Court : House of Lords
LORD PHILLIPS OF WORTH MATRAVERS My Lords, Introduction 1. These appeals relate to three men whom the Secretary of State for the Home Department wishes to deport on the ground that each is a danger to the national security of the United Kingdom. Each contends that the Secretary of State cannot do so because deportation will infringe his rights under the European Convention on Human Rights (‘the Convention’). RB and U are Algerian nationals. They contend that deportation to Algeria will infringe their rights under article 3 of the Convention in that it will expose them to a real risk of torture or inhuman or degrading treatment. Mr Othman is a Jordanian national. He contends that if he is deported he will face a real risk of torture or inhuman or degrading treatment contrary to article 3 of the Convention, a real risk of a flagrant breach of his right to liberty under article 5 of the Convention and a real risk of a flagrant breach of his right to a fair trial under article ...
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LORD PHILLIPS OF WORTH MATRAVERS My Lords, 1. I have had the benefit of reading in draft the speeches of each of your Lordships. They reach the same conclusion for the same reasons. I share both the conclusion and the reasoning and would, accordingly, dismiss this appeal. LORD SCOTT OF FOSCOTE My Lords, 2. Section 1(1) of the Patents Act 1977 lays down four conditions that must be satisfied if a patent for an invention is to be granted. The first of these is that “the invention is new". This condition is easy enough to understand if the invention is a process whereby something or other can be made or done. But I find it less easy to understand if the claimed invention is of a chemical product where, as here, the existence of the product is known, its chemical and molecular structure is known and, up to a point, its characteristics are known. The present case concerns a claim to a product patent. The product is the (+) enantiomer of citalopram. Citalopram is an organic compound,...
Tag this Judgment!Court : House of Lords
LORD HOPE OF CRAIGHEAD My Lords, 1. I have had the advantage of reading in draft the opinions of my noble and learned friends Baroness Hale of Richmond and Lord Neuberger of Abbotsbury. I am in full agreement with them and for the reasons they give I would allow the appeal and make the order that Lord Neuberger proposes. LORD SCOTT OF FOSCOTE My Lords, 2. I have had the advantage of reading in draft the illuminating opinions on this appeal that have been prepared by my noble and learned friends Baroness Hale of Richmond and Lord Neuberger of Abbotsbury and find myself fully persuaded by the reasons they have given for allowing this appeal and making the order which Lord Neuberger proposes. 3. I was for some time attracted by the submission, addressed to your Lordships by Mr Luba QC, counsel for the respondent, Mr Ahmad, that the appellant Council’s section 167(1) scheme for determining priorities in allocating housing accommodation was, in one particular respect, irrational and t...
Tag this Judgment!Court : House of Lords
LORD HOPE OF CRAIGHEAD My Lords, 1. I have had the advantage of reading in draft the opinion of my noble and learned friend Lord Neuberger. I agree with it, and for the reasons he gives I would dismiss the appeal and make the order that he proposes. I also agree with my noble and learned friends Lord Rodger of Earlsferry and Lord Walker of Gestingthorpe. I wish only to add a few words of my own on the question whether the offer to purchase the property in the letter of 14 January 1992 that was written on the Bosserts’ behalf by their solicitors can be relied on by the Ofulues in these proceedings as an acknowledgement. 2. Sometimes letters get headed “without privilege” in the most absurd circumstances, as Ormrod J observed in Tomlin v Standard Telephones and Cables Ltd [1969] 1 WLR 1378, 1384. But where the letters are not headed “without prejudice” unnecessarily or meaninglessly, as he went on to say at p 1385, the court should be very slow to lift the ...
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LORD PHILLIPS OF WORTH MATRAVERS My Lords, Introduction 1. On 6 February 2006 a solicitor called Manmohan Sandhu appeared before the Antrim Magistrates’ Court charged with incitement to murder, and four counts of doing acts tending and intended to pervert the course of justice. The court was told that the case against Mr Sandhu was based on covert electronic surveillance carried out by the police of conversations between himself and clients who were purporting to consult him in the serious crime suite at Antrim Police Station. The fact that the case against Mr Sandhu was based upon such evidence received considerable media coverage and comment. It also led to requests being made of the police on behalf of each of the appellants for assurances that no such monitoring was taking place in respect of consultations that they were about to have with their lawyers or, in the case of M, his consultant psychiatrist. The police declined to give such assurances. 2. My noble and learned fr...
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LORD PHILLIPS OF WORTH MATRAVERS My Lords, 1. Mr King, the respondent to this appeal, is a British subject who has for 30 years been resident in South Africa. He has been charged by the Office of the National Prosecuting Authority of the Republic of South Africa (“the NPA”) with fraud on a very large scale. He was originally arrested in South Africa on 13 June 2002. He was served with an indictment on 29 April 2005, which was amended on 17 March 2006. He now faces 51 counts of fraud, 34 counts of contravening income tax legislation, 234 counts of contravening exchange control regulations, 2 counts of money laundering and 1 count of racketeering. His trial has been adjourned on a number of occasions. He has been granted bail and the return of his passport and has been permitted, on occasion, to travel outside South Africa. 2. This appeal arises out of a Letter of Request sent by the NPA to the United Kingdom Central Authority in London and to the Lord Advocate in Edinburgh ...
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LORD HOFFMANN My Lords, 1. The appellant David Thorner is a Somerset farmer who, for nearly 30 years, did substantial work without pay on the farm of his father’s cousin Peter Thorner. The judge found that from 1990 until his death in 2005 Peter encouraged David to believe that he would inherit the farm and that David acted in reliance upon this assurance. In the event, however, Peter left no will. In these proceedings, David claims that by reason of the assurance and reliance, Peter’s estate is estopped from denying that he has acquired the beneficial interest in the farm. The judge found the case proved but the Court of Appeal reversed him. 2. Such a claim, under the principle known as proprietary estoppel, requires the claimant to prove a promise or assurance that he will acquire a proprietary interest in specified property. A distinctive feature of this case, as Lloyd LJ remarked in the Court of Appeal (at paragraph 65), was that the representation was never made expres...
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LORD PHILLIPS OF WORTH MATRAVERS My Lords, Introduction 1. On 4 October 2007 the appellant pleaded guilty at Worcester Crown Court to twelve counts of offences of causing or inciting a child under 13 to engage in sexual activity contrary to section 13(1) of the Sexual Offences Act 2003. The victims of this activity were young boys and the activity included anal penetration with the penis, oral sex and masturbation. At the time of the activity the appellant was 12 years of age. In interview he admitted the activity but said that he had not thought that what he was doing was wrong. 2. The appellant sought to advance, on the basis that he had not known that what he was doing was wrong, a defence that he was doli incapax. He sought a preliminary ruling from the trial judge that this defence was open to him. The trial judge ruled that it was not. Upon that ruling the appellant entered the guilty pleas. He appealed unsuccessfully against his conviction to the Court of Appeal on the ground...
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LORD PHILLIPS OF WORTH MATRAVERS My Lords, 1. Under the Drug Trafficking Act 1994 (“the 1994 Act”) the assets of a defendant convicted of a drug trafficking offence are liable to confiscation to the extent that he has benefited from drug trafficking. The benefit in question is not restricted to the benefit derived from the offence or offences in respect of which the defendant has been convicted. In confiscation proceedings the prosecution has to satisfy the court that the defendant has benefited from drug trafficking and the extent of such benefit. The normal way of doing this is to prove that the defendant possesses, or has possessed, property and to invite the court to assume that the property in question represents or represented benefit derived from drug trafficking. The Act expressly provides that the court must make this assumption unless it is shown to be incorrect or would involve a serious risk of injustice. 2. The appellant is subject to a confiscation order impo...
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LORD HOPE OF CRAIGHEAD My Lords, 1. I have had the advantage of reading in draft the opinion of my noble and learned friend Lord Hoffmann. I agree with it, and for the reasons he gives I would dismiss the appeal. I also agree with the observations which have been added by my noble and learned friend Lord Scott of Foscote. LORD HOFFMANN My Lords, 2. Mr Nasseri is an Afghan national who crossed into Greece in December 2004 and claimed asylum. The application was rejected on 1 April 2005. By then he may already have been on his way to the United Kingdom, which he entered on 5 September 2005 concealed under a lorry. When detected he again claimed asylum. 3. Council Regulation (EC) No 343/2003 (“the Dublin II Regulation”) provides in article 10 that if an asylum seeker has crossed the border from a third country into a Member State, that Member State, and only that Member State, shall be responsible for examining his application. Pursuant to the Regulation, the Home Office asked...
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