 |
|
|
|
|
|
|||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Public law, discrimination and human rights What does ‘public law’ mean? If a public body has acted unlawfully ‘public law’ may help. Public law is simply a way of describing the rules public bodies must comply with when carrying out their functions. Examples of public bodies would include government departments, local authorities, the NHS and schools. Public law applies to decisions and policies (including proposed decisions and policies). Public law may also be relevant when a public body has failed to take action. If a public body has done something which seems unfair, it does not automatically follow that the public body has acted unlawfully – but it may well have done so, and public law offers a way of holding such public bodies to account. The work we do The rules public bodies must comply with when carrying out their public functions are complex. However, many of the rules are universal, i.e. they are the same for a large government department developing a major new policy as they are for a local council making a decision about a planning application. Our expertise lies in our knowledge of the rules public bodies must comply with, coupled with our extensive experience of using ‘judicial review’ court proceedings to challenge public bodies. Our solicitors have conducted hundreds of judicial review proceedings in a very broad range of areas (see below). For more information about judicial review visit our Resources page. Our solicitors are also expert at resolving public law disputes in other ways; for example through mediation, or by providing representation at tribunals, or by assisting with investigations and complaints. We only act for claimants (individuals and organisations). We never act for public bodies that are defending judicial review claims. Our team We have one of the largest and most experienced claimant teams in the UK in these areas of work. Our team is recommended by both the Chambers' Guide to the Legal Profession and the Legal 500 directory as being amongst the leading firms in the UK for both public and administrative law, and for civil liberties and human rights cases. http://www.chambersandpartners.com/ http://www.legal500.com/c/london/ To contact our Public Law and Human Rights team please telephone 020 7407 0007 or email publiclawteam@pierceglynn.co.uk. Examples of our public law, discrimination and human rights work One of the strengths of our team is the breadth of our solicitors’ public law, discrimination and human rights experience. That breadth of experience, coupled with the size of the team, means that we are able to adapt very quickly to new and developing areas of public law. What follows (in alphabetical order) is not, therefore, an exhaustive list of the public law work we have conducted, or of the areas of work in which we would consider accepting instructions. However, it is illustrative of some of the main themes in our current public law work. Please also refer to the Resources page which includes several case studies. / Discrimination and equality duties In our discrimination law work we rely on both domestic law (for example the Disability Discrimination Act, the Race Relations Act, and the Sex Discrimination Act) as well as human rights law and EU law. Our discrimination cases tend to focus on discrimination by public bodies challenged either in judicial review proceedings or in the county court. We have particular expertise in the new equality duties (which require public bodies to go beyond non-discrimination and actively promote race, disability and gender equality). Our solicitors have worked with the Equality and Human Rights Commission on some of the leading cases in this area. Louise Whitfield, Gareth Mitchell and Sue Willman have particular expertise in this area. / EU law The EU is a much neglected but increasingly important source of legislation regulating the way public bodies must behave, affecting a very broad range of areas in which public bodies operate: from assessing the environmental impact of new developments to regulating the way public bodies tender for contracts to deliver public services. We are experienced both in using EU law arguments in judicial review claims (recent cases include Court of Appeal cases on the free movement of workers in the EU and on the EU’s rules for the harmonisation of social security benefits). We are also experienced in advising in cases where the UK government has failed to properly implement EU law. One of our solicitors, Sue Willman, delivers training on EU law to other lawyers. / Healthcare Our healthcare work is principally concerned with challenging failures to provide treatment and with decisions to cut services. Recent cases include a partly successful Court of Appeal challenge to healthcare charges for overseas visitors, and advising on access to a range of procedures and treatments including IVF, kidney dialysis, a skin transplant, gender reassignment surgery, a bone marrow transplant, and treatment for bowel cancer. One of our solicitors, Adam Hundt, was written and lectured widely on healthcare law. Our healthcare experience is complemented by our Community Care expertise. / Human rights Human rights cases are those which rely on the European Convention on Human Rights (via the Human Rights Act) or other human rights instruments (including international human rights conventions). Many of the cases in which we raise human rights arguments are judicial review proceedings in the English and Welsh courts, although we are also experienced at raising human rights arguments in other ways, from example bringing cases before the European Court of Human Rights. Recent or current cases include acting for 48 widowers in linked claims to the European Court of Human Rights, acting in the Court of Appeal in a case concerning the right to home and family life under Article 8 of the Convention, acting in a case concerning the treatment of holocaust reparations under the pension credit legislation and the compatibility of those rules with Article 14 of the Convention, and acting in the Court of Appeal in a case concerning Article 3 of the Convention and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. / Migrant support The firm is probably the leading solicitors practice in the UK dealing with the law in relation to the provision of accommodation and support for asylum seekers and other migrants including EU nationals. Sue Willman (together with Stephen Knafler and, formerly, Stephen Pierce) is the author of the leading textbook on the law in this area. Joanna Thomson, Zubier Yazdani and Adam Hundt also have particular expertise in this area. The firm acts as both a centre of excellence in representation, and as a source of support and information for others (including other lawyers, community organisations, NGOs, and Parliament’s Joint Committee on Human Rights). We have acted in many of the leading cases in this area up to and including cases in the House of Lords. / Planning and environmental law We concentrate on planning and environmental cases with a wider public interest; typically cases in which local communities are concerned that proposed developments, or proposed changes in the way land is being used, may have significant environmental or other negative impacts. Most of our clients are third parties (rather than developers or local authorities) who are affected by proposed developments and want to challenge planning decisions by bringing claims for judicial review. Recent or current cases include obtaining a High Court declaration that planning permission for a large housing development on a children’s playground was unlawful, quashing the unlawful grant of planning permission for a major new art gallery where local residents’ concerns about the scheme had been ignored, acting in proceedings about the recycling of warships on Teeside, and advisory work on the need for local authorities to require the provision of local cost social housing within new housing developments. We are one of the few firms who are able to provide representation in these cases under the legal aid scheme. Polly Glynn and Gareth Mitchell take the lead in this area of the firms’ work. / Public sector procurement and funding cuts We act for both service users and third sector providers of public services who seek to challenge decisions to cut funding for public services, or to challenge public service procurement (i.e. tendering) decisions. Louise Whitfield is particularly experienced in this area, having spent 6 years at the Public Law Project (itself a voluntary sector organisation) training, advising and representing voluntary sector organisations and their service users concerned about local authority funding decisions. Gareth Mitchell and Sue Willman are also expert in this area of work. Recent or current cases in this area include challenging the government’s decision to close 2,500 post offices, representing the users of a law centre faced with funding cuts, and cases concerning the provision of domestic violence support services, language services, and support services for refugee children. / Unlawful detention Our unlawful detention work focuses primarily on unlawful immigration detention; representing foreign nationals who have served their prison sentences (often for immigration offences such as working illegally), but who are neither released nor deported but continue to be held in prisons or detention centres on an indefinite basis. Our recent cases include a succession of judicial review claims in which we have successfully secured the release of Palestinian, Somali, Algerian, Iraqi, Eritrean and Iranian nationals, each of whom had been detained for several years after the completion of their sentences. We have also represented refugees and migrants who have not been convicted of any criminal offence, but who have been detained in immigration removal centres even though they are seriously ill, or the victims of trafficking, or children.
|
|
|