Court : House of Lords
LORD BINGHAM OF CORNHILL My Lords, 1. On 12 December 1966 the appellant, Mr Harry Roberts, was convicted on three counts of murder, having pleaded guilty to two counts and been convicted of the third. The victims in each case were police officers, killed in cold blood at Shepherd's Bush in August 1966 when, in the course of their duty, they stopped a car in which the appellant and two accomplices were travelling to commit an armed robbery. The trial judge rightly described these crimes, which aroused widespread public outrage, as heinous and suggested that the case was one in which the appellant might never be released. He formally recommended that the appellant serve a term of at least 30 years, and in due course the Home Secretary of the day fixed 30 years as the appellant's punitive or tariff term. That term expired in 1996, when the appellant was aged 60. The fifth review of his case by the Parole Board, still current, began in September 2001, and this appeal concerns the procedure...
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LORD NICHOLLS OF BIRKENHEAD 1. I have had the advantage of reading in draft the speech of my noble and learned friend Lord Hoffmann. For the reasons he gives, with which I agree, I would dismiss this appeal. LORD HOFFMANN My Lords, 2. Until 1989 the emoluments of an office or employment were taxed under Schedule E as income of the year of assessment in which they were earned. It did not matter when they were paid: see Heasman v Jordan [1954] Ch 744. On the other hand, for the purpose of computing his profits taxable under Schedule D, an employer was entitled to deduct his liability to pay emoluments to employees in the year in which, in accordance with normal accounting principles, that liability accrued. 3. Section 37 of the Finance Act 1989, which inserted new sections 202A and 202B into the Taxes Act 1988, changed the basis of Schedule E assessment from the year in which emoluments were earned to the year in which they were paid. This gave rise to the possibility of a delay in pay...
Tag this Judgment!Court : House of Lords
LORD BINGHAM OF CORNHILL My Lords, 1. Before the House are an appeal and a cross-appeal. Both raise questions as to the procedure adopted in revoking a declaration previously made in favour of Mr McClean as a life-sentence prisoner under the Northern Ireland (Sentences) Act 1998. They are important questions, bearing on the freedom of the prisoner and the safety of the community in Northern Ireland. The legislation 2. The Belfast (or Good Friday) Agreement reached at multi-party talks on Northern Ireland and signed on 10 April 1998 (Cm 3883) had as its political objective to break the cycle of political and sectarian violence which had disfigured the life of the province over a number of years. To that end the Governments of the United Kingdom and Ireland agreed, among other things, to put in place mechanisms for an accelerated programme for the release of prisoners convicted of offences scheduled under the Northern Ireland (Emergency Provisions) Acts 1973, 1978, 1991 or 1996 as, very ...
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LORD STEYN My Lords, 1. The central question of law arising on the appeal before the House is whether the Court of Appeal acted on the correct legal principle when it quashed two confiscation orders made by the Crown Court pursuant to the Criminal Justice Act 1988, as amended by the Proceeds of Crime Act 1995: R v Soneji and Bullen [2004] 1 Cr App R(S) 219. 1. The Confiscation Regime. 2. Parliament has firmly adopted the policy that in the fight against serious crime, apart from ordinary sentences, a high priority must be given by the courts to the making of confiscation orders against defendants convicted of serious offences. The purpose of confiscation proceedings is to recover the financial benefit that the offender obtained from his criminal conduct. In England and Wales the confiscation regime was introduced by the Drug Trafficking Offences Act 1986. It was extended by the Criminal Justice Act 1988 to cover other indictable offences and specified summary offences. Since its introd...
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LORD STEYN My Lords, 1. I have had the advantage of reading the opinion of my noble and learned friend Lord Brown of Eaton-under-Heywood. I agree with it. I would also make the order which Lord Brown proposes. LORD RODGER OF EARLSFERRY My Lords, 2. I have had the advantage of reading the speech of my noble and learned friend, Lord Brown of Eaton-under-Heywood, in draft. For the reasons which he gives, I too would answer the certified question in the negative and dismiss the appeal. LORD CULLEN OF WHITEKIRK My Lords, 3. I have had the advantage of reading the speech of my noble and learned friend, Lord Brown of Eaton-under-Heywood, in draft. For the reasons which he gives, I too would answer the certified question in the negative and dismiss the appeal. LORD CARSWELL My Lords, 4. I have had the advantage of reading in draft the opinion prepared by my noble and learned friend Lord Brown of Eaton-under-Heywood. I agree with his reasons and conclusions and I too would dismiss the appeal. L...
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LORD BINGHAM OF CORNHILL My Lords, 1. The appellants all, in differing ways, have an interest in fox-hunting. They wish that activity to continue. They challenge the legal validity of the Hunting Act 2004 which, on its face, makes it an offence to hunt a wild mammal with a dog save in limited circumstances. The appellants acknowledge that the legislative procedure adopted to enact the Hunting Act was in accordance with the procedure laid down in the Parliament Act 1949. But they contend that the 1949 Act was itself invalid: it did not, as they correctly say, receive the consent of the House of Lords; and the Parliament Act 1911 did not, they submit, permit an Act such as the 1949 Act to be enacted without the consent of the House of Lords. Thus, although the Hunting Act gives rise to the present issue between the appellants and the Attorney General, the real question turns on the validity of the 1949 Act and that in turn depends on the true effect of the 1911 Act. The merits and demeri...
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LORD BINGHAM OF CORNHILL My Lords, 1. In December 2002 the appellant, the Mersey Care National Health Service Trust, as managers of Ashworth Hospital, implemented a written policy governing the seclusion of patients detained at the hospital. The issue in this appeal is whether that policy is unlawful, either because it is inconsistent with the domestic law of England and Wales or because it fails to comply with the European Convention on Human Rights. Sullivan J at first instance held the policy to be lawful in both respects: [2002] EWHC 1521 (Admin). For reasons given in a judgment of the court delivered by Hale LJ, the Court of Appeal (also including Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers MR and Latham LJ) declared the policy to be unlawful: [2003] EWCA Civ 1036, [2004] QB 395. In this appeal the Trust challenges that decision. Its legal submissions are supported by the Secretary of State for Health as an interested party. Mr Colonel Munjaz seeks to uphold the Court of Appeal decision. His...
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LORD BINGHAM OF CORNHILL My Lords, 1. To fish for Patagonian toothfish in the Maritime Zone adjacent to South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands ("SGSSI") it is necessary to hold an annual licence. Licences are granted by the Director of Fisheries of SGSSI. They are a valuable commercial asset, since the fishing is very profitable. Quark Fishing Limited, a Falkland Islands company, obtained such a licence for its motor vessel Jacqueline in each year from 1997-2000. In 2001 it applied again. But the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs on 7 June 2001 formally instructed the Commissioner of SGSSI to direct the Director of Fisheries of SGSSI to allocate licences for the 2001 season in a way which precluded the grant of a licence to Quark for Jacqueline. The instruction was followed and the licence withheld. Quark challenged the lawfulness of the Secretary of State's instruction on conventional public law grounds, and succeeded both in the High Court and on appeal: [...
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LORD NICHOLLS OF BIRKENHEAD My Lords, 1. I have had the advantage of reading in draft the speeches of my noble and learned friends Lord Hoffmann, Lord Hope of Craighead and Lord Carswell. For the reasons they give, with which I agree, I would dismiss this petition. LORD HOFFMANN My Lords, 2. Naomi Campbell sued the publishers of the Daily Mirror ("MGN") for breach of confidence. She alleged that they had published information in respect of which she was entitled to privacy. After a trial lasting five days in February 2002, Morland J found the case proved and awarded her 3,500 damages and costs. This modest award reflected the fact that Ms Campbell conceded that her own conduct prevented her from objecting to the newspaper's most serious allegation, namely, that she had been addicted to drugs. Her complaint concerned the publication of additional details and photographs concerning the treatment she was receiving. In October 2002 the Court of Appeal unanimously reversed the decision of...
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LORD BINGHAM OF CORNHILL My Lords, 1. I have had the privilege of reading in draft the opinion of my noble and learned friend Lord Hoffmann. I am in full agreement with it and would, for the reasons he gives, allow the appeal and restore the decision of Jacob J. LORD HOFFMANN My Lords, The invention 2. Paroxetine is a compound used to treat depression and related disorders. It has for some time been marketed in the form of its hydrochloride hemihydrate salt under the name Paxil or Seroxat. These proceedings arise out of the more or less simultaneous discovery in about 1997 by the appellants Synthon BV, a Dutch pharmaceutical company, and the respondents, Smithkline Beecham plc ("SB"), a UK pharmaceutical company, that a different paroxetine salt, paroxetine methanesulfonate ("PMS"), has properties which make it more suitable for pharmaceutical use. It is more stable, less hygroscopic and much more soluble, so that it can be prepared in higher concentrations. The Synthon disclosure 3....
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