Ultra vires meaning

Original news Dean v Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy [2017] EWHC 1998 (Admin); [2017] All ER (D) 72 (Aug). The Planning Court concluded that the grant of a PEDL under section 3 of the Petroleum Act 1998 (PA 1998) was not entirely constrained by the statutory licensing code, so the Secretary of State could agree to alter the licence terms. Consequently, it rejected the claimant’s case that the deed varying the licence was ultra vires, and dismissed his application for judicial review. What was the background to the case? In 2008 the defendant issued a PEDL conferring exclusive rights on the licensees to search, drill for and recover hydrocarbons within a defined geographic area. The licence period was split into three stages: a stage for the licensee to undertake the agreed works programme of seismic and geological surveys a stage to obtain Oil and Gas Authority approval of a field development plan a production stage ...

Editor’s note Welcome to the 2024 Public Law case law quarterly’s third issue, reflecting developments from the year’s third quarter in full. We open with the Supreme Court’s judgment in Lipton, where the Justices, in obiter remarks, expressed differing positions on if the post‑Brexit retained EU law and assimilated frameworks govern claims predating IP‑completion day, or not. Next comes the Court of Justice’s decision in Alchaster, addressing how Member State courts are to approach fundamental rights, more broadly, when considering extradition to the UK. We also feature, in particular, the Court of Appeal’s ruling in Northumbrian Water, confirming there is no public law ‘duty of prescription’ at all concerning the publication of policies, and rejecting any reading of the Supreme Court’s decision in Lumba as having created such an obligation in law...

John Lapaglia v Valve Corporation Case No: 3:25-cv-00833-RBM-DDL What are the practical implications of this case? In the US, parties attempting to overturn an arbitration award must first establish an independent basis for federal jurisdiction—either the existence of a federal question or satisfaction of diversity jurisdiction requirements. Jurisdiction is a threshold issue; unless one of these grounds is shown, the court will not hear the case. Allegations about artificial intelligence (AI), even when cast as excess of authority or manifest disregard of law under the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA), will not be reached until that jurisdictional hurdle is cleared. In this dispute, even had the court found it could hear the matter, vacatur under the FAA would still be far from a ‘slam-dunk’. The parties must, inter alia, prove that the deployment of AI amounted to a manifest disregard of the law, or that AI led the arbitrator to act ultra vires by exceeding the authority conferred in the arbitration agreement. To avoid ‘surprises’ regarding potential FAA vacatur,...

The nature and purpose of break fees Break fees typically exist to reimburse a party’s legal and professional outlay incurred through due diligence and negotiations when a deal ends. They can also act as a deterrent to behaviour that might unreasonably derail the process, encouraging both sides to keep talking, and discouraging steps that could prevent the transaction from moving forward at all or otherwise cause it to stall. The parties usually enter into a break fee agreement early in the sale process, commonly before the buyer begins its due diligence. Such provisions (also referred to as inducement, termination or broken deal fees) may appear in a stand-alone agreement or be set out within heads of terms. Types of break fees The most prevalent form of break fee arises where the target undertakes to pay the bidder a sum if a specified event happens and the transaction then fails to complete (for instance, where the seller accepts a superior third-party offer or any necessary shareholder consent is...

Practice Note This Practice Note explores the issues that arise around illegal or unlawful terms in employment contracts, including pay provisions intended to circumvent tax legislation, agreements with individuals who are not lawfully permitted to work in the UK, and arrangements to undertake work that is illegal or contrary to public policy. It also analyses the consequences of illegality, including where only one party is implicated, the absence of any requirement for knowledge of the illegality, and the continued ability to bring discrimination claims. The Note addresses the public interest dimension and the Supreme Court’s ‘trio of considerations’ identified in Patel v Mirza. Confidentiality clauses and the limits of contracting-out are examined as well. An employment contract can be tainted by illegality in the same way as any other agreement. Historically, one of the most significant areas of illegality has been covenants in restraint of trade, which will not be enforceable unless they fall within one of the lawful exceptions recognised under the common law principles on restraint of...

Introduction Planning decisions and actions by local planning authorities (LPAs), the Secretary of State and other public bodies can be contested in the courts where the decision was unlawful. Most planning decisions are capable of challenge by a High Court application for judicial review (see Practice Note: Planning judicial review). However, certain statutory schemes governing particular decisions or acts expressly preclude court challenges, including judicial review, save through a statutory application. Put simply, the legislation states that a decision or action may only be questioned under a specified statutory route. Such proceedings are termed statutory reviews or statutory challenges. This Practice Note concentrates on the arrangements for applications for statutory planning review (usually called ‘applications’ rather than ‘claims’, though the labels are used interchangeably), which, in the planning context, comprise: applications under section 287 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 (TCPA 1990) concerning the validity of simplified planning zone schemes and certain highway and other orders applications under TCPA 1990, s 288...