News Raging sectarian violence has pushed up the number of refugees in Iraq by 20,000 in the last 10 days alone, reported the migration ministry. Read more In Lebanon, the UN estimates that 800,000 Lebanese have been displaced by recent events, a huge number for a country of 3.5 million. Sami Haddad, the Lebanese minister […]
Government and Legislation On 21 July 2006 the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) wrote to all Directors of Housing in local authorities and all Chief Executives of ALMOs about the problem of former secure tenants who have become tolerated trespassers. The letter (which attaches the new form N28A, the new parts of CPR […]
Home Office Statement of Changes in Immigration Rules HC 1337 – July 2006 The Home Office announced a Statement of Changes in Immigration Rules to amend paragraph 364 to ‘make it clear that where a person is liable to deportation then the presumption shall be that the public interest requires deportation and that it will […]
Garden Court is delighted to announce the appointment of Jo Delahunty and Mark Muller to be Queen’s Counsel in the first round of appointments under the interim scheme in England and Wales. For the full list please link to the Department of Constitutional Affairs.
Government & Legislation Today (17 July 2006), the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) has announced that the Tenancy Deposit provisions of the Housing Act 2004 will not now be introduced until 6 April 2007. Click Here to see the DCLG Press Notice at: On 14 July 2006 the DCLG published a discussion paper […]
CASES Harassment Majrowski v Guy’s and St Thomas’s NHS Trust [2006] UKHL 34 The House of Lords decides that an employer may be held vicariously liable in damages under section 3 Protection from Harassment Act 1997 for a course of conduct by one of its employees which amounts to harassment in breach of section 1 […]
A family with young children who suffered a police raid by officers with a search warrant arising out of the activities of a member of the previous tenant?s family have been awarded 15,000 Euros compensation by the European Court of Human Rights.
News On Friday 14 July the British Medical Journal published an article highlighting the UK’s violation of the human rights of failed asylum seekers by restricting access to health care. Read more. The European Council has published a Proposal for a Council Regulation amending Regulation (EC) No 539/2001 listing the third countries whose nationals must […]
Government & Legislation On 4 July 2006 the Caravan Sites (Security of Tenure and Related Clauses) Bill had its first reading in the House of Commons. This Private Members Bill will shortly be published. Click Here to view On 6 July 2006 the enforcement provisions of the Housing Act 2004 came into force in […]
News MEPs have adopted two non-binding reports on asylum and immigration. The first report is on mutual information procedure in the areas of asylum and immigration and the second report is on strategies and means for the integration of immigrants in the European Union. Click Here for more info The European Council on Refugees and […]
CASES TUPE Celtec v Astley [2006] UKHL 29 The contracts of employment of workers of an undertaking are automatically transferred on the date of the transfer. This date cannot be changed by agreement between the parties. In the present case it was the date of the employees secondment from civil service not from the later […]
News Charging "failed" asylum seekers for healthcare is having a devastating human impact and the policy should be scrapped immediately, the Refugee Council explain in a new report. Read more A failed asylum-seeker has been ‘unfairly sentenced’ to 12 years’ jail in Syria after being forcibly returned from the UK, according to Amnesty International. Muhammad […]
Stop Press New "suspended" possession order now in force. The 42nd set of CPR amendments includes (from today) the new provisions designed to prevent the creation of more tolerated trespassers. PD55 is amended to provide a procedure for – and formalise the making of – "postponed possession orders" along the lines suggested by the Court […]
The second issue of a bi-annual newsletter being published by Garden Court Chambers.
News The fate of the Isle of Man’s first asylum seeker could lie in the hands of Lieutenant Governor Vice-Admiral Sir Paul Haddacks. As the Island is not treated as a state for the purposes of the Refugee Convention and has no legislation to deal with a claimant, it cannot provide asylum in its own […]
The U.S Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that President George W. Bush overstepped his authority in ordering military war crimes trials for Guantanamo Bay detainees. In its ruling, the court said military tribunals contravened both the Geneva Convention o
The final report from the Zahid Mubarek Inquiry has been published.
It concludes that the death of Asian prisoner Zahid Mubarek at Feltham Youth Jail in March 2000, should and could have been prevented.
Zahid Mubarek was killed by his cellmate Robert
Specialist Advice & Support with Housing Law Cases Free specialist help and support with housing cases and housing law queries is still available from Garden Court Chambers Housing Line Tues to Thurs 2 – 5pm 020 7993 7666 Calls are taken direct by barristers specialising in Housing Law and the free service is available to […]
West Yorkshire Police have paid the widow of Eric Smith, 53 and father of seven, ï¿‚ïx£18,000 compensation.
Eric Smith died on 2 November 1998, three days after being sprayed in the face with CS spray his own home. Police officers had attended to arrest
The Court of Appeal held this week that a person who survived to a joint tenancy in 1969 was not transformed into a successor by section 88(1)(b) of the Housing Act 1985 (Walker v Birmingham City Council[2006] EWCA Civ 815). Mrs Walker became a joint tena
