UK Supreme Court Blog

EDITORS: Dan Tench, Emma Cross, Zainab Hodgson, Francesca Knight, James Warshaw and Natalie Haefner (CMS)
Hugh Tomlinson KC, Matthew Ryder KC, Nandini Bulchandani and Daniel Rudd (Matrix)

The Supreme Court will hear two appeals this week. On Tuesday 22 November is the appeal from the Court of Session (Scotland) of Ravat v Halliburton Manufacturing and Services Ltd, which will be heard by Lady Hale and Lords Hope, Brown, Mance and Kerr. The appellant company is based in the UK and the respondent was employed by that company as an accounts manager in Libya until he was made redundant and raised an unfair dismissal claim in the Aberdeen Employment Tribunal. The issue for the Supreme Court is what the correct test is for determining whether an ET has jurisdiction to hear an unfair dismissal claim brought by a person who works abroad for a UK company in light of Lawson v Serco [2006] UKHL 3. For more details the case details can be found here.

Starting on Wednesday 23 November 2011 is the two day hearing of Sugar (Deceased) (Represented by Fiona Paveley) v BBC, which on appeal from the Court of Appeal (Civil Division) and will be heard by Lords Phillips, Walker, Brown, Mance and Dyson. The Supreme Court is to decide whether a report which analysed the BBC’s coverage of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict was “information held for purposes other than those of journalism art or literature” so as to fall within the scope of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. The appellant had applied to the respondent under the Freedom of Information Act for disclosure of the Balen Report, which had been prepared to analyse the BBC’s coverage of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict and to make recommendations for improvement. The respondent refused to disclose the report, maintaining that it was held for the purposes of journalism and so was outside the scope of the Act under  s 7(1) and Sch 1. Here are the case details.

The following judgments are due to be handed down on Wednesday 23 November 2011: the linked appeals of Jude v Her Majesty’s Advocate (Scotland), Hodgson v Her Majesty’s Advocate (Scotland), Birnie v Her Majesty’s Advocate (Scotland) and McGowan v B  (Scotland).

In the Privy Council this week is the two day hearing of The Superintendent of Her Majesty’s Foxhill Prison & Anor v Kozeny (Bahamas), which is on appeal from the Court of Appeal of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas and will be heard by Lady Hale and Lords Hope, Kerr, Clarke and Wilson. The respondent, a Czech national living in the Bahamas, is being sought for extradition by the US government on an indictment alleging violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practises Act 1977 and associated offences including bribery and money laundering. The respondent applied for a writ of habeas corpus which was granted on the grounds that the offences for which he is sought are not extradition offences and that the US had failed to make a full and frank disclosure of how his alleged conduct gave rise to the associated extradition offences of bribery and money laundering. The case details are available here.

Finally, the Privy Council is due to hand down judgment in Saint Aubin Limitee v Alain Jean Francois Doger de Speville (Mauritius) on Wednesday 23 November 2011.

The following Supreme Court judgments remain outstanding:

Flood v Times Newspapers, heard 17 – 18 Oct 2011.

R v Gnango, heard 11 July 2011.

JP Morgan Chase Bank N.A. & Anor v Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (BVG) Anstalt des Oeffentlichen Rechts, heard 11 November 2010.

Perpetual Trustee Company Ltd v BNY Corporate Trustee Services Ltd and Lehman Brothers Special Financing Inc; and Belmont Park Investments PTY Ltd v BNY Corporate Trustee Services Ltd and Lehman Brothers Special Financing Inc, heard 1 – 3 March 2011.

R v Waya, heard 5 May 2011.

Edwards v Chesterfield Royal Hospital NHS Foundation and Botham v Ministry of Defence, heard 22 – 23 June 2011.

Russell & Ors v Transocean International Resources Ltd (Scotland), heard 26 – 28 October 2011.

Lehman Brothers International v CRC Credit Fund Ltd and GLC Investments PLC Sub Fund, heard 31 October – 3 November 2011.

Secretary of State for Work and Pensions v Payne & Anor, heard 4 November 2011.

Rabone & Anor v Pennine Care NHS Trust, heard 7 – 10 November 2011.

Aberdeen City Council v Stewart Milne Group Ltd, heard 10 November 2011.

Ministry of Defence v AB & Ors, heard 14 – 17 November 2011.