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R (Greyhound Board of Great Britain Ltd) v Welsh Ministers [2026] EWHC 670 (Admin) What are the practical implications of this case? The ruling reinforces the constitutional divide between the courts and the legislature. It explains that the scheme and framework of the Government of Wales Act 2006 (GWA 2006) embody that separation of powers, and that any judicial attempt to recognise and enforce a common law obligation on Welsh Ministers to consult prior to introducing legislation in the Senedd would trespass upon that boundary. This is not a departure from established principle; case law has already upheld comparable rules for lawmakers in Scotland and at Westminster. However, this is the first express confirmation of the position for Welsh lawmakers, and the first time this dimension of the GWA 2006 has been analysed in such depth. The court examined earlier
The solution arrived through the United Nations Compensation Commission (UNCC), a quasi‑judicial body handling mass claims, created under UN Security Council Resolution 687. By addressing environmental harm—most notably via its ‘F4’ claim class—the UNCC set a seminal benchmark shaping how international law and contemporary arbitral panels allocate financial responsibility for wartime ecological devastation. With present-day wars in areas such as Eastern Europe and the Middle East bringing dam breaches, strikes on chemical facilities, and the burning of farmland, the UNCC’s legacy endures as an essential reference point for states, global investors, and companies engaged in post‑conflict arbitration. The F4 claims: Quantifying the unquantifiable Prior to the 1990s, mechanisms in international law for war reparations overwhelmingly favoured property loss, foregone earnings, and bodily injury. The natural world was commonly treated as a mute, non-compensable victim of armed hostilities...
Understanding the farming business as a business Many farms still use long-standing structures that arose by habit, not strategy. Sole traders, informal partnerships and outdated partnership deeds are common. While once effective, such setups can cause major issues around succession, tax planning and involving the next generation. A corporate team can take a fresh, business-led view of the farm, asking: Who owns the land and other critical assets? Who manages daily operations? Who carries the risk and who enjoys the return? What is the enduring plan for succession? From this review, the team can confirm whether the current setup is fit for purpose or if an alternative — for example an updated partnership agreement, a company, a limited liability partnership, or a blended model — would better meet the family’s aims. Tax efficiency through joined-up advice Tax sits at the centre of most
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Original news Symbion Power LLC v Venco Imtiaz Construction Company [2017] EWHC 348 ( TCC) What are the practical implications of this case? This decision is predominantly fact-specific. Nevertheless, it stands as an illustration of the court applying the guidance on AA 1996, s 68 applications—particularly s 68(2)(d)—as articulated by Mr Justice Akenhead in So S for the Home Department v Raytheon. For a fuller discussion of those principles, see News Analysis: e- Borders award set aside and dispute to be reheard by new tribunal ( So S for the Home Department v Raytheon). The judgment is also another instance of an unsuccessful attempt to set aside an arbitral award for serious irregularity. As with many AA 1996, s 68 challenges, it confirms the demanding threshold applicants must meet before the court will exercise its powers under AA 1996, s 68(3). Although the dispute stemmed from the...
Original news J Toomey Motors Ltd and Another v Chevrolet UK Ltd [2017] EWHC 276 ( Comm) What should commercial lawyers take note of? Commercial practitioners should note the following: The court confirmed (in line with established authority) that a recital expressing intention, without operative effect, cannot override the contract’s operative terms. When applying the ‘commercial or practical coherence’ test for implying terms after the Supreme Court’s decision in Marks and Spencer v BNP Paribas, the court emphasised that coherence must be determined objectively from the viewpoint of the ‘officious bystander’, not merely one party’s standpoint. The court dismissed reliance on a course of dealing as an independent ground for implied terms, noting that although prior dealings may inform whether a term is to be implied, they do not create a separate category of implied terms solely by reason of such...
Original news Signature Realty Ltd v Fortis Developments Ltd and another [2016] EWHC 3583 ( Ch) What should IP & IT lawyers take note of? Any party may seek planning consent to develop land. Such consent attaches to the land itself and is not personal to the applicant. Plans are made publicly available, though any copyright licence is narrowly limited. Where an existing building is being redeveloped, originality can be contentious, but the threshold is not demanding. The key issue is the level of intellectual skill deployed in creating the drawings. In assessing infringement, the court examined similarities by reference to the artistic effort and labour embodied in the claimant’s drawings, disregarding features lacking originality. The question is whether what in the defendant’s work, taken from the claimant’s, amounts to a substantial part of the claimant’s work. The court held that several drawings were infringed and ordered an...
In brief: When is an expedited trial appropriate in a public procurement case? ( Joseph Gleave & Son Ltd v Secretary of State for Defence) Original news Joseph Gleave & Son Ltd v Secretary of State for Defence [2017] EWHC 238 ( TCC) What should public procurement lawyers take note of? The judgment offers a helpful recap of the principles for deciding applications for an expedited trial, together with the core questions when considering a stay. It also makes plain that, despite Directive 89/665/ EEC as amended (the Remedies Directive), there is no presumption in favour of speeding up proceedings in procurement disputes, whether the challenge arises before or after the tender process has concluded. Applied to the facts, two practical lessons stand out: First, any party contemplating expedition should alert the opponent at the earliest opportunity to evidence genuine urgency. Second, a...
Original news R (on the application of Hicks and others) v Commissioner of Police for the Metropolis [2017] UKSC 9, [2017] All ER ( D) 129 ( Feb) The Supreme Court dismissed the appeals brought by four individuals arrested and detained during a royal wedding and subsequently released without charge, ruling that preventative detention followed by swift release fell within the exception to the prohibition on deprivation of liberty set out in Article 5(1)(c) of the European Convention on Human Rights in this context. What are the practical implications of the decision for lawyers and their clients? This ruling may indeed also prompt greater reliance on mass arrests rather than containment in the setting of public protest activity overall in practice. Similarly, that shift carries further consequences for data collection, as a formal arrest ordinarily results in the recording of the arrestees’ names and usually the taking of...
Original news Pickard v Marshall and others; Generali France Assurances v Marshall and others [2017] EWCA Civ 17 What are the practical implications of this case? The court rejected an attempt to limit the types of considerations relevant to deciding whether a claim has a ‘manifestly closer connection’ to a particular legal system under Article 4(3) of Regulation ( EC) 864/2007 ( Rome II). As a result, the kind of wide, fact-driven assessment used by the trial judge remains pivotal—especially elements such as the existence of other personal injury actions from the same incident, where the applicable law is unambiguous—which will continue to matter in cases of this sort... What issues did this case raise? The dispute centres on Article 4 of Rome II, which sets the applicable law for cross-border claims not founded on contract (ie almost all personal injury claims with a...
Original news Senior HBOS banker and associates found guilty of corruption, LNB News 31/01/2017 141 A former HBOS manager, a financial adviser and their network were found guilty of corruption, fraudulent trading and laundering funds after operating a racket that eventually left the bank facing losses of about £250m in total. Ex-banker David Mills and cohorts plotted to line their own pockets, forcing companies into collapse along the way. Their conduct deliberately prioritised personal gain, with severe consequences for the companies involved and for the businesses affected. What is the background to the investigation in this case? On 30 January 2017, Judge Beddoe at Southwark Crown Court passed sentence on five banking staff and private business advisers for offences tied to a £245m fraud on HBOS customers between 2003 and 2007. This stemmed from a complex, six-year Thames Valley Police inquiry, codenamed Operation Hornet. It became the...
Original news Sands (as trustee in bankruptcy of the estate of Layne (a bankrupt)) v Layne and another [2016] EWCA Civ 1159, [2016] All ER ( D) 160 ( Nov) The Court of Appeal, Civil Division, upheld the trustee in bankruptcy’s challenge and determined that Insolvency Act 1986, s 375(1) empowers a court to revisit, set aside or amend an order it has previously made while exercising its appellate jurisdiction over a decision from a lower court. What lessons of practical value should practitioners draw from this ruling? The ruling in Sands v Layne refines the boundaries of the jurisdiction under s 375(1) to review, rescind or vary orders within the relevant Parts of the Insolvency Act 1986 dealing with personal insolvency. It also examines when a bankrupt’s trustee and other creditors should be added as parties to any application seeking to rescind a...
Original news Fast Drinks Ltd v Cetyl International Group Inc [2016] EWHC 3501 ( QB). The newly released transcript of this notable ex tempore ruling has now appeared. On appeal, the question was whether the sub‑tenant, Fast Drinks, could properly make a section 26 request for a new tenancy naming 1 July 2015 as the start date, even though the contractual term would otherwise have ended on 15 January 2016. The dispute centred on timing under section 26, given a later contractual expiry in mid‑ January 2016 instead. What are the practical implications of this case? The decision cautions landlords holding break options that a break operated lawfully brings only the contractual term of the headlease and any sub‑leases to an end. But any statutory continuation tenancy or tenancies persist unless and until a Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 section 25 notice is served, citing one of the...
Original news Brexit must not trade away environmental protections, Committee warns, LNB News 04/01/2017 90 The Environmental Audit Committee has cautioned ministers that safeguards for the environment must not be diluted during the UK’s exit from the EU or thereafter, and urges the introduction of a new Environmental Protection Act alongside Article 50 TEU talks to preserve the UK’s high environmental benchmarks. Such legislation would limit the danger of ‘zombie legislation’—that is, EU-derived rules carried into domestic law but left unrefreshed, vulnerable to being whittled away via statutory instruments with scant parliamentary oversight. What prompted the Committee to issue this report? Titled ‘ The Future of the Natural Environment after the EU Referendum’, it forms part of a suite of inquiries by the Committee into the real‑world consequences for UK environmental policy once we leave the EU. This work follows an earlier...
Original news Newman v Clarke [2016] EWHC 2959 ( Ch) In December 1996 Mr Clarke established an accumulation and maintenance settlement. Mrs Newman and Mrs Clarke were two of the three initial trustees. In April 1997, Mrs Newman and her husband granted a lease of a residential property to Mr Clarke. That lease qualified for enfranchisement under the Leasehold Reform Act 1967 ( LRA 1967). On 19 June 1997, Mr and Mrs Newman sold their freehold reversion in the property to the original trustees of the settlement. On 25 June 1997, Mr Clarke took the place of the third of the original trustees as a trustee of the settlement. On 12 September 1997, the original trustees conveyed the freehold reversion in the property to Mrs Newman, Mrs Marks and Mr Clarke to hold upon the terms of the settlement. On 7 January 1998, they were...
Original news New Dawn Homes Ltd v Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government [2016] EWHC 3314 ( Admin) What is the significance of the decision for authorities and developers? Here, the outcome rested on the facts and the precise language of the local plan policy. The judgment serves as a useful prompt about how far the explanatory text within local plan policies may assist in construing the policies themselves. A plan's supporting text comprises the reasoned justification and any descriptive or explanatory material for a policy. While that material is pertinent to interpreting the related policy, it is not a policy, nor part of one; it lacks policy force and cannot override policy. It neither creates new policy nor forms any part of the binding policy wording. Its role is interpretative only and cannot be used to trump policy....
Original news R v Docherty [2016] UKSC 62, [2016] All ER ( D) 72 ( Dec). The Supreme Court rejected the appellant’s challenge to an indeterminate sentence of imprisonment for public protection ( IPP). The IPP had been imposed pursuant to transitional provisions capturing offenders convicted before the sentence was abolished, even though they were sentenced afterwards. The court concluded that this arrangement did not breach ECHR, art 7. What is the significance of this case for practitioners? Before this ruling, appellate engagement with ECHR, art 7 in this country was sparse. This is the only domestic authority to examine the lex mitior principle (the rule that, if after an offender has committed an offence, the law introduces a lighter penalty, the offender should receive that more lenient punishment). Its importance was marked by the secretary of state being allowed to intervene. The judgment offers...
Original news C‑156/15: Private Equity Insurance Group SIA v Swedbank AS What was the background to the case? The dispute stemmed from the insolvency of the Latvian company Izdevniecība Stilus SIA, whose rights are now held by Private Equity Insurance Group SIA (the company). Before going under, the company maintained a current account with Swedbank AS (the bank). The account agreement contained a clause under which every sum standing to the account’s credit was pledged to the bank as financial collateral securing all liabilities owed by the company to it. Once insolvency commenced, the bank relied on that term and debited the account, using the funds to satisfy the company’s debts to the bank. Acting through its administrator, the company sought repayment of those amounts by reference to Latvian insolvency provisions requiring pari passu treatment of creditors. The bank maintained that its steps were...
Original news Baker and another v Craggs [2016] EWHC 3250 ( Ch) The proprietors of a parcel of land (servient land) first conveyed it to Mr Craggs, and later purported to bestow a right of way over it in the Bakers’ favour within a transfer to them of different land (dominant land). Registration of the servient land was materially delayed because the plan was defective, ultimately with the consequence that the right of way was entered on the register before the transfer to Mr Craggs was registered. The central question was whether the grant of the right of way was effective. In short, the timing of registration determined priority between the competing interests. What are the practical implications of this case? The court considered that the grant appeared to result from conveyancing slips. Nevertheless, had the transfer of the servient land been registered within the...
Original news The Civil Proceedings Fees ( Amendment) Order 2016, SI 2016/1191 What are the changes to trial fees? Proposals to revise trial fees were first considered by the Civil Procedure Rule Committee ( CPRC) in December 2014, when implementation was projected for April 2015. For a detailed breakdown of the proposals, see News Analysis: Changes to court fees likely in force April 2015—abolishing refund of hearing fees for early settlement. The anticipated commencement date of April 2015 was subsequently recorded in the minutes of the CPRC’s February 2015 meeting. For further detail, see News Analysis: Changes to court fees in force 6 April 2015—abolishing refund of trial fees for early settlement and streamlining automatic strike out for non payment. But......
In brief: NVidia’s groundless threats claim struck out and stay refused ( NVidia Corporation & Ors v Hardware Labs Performance Systems Inc) Original news NVidia Corporation & Ors v Hardware Labs Performance Systems Inc [2016] EWHC 3135 ( Ch) What should IP & IT lawyers take note of? This ruling offers two cautions for practitioners. First, think twice before issuing domestic proceedings—perhaps within a broader European litigation plan—unless your clients are genuinely prepared to see the dispute through to trial. Mann J’s decision makes it plain that the UK courts will not invariably grant a stay at a claimant’s request, even where doing so could plausibly conserve costs and judicial time. Discontinuance remains a route open to such a claimant, as Mann J observes in his judgment. Yet that course carries costs repercussions because, naturally, a claimant who discontinues in the UK must meet the...
What are the key changes brought about by the coming into force of the FCA’s new rules on price comparison sites? The FCA has brought in new provisions for high-cost short-term credit ( HCSTC) in section CONC 2.5A of the Consumer Credit Sourcebook ( CONC) within the FCA Handbook. These rules introduce extra obligations in the following areas: Rankings When credit brokers act as price comparison websites ( PCWs), HCSTC products must be listed in ascending order by price, calculated using the total amount payable ( TAP). The display must ensure that neither the order of results nor the prominence of any product is determined by the firm’s commercial interests or its commercial relationships. Advertising On PCWs, any financial promotion or other advertising for HCSTC must appear outside the ranking tables and not be mixed within them, and the search results must be clearly distinct from any...
Original news Distinctive Care Limited v HMRC [2016] UKFTT 764 ( TC) John Hargreaves v HMRC [2016] UKFTT 772 ( TC) What are the practical implications of these cases? The lesson from Distinctive Care is that, when handling groups of disputes, advisers must be meticulous and open about the way costs have been incurred. With HMRC’s more recent follower notice and accelerated payment notice powers, this point matters now more than ever. The key takeaway from John Hargreaves was that there is no hard-and-fast sequence for proceedings; the FTT will exercise its case management powers to ensure matters are dealt with fairly and justly, including setting the order of proceedings. The ongoing narrative from Mr Hargreaves’ litigation suggests taxpayers are likely to find it difficult to keep back material from HMRC where that evidence supports an aspect of the taxpayer’s position but also...
The UK remains the global frontrunner in offshore wind, with 5GW already operating and a goal of 10GW of installed capacity by 2020. The scale of schemes is growing steadily, helping to capture significant economies of scale. For example, in February 2016 DONG Energy announced plans to proceed with construction of the 1.2GW Hornsea Project One offshore wind farm, set to become the world’s largest offshore wind farm (and expected to use Siemens 7MW turbines). The UK’s referendum decision to leave the EU has sent shockwaves through political and investment communities. Regarding offshore wind, ministers rapidly signalled after the vote their intention to maintain investment in clean energy, including offshore wind. For instance, on 29 June 2016 Amber Rudd, then Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, stressed the ongoing intention to bring forward more offshore wind, subject to further cost...
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When evaluating a general damages claim, the practitioner ought initially to refer to the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG)...
This Practice Note This Practice Note reviews mechanisms used in settling litigation. A Tomlin order consists of a consent order paired with a schedule. It operates to stay proceedings on terms that have been agreed. The provisions contained in the schedule may remain confidential. This Practice Note describes the scope of confidentiality attaching to the schedule and sets out how it differs from a standard consent order. Sample wording for a Tomlin order is included, alongside links to precedents, as well as guidance on court approval. It also addresses varying, setting aside and enforcing a Tomlin order, including the considerations the court will take into account when handling applications for each. Further guidance is provided on interpreting and applying the relevant provisions of the CPR; however, some courts and divisions impose very specific requirements for both drafting and approval, and for approaching the schedule and confidentiality issues. Accordingly, you must consider the particular rules and court guide provisions in the forum where your claim is proceeding when drawing up the Tomlin order...
Date [ date ] Parties [ name of Landlord ] [ of OR incorporated in England and Wales (company registration number [ number ]) with its registered office at ] [ address ] (Landlord) [ name of Tenant ] [ of OR incorporated in England and Wales (company registration number [ number ]) with its registered office at ] [ address ] (Tenant) [ [ name of Guarantor ] [ of OR incorporated in England and Wales (company registration number [ number ]) with its registered office at ] [ address ] (Guarantor) ] [ [ name of Mortgagee ] [ of OR incorporated in England and Wales (company registration number [ number ]) with its registered office at ] [ address ] (Mortgagee) ] Definitions Within this Deed, the terms below shall be interpreted as follows: [ Annual Rent • the annual sum reserved under the Lease; ] [ Insurance Rent • the Tenant’s share of the Landlord’s costs of insuring the Property (as set out in the Lease); ] Lease • the lease of the Property dated [ date ], entered into between (1) [ the Landlord OR [ name ...
I, [ name ], of [ address ], solemnly and sincerely state that: [ Matters to be verified, set out in numbered paragraphs ] I make this solemn statement in good conscience, believing it to be true, and pursuant to the provisions of the Statutory Declarations Act 1835. DECLARED at [ details ] this [ day ] day of [ month and year ] Before me ................................................................................ [ signature of the person before whom the declaration is made ] A [ commissioner for oaths OR [ solicitor OR [ insert other qualification ] ] authorised to administer oaths ]...
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