the ECHR, not received a fair Crown Court trial. It also...
18 Feb 2020 | In the Media
18 Feb 2020 | In the Media
8 Feb 2020 | Judicial Power and the Balance of Our Constitution, Publications
The Supreme Court’s prorogation judgment, Miller/Cherry, was contrary to the settled law of the constitution. This paper, which complements and completes an earlier critique, refutes attempts to deny the judgment’s revolutionary character, attempts that cannot be...
27 Jan 2020 | Judicial Power and the Balance of Our Constitution, Publications
Did the United Kingdom’s constitution work as it should have done in the process to leave the European Union? In essence, yes, says Sir Stephen Laws, Senior Fellow at Policy Exchange and a former First Parliamentary Counsel. He says the Government should resist...
6 Jan 2020 | In the Media
28 Dec 2019 | Judicial Power and the Balance of Our Constitution, Publications
The rise of judicial power in the UK in recent years is a striking change in our constitutional arrangements – in how we are governed – a change that threatens good government, parliamentary democracy, and the rule of law. The expansion of judicial power is a function...
10 Nov 2019 | Publications, Publications: 'Lawfare' and Judicial Power
Policy Exchange’s latest paper on lawfare, endorsed by General David Petraeus, sets out new measures on how the next Government must protect our soldiers from the assault of lawfare. The paper recommends that the next government should: Maintain a policy of derogating...
6 Nov 2019 | In the Media
5 Nov 2019 | In the Media
15 Oct 2019 | Judicial Power and the Balance of Our Constitution, Publications
In this new paper for Policy Exchange’s Judicial Power Project, Professor Martin Loughlin of the LSE outlines the failings he perceives in the Supreme Court’s recent prorogation judgment. The paper is framed as the judgment on appeal by an imaginary higher court,...
14 Oct 2019 | Past events
speakers: Lord Sumption former Justice of the Supreme Court John Larkin QC Attorney General for Northern Ireland Helen Mountfield QC Principal of Mansfield College, Oxford The Lord Trevethin and Oaksey QC Crossbench Peer and Barrister Chaired by Professor Richard...
10 Oct 2019 | Debating the Supreme Court’s prorogation judgment
The Supreme Court’s prorogation judgement is the latest episode in a larger parliamentary and judicial effort to dampen the strength of the executive in constitution. This is not to deny the constitutional significance (or novelty) of the judgement, but it does raise...
7 Oct 2019 | Judicial Power and the Balance of Our Constitution, Publications
The parliamentary authorities have taken the view that because the Supreme Court has quashed the prorogation of Parliament, everything else done by the Royal Commission in the morning of 10 September has been quashed as well. Accordingly, both the Speaker of the House...
4 Oct 2019 | Debating the Supreme Court’s prorogation judgment
The prorogation of Parliament or the advice on which such prorogation was based has not, historically, been thought to have been justiciable. The Supreme Court has decided that it is justiciable but determines that question not separately or as a preliminary issue but...
4 Oct 2019 | Debating the Supreme Court’s prorogation judgment
In Cherry/Miller, the Supreme Court chose to change the law by creating a new legal limitation on the prerogative to prorogue Parliament. Whether one thinks the Court was within its rights to change the law, the judgment was, from a practical point of view, clearly...
4 Oct 2019 | Debating the Supreme Court’s prorogation judgment
The UK Supreme Court’s decision last week that Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s prorogation of Parliament was unlawful is an unprecedented judicial interference in matters concerning prerogative and will undoubtedly be subject to debate for some time. While any analysis...
4 Oct 2019 | In the Media
3 Oct 2019 | Debating the Supreme Court’s prorogation judgment
Prior to the Supreme Court’s judgment, there was much speculation as to exactly how the Supreme Court would divide – 8:3, 7:4 or even 6:5 – and considerable speculation as to who would be on which side in the light of the questions posed and previous decisions made by...
