Court : House of Lords
..... demonstrated, section 6(1) was (until repealed by schedule 7 to the sexual offences act 2003) the latest in a series of statutory provisions directed to that end, although the age below which a girl was protected has been increased over the centuries from 10 (18 eliz 1 cap 7, section 4) to 12 (9 geo iv cap 31, section 17; offences against the person act 1861 (24 and 25 vict c 100), section 51) to 13 (offences against the person act 1875 (38 and 39 vict c 94), section 4) to 16 (criminal law amendment act 1885 (48 and 49 vict c 69), section 5(1)). ..... . carnal knowledge was not "unlawful" if the couple were married to one another, but the law of marriage was aligned with the criminal law by the age of marriage act 1929, which made void any marriage either party to which was under 16 ..... . at this stage, neither common law nor statute laid down a minimum age for marriage, but "it seems that the common law applied a presumption that a boy under 14 and a girl under 12 were not capable of marriage" (s m cretney, family law in the twentieth century: a history, (2003), pp 57-58), although if they married before that age and cohabited after it, they were deemed to have ratified the union. 74 ..... . among the reasons given was consistency with the 1885 act: a girl could not consent to a single act of intercourse outside marriage but could give the perpetual and irrevocable consent involved in marriage (under the law as it was then understood to be, on the strength of a statement of sir matthew hale) .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : House of Lords
..... 6, which avoids marriage where either party is under sixteen it is a defence in proceedings under the criminal law amendment act for the accused to prove that he had reasonable cause to believe that the ..... believe that a girl was of or above the age of sixteen years shall not be a defence to a charge under sections 5 or 6 of the criminal law amendment act, 1885. ..... criminal law amendment act, 1922 ..... law amendment act, ..... once so vital and so urgent in the interests of national safety, i am unable to accept a reading of the regulation which would prescribe that the secretary of state may not act in accordance with what commends itself to him as a reasonable cause of belief without incurring the risk that a court of law would disagree with him and also without the further liability that should the court do so or if he cannot consistently with his duty disclose to the court the ..... that orders in council making regulations pursuant to an act of parliament do not in general receive the same attention and scrutiny as statutes, and it is important to remember that though they may be annulled, they cannot be amended in either house (see section 8 of the act), so that errors in language if detected cannot be ..... opinion on the question (which strictly speaking would not arise till the trial) whether the order of the secretary of state is in thecircumstances sufficient prima facie proof that the secretary of state has acted lawfully and that the detention of the appellant was and is accordingly not illegal. .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : House of Lords
..... i appreciate too the force of the point that the tribunal made in para 20 of its judgment in pitts and wang on the issue as to whether the appellant was prevented as a matter of law from contending for hope value that, by providing in section 9(1d) of the 1967 act that the marriage value must be divided equally, the statute envisaged a marriage value without regard to hope value. ..... although the determination of the price payable under section 9 was originally entrusted to the lands tribunal, section 21 as amended by section 142 of the housing act 1980 now requires the issue to be referred to a leasehold valuation tribunal (lvt), against whose decision an appeal lies to the lands tribunal. ..... gesso properties (bvi) ltd v scmlla ltd lra/13/2003. 69. ..... that is because the price he would be seeking for his interest would assume both the fact that the tenant was in the market (as the landlord is seeking half the marriage value) and that the tenant was not in the market (as the landlord is seeking hope value on the basis that the tenant is not in the market, but may be in the market in the future). ..... further, i have already referred to the unfairness and arbitrariness of excluding hope value arising from the possibility of non-participating tenants seeking new leases of their flats in the para 3 valuation, when marriage value arising from the rights of participating tenants to obtain new leases of their flats can, indeed must, be taken into account under the para 4 valuation. .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : House of Lords
..... 15(1) of the adoption (northern ireland) order 1987 and the consideration that the legislator has to date left those choices unchanged (apart from the ill-judged amendment of s 15(1)(a) by the civil partnership act 2004 to exclude a civil partner from making a sole application, without giving civil partners any joint right to apply). ..... i should perhaps add, for completeness on this point, that article 15 of the adoption order (adoption by one person) was amended by section 203(4) of the civil partnership act 2004 so as to prevent adoption by one only of the partners in a civil partnership (supplementing the prohibition on adoption by one only of a ..... right to say that a proposal a year or two ago to amend the law by removing the requirement of marriage generated a great deal of passion. ..... preparation and consideration of complex legislation, challenging deep-seated social attitudes, does take time (see the remarks of lord nicholls of birkenhead in bellinger v bellinger (lord chancellor intervening) [2003] ukhl 21; [2003] 2 ac 467, paras 42-49, and also some remarks of my own in m v secretary of state for work and pensions [2006] ukhl 11; [2006] 2 ac 91, paras ..... nevertheless religious and social differences between different regions and localities may be relevant to the sort of balancing exercise which the human rights act 1998 calls for (that is illustrated, on a very small scale, by the decision of this house in belfast city council v miss behavin limited [2007] ukhl 19; [2007] 1 .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : House of Lords
..... principally in this context that there is also a perception that the size of the non-business partner's share should be linked to the length of the marriage: see, eg, eekelaar, "asset distribution on divorce - the durational element" (2001) 117 lqr 552; and "asset distribution on divorce - time and property" [2003] fam law 828; and gw v rw (financial provision: departure from equality) [2003] 2 flr 108. ..... was entitled to take into account that the husband was to blame for the breakdown of the marriage even though his conduct would not merit advancing under section 25(2)(g) of the matrimonial causes act 1973 as amended. ..... amendments which were introduced by the welfare reform and pensions act 1999 to provide for the sharing of pensions, the only significant change is that made by section 16 of the family law (scotland) act 2006 ..... of the amendment made by section 16 of the family law (scotland) act 2006 is that property transferred to one of the spouses by order is now to be valued, unless otherwise agreed, at the date of the making of the property transfer order, or, in exceptional circumstances, such date as the court shall determine: see joe thomson's general note on this section in current law statutes. ..... although the 1973 act, as amended in 1984, contains no express objective for the court, it does contain some pointers towards the ..... it amends the rule laid down section 10(3)(b) of the 1985 act that the date on which matrimonial property is to be valued is the date when the parties .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : House of Lords
..... -known case of r v birmingham city council ex p equal opportunities commission [1989] ac 1155 (in which proportionately fewer grammar school places were available for girls than for boys) was decided under domestic law years before the commencement of the 1998 act, but in convention terms it would have been a classic example of discrimination amounting to a breach under article 14, although there was no breach under the substantive article (since there is no general right to grammar school ..... . unregistered cohabitation was the subject of laws in new south wales (1999), victoria (2001), western australia (2002), tasmania (2003), canada (2000) (with a further law on marriage in 2005), new zealand (2002) (with a further law on registered partnership in 2004) and south africa (various laws from 1999 to 2003) ..... the calculations to be made are to be found in section 11 of and schedule 1 to the 1991 act and in regulations, the child support (maintenance assessments and special cases) regulations 1992 si 1992/1815 as amended by numerous later statutory instruments ("the regulations"). ..... these provisions are extremely complex and the complexity is increased by extensive changes made, with effect from 3 march 2003, by the child support, pensions and social security act 2000 (there have also been many other less extensive amendments). ..... after the proceedings started the impugned regulations were amended by the civil partnership act 2004. .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : House of Lords
..... my lords, i can only say for my own part, as regards " the rule which i think most wisely and properly protects "the sanctity of married intercourse and permits it not " to be inquired into in any court of law, it would be a " gross perversion of that principle to say that, under the " circumstances which i have suggested, the husband " should not be at liberty to prove his own virtue at all " events, and to ..... verdict was against the weight of evidence; (2) that there was no evidence on which the jury could find adultery; (3) that the learned judge was wrong in law in admitting the evidence of the petitioner that intercourse did not take place between the husband and the respondent; and (4) on the ground that there was misdirection and insufficient direction. ..... most " wisely and properly protects the sanctity of married intercourse, "and permits it not to be inquired into in any court of law" ; he then goes on to say that it does not apply to a period before marriage, and again he speaks of " a principle wisely ingrafted, as i think " into our law, which protects the sanctity of the matrimonial " relationship. ..... hannen (afterwards lord hannen), the president of the court, reversed the decision of the justices and stated as follows : ' unfortunately in refusing to act on evidence of the parties they (the " magistrates) seem to have been under the impression that the " issue was one of bastardy which it was not, ..... second trial the petition was amended by alleging adultery with one .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : House of Lords
..... and the registrar general stated, in the annex to the law commissions report on solemnisation of marriage in england and wales (1973, law com no 53, para 4) the purpose of a sound marriage law is to ensure that marriages are solemnised only in respect of those who are free to marry and have freely agreed to do so and that the status of those who marry shall be established with ..... improve on the definition (which the secretary of state accepts as apposite) in article 1 of the ec council resolution 97/c382/01 of 4 december 1997 on measures to be adopted on the combating of marriages of convenience, according to which a marriage of convenience is a marriage concluded between a national of a member state or a third-country national legally resident in a member state and a third-country national, with the sole aim of circumventing the rules on entry and ..... ago, the marriage act 1949, amended from time to time since, remains the primary statute governing the solemnisation of marriages in england and ..... but from early days the right to marry has been described as fundamental", it has been made clear that the scope afforded to national law is not unlimited and it has been emphasised that national laws governing the exercise of the right to marry must never injure or impair the substance of the right and must not deprive a person or category of person of full legal ..... not precisely known, but she was granted exceptional leave to remain on 31 january 2003, to expire on 31 january 2007. .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : House of Lords
..... amendment) act was amended by the sexual offences act 2003 ..... he also prays in aid the observations of lord donaldson of lymington speaking extra-judicially in support of his parliament acts (amendment) bill (hl hansard, 19 january 2001, cols 1308-1309): "as your lordships well know, it is a fundamental tenet of constitutional law that, prima facie, where the sovereign parliament - that is to say, the monarch acting on the advice and with the consent of both houses of parliament - delegates power to legislate, whether to one ..... been sent up to the house of lords at least one month before the end of the session, has been rejected by that house in each of those sessions, shall become law without the consent of the house of lords on the royal assent being declared: provided that at least two years shall have elapsed between the date of the first introduction of ..... right to regard section 2(1) of the 1911 act as wide enough to authorise "modest" amendments of the commons' law-making powers, the amendments in the 1949 act were not "modest", but substantial and ..... ), section 50; h w r wade, constitutional fundamentals (1980), pp 27-28 and "the basis of legal sovereignty" [1955] clj 172, 193-194; wade and forsyth, administrative law, 9th edn (2004), pp 26-27; hood phillips and jackson, constitutional and administrative law (8th edn, 2001), pp 79-80; lord donaldson of lymington, formerly master of the rolls (hl hansard, 19 january 2001, col 1309); and pickin v british railways board [1974 .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : House of Lords
..... . in my opinion it would have been wholly unreasonable to expect a taxpayer to have to divine that the commissioners appeal would be dismissed and that he should submit his claim on some earlier date than 30 june 2003, such as six months after 11 july 2002, the date on which the european court of justice gave its decision in marks and spencer plc v commissioners of customs and excise (case c - 62/00) [2002] ..... second, the principle that people must be expected to know the law and conduct their affairs in accordance with the law can hardly apply to a judicial amendment to primary or secondary legislation that, until it is made known in the ..... . in any event, they must not be compelled to prepare their action with the haste imposed by an obligation to act in circumstances of urgency unrelated to the time-limit on which they could initially count and (at para 40): to ensure that rights conferred by community law can be effectively exercised and that normally diligent taxpayers can familiarise themselves with the new regime and prepare and commence proceedings in ..... have to come back to, as to whether the taxpayer should, if his claim was for repayment of input tax, have made his claim under section 80 of the value added tax act 1994 (vata 1994) or under regulation 29 of the value added tax regulations 1995 si 1995/2518 (the regulations). 27. ..... business briefs that they would until 30 june 2003 accept claims under section 80 of the value added tax act 1994 for repayment of overpaid vat .....
Tag this Judgment!