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United Kingdom
United Kingdom
UK nationality law: good character in naturalisation—high threshold, applicant’s burden, and rationality not proportionality in review (R (Sandy) v Home Secretary)
Published on: 25 April 2023
Published by a LexisNexis Public Law expertLegal News
Article summary
R (Sandy) v Home Secretary [2023] EWHC 640 (Admin)
What are the practical implications of this case?
Applicants should note that broad‑brush claims offer scant assistance in naturalisation applications. The particulars of any asylum claim should be reviewed with care, and material from that period augmented where necessary. The guidance sets an exacting bar for good character, so meticulous attention to its thresholds and the language employed is crucial. Of wider note is Mostyn J’s analysis of why he dismissed the claimant’s striking submission—summarised at paras [43]–[45]—that proportionality, rather than rationality, ought to be the operative test. For the principled foundations of the rationality standard in this sphere, see paras [25]–[33] and [38]–[42]. Ongoing attempts to invoke proportionality are likely to meet a frosty reception from the judiciary. As he remarks at para [47], within judicial review proportionality has insinuated itself like a cuckoo into the common law’s nest of traditional evaluation, laying its continental eggs and tipping out the home‑reared Wednesbury chicks. That path would entail an impermissible merits review, amounting to a covert, merits‑based proportionality assessment of the decision at issue. Accordingly, proportionality pleas will almost invariably fail and should be avoided in such challenges wherever possible...
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