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We will fearlessly pursue justice on your behalf, ensuring that your voice is heard.
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Public bodies should act reasonably, fairly, and lawfully. If they act otherwise, they need to be challenged.
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Public Law Articles
The Brexiteers: Enemies of Parliament (21 November 2016)
On 3rd November 2016 the High Court ruled in the case of Miller that the UK Government does not have the power to trigger Article 50 of the EU Treaty without parliamentary approval. Quoting the Fire Brigades Union, the court held that ‘the executive cannot exercise the prerogative power in a way which would derogate from the fulfilment of a statutory duty’. The Daily Mail labelled the judges involved ‘Enemies of the People’. Read more...
UK priorities include keeping border secure, protecting vulnerable and tackling criminal gangs, as Calais camp is dismantled (25 October 2016)
Home Secretary Amber Rudd has said that the UK and French governments remain committed to ensuring that children who are eligible to come to the UK are brought over as quickly as possible from the “Jungle” camp in Calais – and those still in the camp are given protection. Read more...
Theresa May criticizes ‘activist left-wing human rights lawyers’ during closing speech at the Tory Party conference (17 October 2016)
Prime Minister Theresa May has recently announced the move to opt out from parts of the European Convention on Human Rights, meaning troops fighting abroad in times of war will be protection from lawsuits and criminal prosecution upon their return. Read more...
The triggering of Article 50: who decides? (10 October 2016)
Mucking along doesn’t always work. We pride ourselves in the United Kingdom on thriving without a written constitution or code. We are better than that apparently, a nation of pragmatists and deal-makers, unfettered by text. The powers of the legislature, the executive and the judiciary are balanced by a series of precedents and ‘Gentlemen’s Agreements’ (conventions). The events of 23 June have jerked us out of our smuggery. No-one knows what to do. There is no precedent. It is up for grabs. Article 50 of the Treaty on the European Union (‘TEU’) allows any member state to withdraw from the Union ‘in accordance with its own constitutional requirements.’ Meanwhile, Theresa May has announced that Article 50 will be triggered by the end of March 2017. Can she be so sure? Read more...
The degrading restriction on an asylum seeker’s right to work (1 August 2016)
Most asylum seekers arrive in the UK to escape their country of origin for fears of persecution, where the idea of state protection is unrealistic and or internal relocation is a possibility. Many have no intent or motive to come to the UK and only consider where they will be safe away from their perpetrators. They hope for a better future but instead, some spend their years in the UK stuck in an inefficient administrative process, in receipt of minimal support and suffering from emotional stress as a result of their traumas coupled with their inability to ever return to a life of normality. Read more...
Judicial Review in the Upper Tribunal (25 July 2016)
A significant practical problem is the lack of direction on how to actually make an application at the Upper Tribunal. At a time of increasing numbers of distressed applicants all looking to have their accounts heard, this causes considerable distress not just to the applicant’s but also to those representing them. Read more...
Home Office cannot lawfully require foreign nationals to state to officials from their home country that they are willing to return (19 July 2016)
The recent Duncan Lewis judicial review case of JM (Zimbabwe), R (on the application of) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2016] EWHC 1773 (Admin) saw Duncan Lewis Public Law & Immigration Solicitors James Packer and Kate Newman represent a Zimbabwean national claimant who was subject to deportation from the UK and placed in immigration detention immediately on the expiry of his sentence in May 2013. Read more...
Cardiff sees rise in bus lane tickets, netting council £3.6m in 18 months (6 July 2016)
Cardiff Council has said that a rise in the number of drivers being caught by bus lane cameras is “disappointing”. Read more...
The Detention of Pregnant Women: It Needs to Stop (20 June 2016)
In his January 2016 review into the Welfare in Detention of Vulnerable Persons, Stephen Shaw, the former Prisons and Probation Ombudsman for England and Wales, recommended that ‘the Home Office amend its guidance so that the presumptive exclusion from detention for pregnant women is replaced with an absolute exclusion.’ Read more...
Court of Appeal Grants Permission for Appeal for 11 Appellants to join Refugee Sponsor in the UK (29 April 2016)
In recent decision, the Court of Appeal has granted permission to 11 appellants represented by Duncan Lewis Solicitors in an appeal against refusal of entry clearance to join their refugee sponsor, who is their oldest sibling and legal guardian, now residing in the UK. Read more...
Court of Appeal Grants Permission for Appeal for 11 Appellants to join Refugee Sponsor in the UK (29 April 2016)
In recent decision, the Court of Appeal has granted permission to 11 appellants represented by Duncan Lewis Solicitors in an appeal against refusal of entry clearance to join their refugee sponsor, who is their oldest sibling and legal guardian, now residing in the UK. Read more...
Dublin Regulations and the escalation of the migration crisis (28 January 2016)
The idea of the Dublin Conventions was created between European Union countries establishing a hierarchy of criteria where the European country first entered by an asylum seeker would be the country responsible for considering his/her asylum claim. Read more...
House of Lord’s Response on the Immigration Bill 2015/16 - First- Tier Immigration Tribunals and Bail Conditions (21 January 2016)
On the 11 January 2016 the House of Lords published its response the contents of the Immigration Bill 2015-2016. Read more...