B!LLk40X��%��=P����T�̂��23�j�#@�P�� e�b For a four-week trial (and all the preparatory work) in the UK in 2005 he charged £800,000 to represent HM Government in the largest class action in the UK, brought by 49,500 private shareholders of the collapsed national railway infrastructure company Railtrack. The United Kingdom Supreme Court handed down its decision in R (Privacy International) v Investigatory Powers Tribunal [2019] UKSC 22 this morning. Lord Carnwath’s conclusion that “[i]n all cases, regardless of the words used, it should remain ultimately a matter for the court to determine the extent to which such a clause should be upheld, having regard to its purpose and statutory context, and the nature and importance of the legal issue in question; and to determine the level of scrutiny required by the rule of law” would have been strengthened by greater engagement with the unique features of the Tribunal and how its existence might be thought to create a justifiable “channelling” of judicial review rather than its unjustifiable “exclusion”. "[37] In 1974, he worked with Conservative MP Keith Joseph at the Centre for Policy Studies, a Conservative Party think-tank. It contains rules governing the Tribunal’s procedure, and authorises the making of further rules by the Secretary of State. 0 ���JL:�.�d:�]ٮk�B|��R���Z{��{�9�^or��B͍����4�>�����Q�-� *Y��d�\x�&���Ӟ��qF���WF�9��%�ѯ�#��|��5��v��a�%�)m�iR9��10�L�4��29SmR&��6�Ln���@q0R�����r��7!���ɳ��Y`.qc��I�F��N���[�6 �t��PP�"����u��k� ������ ���� ���`�0(� A couple of months ago, Jonathan Sumption, former barrister extraordinaire, recently-retired UK Supreme Court judge, and well-regarded historian too, delivered the BBC’s Reith Lectures for this year, speaking on Law and the Decline of Politics. [60], In July 2021, Full Fact concluded in a fact-checking article that Sumption had "made several mistakes with Covid-19 data when talking about the disease" on BBC Radio 4's Today programme. 2 I will present their arguments, and examine how successful the attempt at reconciliation has been. 112) and Lord Lloyd-Jones (para. [23] Upon his subsequent swearing-in on 11 January 2012,[1] he assumed the title of Lord Sumption pursuant to a Royal Warrant (by which all members of the Supreme Court, even if they do not hold a peerage title, are accorded the style of "Lord" for life). Nearly 250,000 YouTube views later, it’s clear that in fact it was his comments accepting the inevitability of domestic vaccine passports that most surprised and shocked his fans. LORD CARNWATH: (with whom Lady Hale and Lord Kerr agree) The issue 1. Otherwise one must rely on a stark distinction between “courts” and “other bodies of limited jurisdiction” which fits uncomfortably with the embrace of an avowedly contextual approach. Here, in particular, there would be significant value to judicial review of the Tribunal’s interpretations of law: “The legal issue decided by the IPT is not only one of general public importance, but also has possible implications for legal rights and remedies going beyond the scope of the IPT’s remit. Found inside – Page 150As you might expect, Lord Sumption took a different view. ... Lord Wilson also voted to dismiss Privacy International's appeal, concluding that parliament does indeed 'have power to exclude judicial review of any ordinary errors of law ... Representing the government was Jonathan Sumption (now Lord Sumption). Thank you very much. [27] Although as a retired justice of the Supreme Court he would have been eligible for appointment to its Supplementary Panel,[28] he was not so appointed.[29]. This is an astonishing acknowledgement, and one that is fundamentally incompatible with any sort of functioning society. So the rarity of the occasion, the quality of Sumption’s mind and our coincidental political crisis combined to raise high expectations. The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 contains express provisions governing the constitution of the Tribunal and its subject-matter competence. h�bbd``b`� �k@�i�9�`�"�@b;@�� b�;Ě"� �, ��#�z��������� ��0 1 This was soon greeted with fierce criticism by Lord Hoffmann in a Law Quarterly Review article. Lord Sumption criticism of government policy on the corona virus BBC R4's World At One 30th March 2020https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000gt59 I know Lord Sumption and Baroness Brenda Hale, who have both served on the UK Supreme Court, as well as barrister Francis Hoar, have been speaking out about the legal implications. Sumption has been praised for a clipped and polished prose style, which he credits to his unwillingness to employ cliché. Found insideLions under the Throne is the first systematic account of the origins and development of the great body of public law by which the state, both institutionally and in relation to the individual, is governed. Lord Sumption, who gave the lead judgment, identified in the EPO and UK case law the “fundamental principle” that the patentee must not only make but disclose a contribution to the art. Lord Sumption on politics, law, and the meaning and decline of democracy. Interestingly, however, whilst I would have instinctively thought that Lord Sumption would lean more towards Lord Wilson’s view of the linguistic clarity of s. 67(8), he sought a “reconciliation” of s. 67(8) and the limits elsewhere in the Act on the Tribunal’s jurisdiction (at para. 223-224). 128). Found insideAlthough he may be perceived as being a member of the Establishment, this arresting story shows how he continues to be influenced by his Jewish and European roots. Also available from Hart 'Justice: Continuity and Change' (2018). For does it not follow from a commitment to a contextual approach to striking a harmonious balance between the importance of judicial oversight of legal issues and respecting the primacy of Parliament in policy matters that one should look closely at the Tribunal’s capacity to secure the effective legal accountability of the security services? �e�*�+�,���U�/���Pѡ���!���@����"Y��̵�!�*�~�ьv��&�1@�����Js��f�g��� /8��if�I���k.�@�����#�fd`� ��3p�J���� U�{% 139). He lives in Greenwich and has a second home, a chateau in the village of Berbiguières in the south of France. The difference between Lord Wilson and the plurality seems to lie in Lord Wilson’s scepticism about the alternative meanings that might be ascribed to s. 67(8). This book analyses the institutionalcharacteristics of the Human Rights Committee, how it has developed its practices and procedures under the Covenant and the Optional Protocol, and analyses the jurisprudence of the Committee under ... Lord Sumption said the UK government has, until now, been “obsessed with the Gina Miller decisions” and welcomed the change of focus to the courts’ relationship with Parliament. Even if this was not always the way in which the decisions were justified at the time, it may be seen as providing a sounder conceptual basis. Jonathan Philip Chadwick Sumption, Lord Sumption, OBE, PC, FSA, FRHistS (born 9 December 1948), is a British author, medieval historian and former senior judge who sat on the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom between 2012 and 2018. Found insideThe sceptical and critical reception to Coughlan outside England is a striking contrast to the reception the case received within the UK. This book provides a detailed scholarly analysis of these issues and considers the doctrine of ... Readers should bear in mind that Lord Sumption characterised the right to privacy as the ‘most elastic of rights’ (R (Catt) v Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis and another [2015] UKSC 9). 101] excluding challenges to any determination or “purported” determination as “a nullity by reason of lack of jurisdiction, error of law, or any other matter”. A seven-judge bench of the Supreme Court (Lady Hale, Lord Reed, Lord Kerr, Lord Wilson, Lord Sumption, Lord Carnwath and Lord Lloyd-Jones) will hear Privacy International’s appeal in December. Lord Sumption has this evening in his lecture entitled “Government by decree - Covid-19 and the Constitution” issued a scathing indictment not only of the political motivations and processes behind lockdown measures, but also the underlying legality of the measures, and their impact upon the long term health of our parliamentary democracy. This book is the first collection of its kind to systematically explore both the content and role of individual common law constitutional rights alongside the constitutional significance and broader implications of these developments. This title may be have a supplemental service whereas subscription order will be needed for the supplements. upon receipt supplements to be checked-in HRec for corresponding editions. Lord Sumption took a different view on the clarity issue, starting from the premise that “[t]he degree of elaboration called for in a statutory provision designed to achieve a given effect must depend on how anomalous that effect would be” (at para. [31] After making his pledge of allegiance to the Hong Kong SAR of the People’s Republic of China as part of the judicial oath,[32] Lord Sumption officially commenced his office as a Hong Kong judge on 18 December 2019. They include appearances in the Hutton Inquiry on HM Government's behalf,[2] in the Three Rivers case,[3] his representation of former Cabinet Minister Stephen Byers and the Department for Transport in the Railtrack private shareholders' action against the British Government in 2005,[4] for defending HM Government in an appeal hearing brought by Binyam Mohamed,[5] and for successfully defending Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich in a private lawsuit brought by Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky.[6]. Found inside – Page 226In different ways, however, the judgments of the Supreme Court in Privacy International cast doubt on this way of thinking. ... and to find an appropriate balance between the two.136 Lord Sumption (with the agreement of Lord Reed), ... This submission would require us to take an all or nothing view of section 67(8) which I regard as wrong in principle. The process of construction involved in identifying a judicial body’s “permitted field” depends, as the House of Lords pointed out in Anisminic, on an analysis of the enabling legislation to ascertain the breadth of the interpretative power conferred on it. Found insideSir John's statement of principle in Cart was approved by the Supreme Court in R (Privacy International) v ... Lord Lloyd-Jones, [190] per Lord Sumption (with whom Lord Reed agreed), dissenting, and [236] per Lord Wilson, dissenting. There are four judgments: a plurality judgment by Lord Carnwath (with whom Lady Hale and Lord Kerr concur) and dissenting judgments by Lord Sumption (with whom Lord Reed concurs) and Lord Wilson. Moreover, the general context of review of sensitive security decisions provided an “entirely rational reason, whose significance is apparent throughout the relevant parts of the Act, why Parliament should have wished to confine the examination of these matters to a secure Tribunal and to prevent resort to the High Court, whether by way of appeal or review” (at para. [8][57][58], On 17 January 2021, Sumption appeared on The Big Questions to discuss the question of whether the lockdown was "punishing too many for the greater good", and said (with reference to the medical concept of quality-adjusted life years) that "I don’t accept that all lives are of equal value. Yet there is something of a tension between Lord Carnwath’s contextual approach to the foundations of judicial review and his refusal to engage with the characteristics of the Tribunal which Lord Sumption (especially at paras. The judgment is composed of four opinions. The opinion of Lord Carnwath (with whom Lady Hale and Lord Kerr agree) together with that of Lord Lloyd-Jones on the first question mean that Privacy International's judicial review may proceed. Lord Sumption (with whom Lord Reed agrees) and Lord Wilson dissented and would have dismissed the appeal. h�b```��,�������� (If so, as Lord Wilson observes, they would have gained support from the distinguished author of the notes to the 1985 Current Law Statutes.) 107). According to Lord Sumption (at paragraph 155): endstream endobj startxref Here, Lord Sumption appears on BBC Radio 4's World at One, and carefully explains how we are at risk of descending into authoritarianism. There is much to trawl through — 254 paragraphs spread across 113 pages — and given the multiple judgments, the only thing that seems to have been decided conclusively is that the Investigatory Powers Tribunal is indeed subject to judicial review for error of law, notwithstanding the apparently clear ouster clause in s. 67(8) of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (see earlier discussions, for example, here and here). The Government is concerned that the Judicial Review process may in some cases be open to abuse, such as delaying tactics, which add to the costs of public services. [36], An opera lover, he serves as a director of the English National Opera and as a governor of the Royal Academy of Music.[62]. [22], On 4 May 2011 Sumption's appointment as a Justice of the Supreme Court was announced. [45] He said that leavers, "were not mad. He is the author of a four-volume history of the Hundred Years’ War and occupies a place in British Society that compares perhaps to the Victorian historian and jurist Lord Acton. [17] Sumption and Joseph co-wrote a 1979 book, Equality, seeking to show that "no convincing arguments for an equal society have ever been advanced" and that "no such society has ever been successfully created".[16]. The UK Supreme Court ruled that the IPT, the secret court that focuses on the activities of the surveillance agencies cannot escape the oversight of the ordinary UK courts. Sumption suggests that an ‘empire of the law’ has expanded to fill a void left by the ‘decline of politics’. The English guitarist detailed his “disastrous” experience in a newly surfaced letter. Sumption should not be invited onto BBC to mislead." 165) were not impressed by the suggestion that the Tribunal needed to be immune from judicial review the better to perform its sensitive, security-related functions. For a second medical use claim, that contribution must consist in the discovery that the product can be expected to work. Lord Sumption’s take on ethnic diversity is as disappointing as his approach to gender. [30] Two were Scots lawyers: Lord Macmillan in 1930 and Lord Reid in 1948; the others were: Lord Macnaghten (1887), Lord Carson (1921) and Lord Radcliffe (1949). 245-252) (and the Court of Appeal) invoked in support of their conclusions on the effectiveness of s. 67(8). 200). They have two daughters, one son, and five grandchildren. Found insideIn fact, the absence of democratic accountability leads to radicalisation. Judicial overreach cannot make up for the shortcomings of politicians. This is especially acute in the field of human rights. The better view (to which I subscribe) is that the consequences of illegality in any given case will depend on the striking of a balance between competing constitutional fundamentals: …the courts have not adopted a uniform approach, but have felt free to adapt or limit the scope and form of judicial review, so as to ensure respect on the one hand for the particular statutory context and the inferred intention of the legislature, and on the other for the fundamental principles of the rule of law, and to find an appropriate balance between the two. This book aims to enhance understanding of the interactions between the international and national rule of law. It demonstrates that the international rule of law is not merely about ensuring national compliance with international law. Found inside – Page 231This interpretation was confirmed by Lord Carnwath in Privacy International, when he concluded that ouster clauses ... Whilst Lord Carnwath appeared to regard this as a potential restriction on parliamentary sovereignty, Lord Sumption ... 204). [4], On 30 November 2007, when a practising barrister, Sumption successfully represented himself before Mr Justice Collins in a judicial review application in the Administrative Court concerning proposed development near his home at Greenwich. Found inside – Page 873Lord Sumptions's Reith lectures (www .bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00057m8), as well as the work of the Judicial Power ... While we can point to cases that mark a more activist stance, with Privacy International marking a new high point, ... 1582 0 obj <>/Filter/FlateDecode/ID[<5BE749DB0BEEBE43A958EFA40E2B38DE><6BAF807DED222145851EC22FF4177525>]/Index[1568 34]/Info 1567 0 R/Length 75/Prev 689848/Root 1569 0 R/Size 1602/Type/XRef/W[1 2 1]>>stream Sumption is well known for his role as a barrister in many legal cases. He admires Gibbon but points out "if anybody wrote like him today they’d be dismissed as a pompous fart". [12][13][14] He was elected a fellow of Magdalen College, teaching and writing books on medieval history from 1971 to 1975 before leaving to pursue a career in law. After his retirement, Sumption was appointed as a Non-Permanent Judge of the Court of Final Appeal in Hong Kong on 13 December 2019 by Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam. After all, Lord Carnwath had to give “some meaning” (at para. Nothing that I have said should be taken to suggest that breach of these requirements is unreviewable.