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Public Order Act 1986 The Public Order Act 1986, as amended, creates the offences of: riot; violent disorder; affray; causing intentional harassment, alarm, or distress. Police powers contained in the 1986 Act were extended by the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 and the Anti-Social Behaviour Act 2003. Public Assemblies The Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 made important changes to the rules governing powers of arrest and introduced further restriction to the right to protest in parts of Central London. Terrorism The Terrorism Act 2000 introduced comprehensive counter-terrorist measures throughout the UK. The Anti-Terrorism Crime and Security Act 2001 focuses on terrorist funding, intelligence gathering, immigration, and the elimination of organized crime. The Terrorism Act 2006 extends the law further.

Police officers detect and prevent crime, bring offenders to justice, keep the peace, and protect people and their property from injury and damage. The Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE), as amended, and its Codes of Practice, contain rules concerning police powers of stop, search, entry, seizure of property, arrest, detention, and treatment of suspects. Under s 1 PACE, as amended, a police constable may search any person or vehicle, including anything in or on the vehicle, for stolen or prohibited articles in public places. Under s 8(1) PACE a magistrate may issue a warrant authorizing a police constable to enter and search premises. Under s 19(2) and (3) PACE, police officers should seize goods only if they have reasonable grounds to believe that the goods have been obtained illegally; or are evidence in relation to an offence. Police officers can arrest a person with or without a warrant under s 24 PACE, as amended. Under s 24A PACE, a person other than

Before the Human Rights Act (HRA) 1998, civil and political rights were recognized and enforced in the UK solely within the established framework of statutory and common law principles. During the twentieth century, human rights principles were developed in international law by the law of treaties and by international organizations. The Council of Europe drafted the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (ECHR) to guarantee basic civil and political rights, which have been expanded by a series of supplementary treaties called protocols, and provide a judicial system for their enforcement. The ECHR is a treaty and, as such, could not give individual citizens directly enforceable rights until the ‘Convention rights’ were incorporated by the HRA 1998. A poor record in the European Court of Human Rights, human rights problems in the English courts, and worries about the relationship between the executive and Parliament provide the background to the Act.

Procedural Impropriety and Natural Justice Procedural impropriety means breach of the rules of natural justice and failure to comply with statutory procedural requirements. The rules of natural justice form a judicial code of procedural fairness. The rules are that no man is to be a judge in his own cause and that all the parties to a dispute shall be fairy heard. The rules of natural justice apply to all judicial proceedings in courts and tribunals. One unique feature of procedural impropriety as a ground for judicial review is that the extent to which the rules of natural justice apply varies depending on the context of the case. Pecuniary bias arises where the adjudicator may have a financial interest in the outcome of a decision. Personal bias is anything which might cause an adjudicator to view one side in a dispute more or less favourably than the other. Legitimate Expectation A person may have a legitimate expectation of being treated in a certain way

Irrationality Irrationality means unreasonableness which is now linked to the principle of proportionality. Unreasonableness is a comprehensively used term capable of meaning that a person given a discretionary power has, among other things, reached a conclusion which is so absurd that no reasonable authority could ever have come to it. The key principle is that where an administrative decision is made in the context of human rights the court will require a proportionately greater justification before being satisfied that the decision is within the range of responses open to a reasonable decision-maker, according to the seriousness of the interference with those rights. Proportionality In the context of human rights it applies where the state can limit rights for legitimate purposes. The state should do no more than is absolutely necessary to achieve the legitimate purpose of limiting the right. Proportionality requires that there must be a reasonable relationsh

Judicial review is based on technical grounds. Ultra Vires Jurisdictional and Non-Jurisdictional Error The ultra vires doctrine states that a public body must not go beyond its power. It applies where the court has to decide if a public body has misinterpreted or abused its statutory powers. A jurisdictional error is a mistake of law which takes a public body outside the powers it has been given to enquire into matters and make decisions. The court can review all the vital findings on which the existence of a public body’s jurisdiction depends, including findings of facts. Any misinterpretation or abuse of power made by a public body is capable of being a jurisdictional error. Practical examples are acting in bad faith; failing to comply with the rules of natural justice; taking into account irrelevant considerations or failing to take into account any relevant matters. A non-jurisdictional error of law exists if there is an error of law and the error of law must be

Judicial review allows people with a sufficient interest to ask a judge to review the lawfulness of a decision of a public body carrying out its public functions and enactments where there is no right of appeal or where all avenues of appeal have been exhausted. Judicial review is based on the constitutional principles of the rule of law and the separation of powers. The defendant must be a public body, the subject matter of a claim must be a public law matter, and the claimant must have the right to claim (they must have sufficient interest in the matter). CoA stated that if it is unclear that a case is a public law matter, the claimant should seek judicial review to avoid an accusation of abuse of process. The key principle is that it is not an abuse of process for someone to raise a public law matter as a defence in civil proceedings. Declarations, injunctions, and damages may be sought by judicial review procedure. Exclusion of Judicial Review by Parliament

The European Union is a supranational legal order based on treaties and general legal principles. The institutions of the EU exercise legislative, executive, and judicial powers. The sources of EU Law are Treaties, Regulations, Directives, Decisions, and Judgments of the European Court of Justice (ECJ). Decisions of the ECJ assert that human rights form part of the general principles of EU law and Article 6 Treaty on European Union (TEU) has the effect of giving formal recognition that human rights, especially those protected by the ECHR, are part of EU law and are protected by the ECJ. Regulations are ‘directly applicable’ in all member states, while a Decision is binding upon those to whom it is addressed and a Directive is binding, as to the result to be achieved, upon each member state to whom it is addressed but leaves to the national authorities the choice of form and methods. The transfer by the states from their domestic legal systems to the Community legal sy

The legislative supremacy of Parliament is a jurisdictional question: Parliament has unlimited power to make and unmake laws, once the courts have determined that a bill has become an Act of Parliament, they have no jurisdiction to override it or set it aside. Courts may be willing to exercise their jurisdiction to interpret statutes more generously. Although any legislative provision may be expressly repealed by Parliament, the courts have jurisdiction to determine whether an Act of Parliament is a constitutional statute and immune from the common law doctrine of implied repeal. The Human Rights Act 1998 requires the courts to interpret statutes in a way which is consistent with Convention rights and enables the High Court in England and Wales to make declarations of incompatibility. The effect of s 2(1) and (4) European Communities Act 1972 is that the provisions of subsequent statutes are enacted without prejudice to the directly enforceable European Union rights of na

The UK Parliament is bicameral, with two chambers namely the House of Commons and the House of Lords. The House of Lords, which is composed of life peers, senior bishops, and some hereditary peers, protects the constitution, and initiates and revises legislation. The House of Commons, which is composed of constituency representatives organized on party lines under the whip system, is the principal legislative chamber and plays a significant role in scrutinizing the executive. Both the House of Commons and the House of Lords are representative chambers but only the House of Commons is composed of elected representatives. Members of the House of Commons are elected according to the ‘first past the post’ electoral system. An Act of Parliament is a bill which has, at common law, received the separate and simultaneous assents of the House of Commons and the House of Lords as well as the Royal Assent. Under the Parliament Acts 1911 and 1949 a bill may become an Act of Par

The monarch is the formal head of the executive and the Prime Minister, who is also First Lord of the Treasury and Minister for the Civil Service, advises the monarch on the exercise of all executive powers. The Cabinet deals with all matters concerning the collective responsibility of the government as well as the formulation of government policy and putting it into effect via the parliamentary legislative process. Central government in the UK is organized into departments of state led by Secretaries of State and other ministers whose work is coordinated by the Cabinet. Every Secretary of State and minister, including the Prime Minister, is responsible to Parliament and subject to the jurisdictions of the courts. Public Bodies Act 2011 The Public Bodies Act 2011 empowers ministers to abolish or reform those public bodies listed in its schedules, in order to increase accountability and control costs. The Civil Service Part 1 Constitutional Reform and Governan

The UK Monarch as Head of State The British monarch takes office under the hereditary principle. The UK constitution is monarchical. The constitutional role and duties of the British monarch are set out in the current version of s 3 Coronation Oath Act 1968. The reigning monarch is the titular head of the executive, legislature, and the judiciary, commander in chief of the armed forces, and Supreme Governor of the Church of England. The Privy Council advises Her Majesty’s Government on the exercise of prerogative powers and certain functions assigned to the reigning monarch and the Privy Council by Act of Parliament. The monarch summons, opens, prorogues, and dissolves Parliament. The monarch also authorizes parliamentary general and by-elections and grants the Royal Assent to bills which have passed their necessary parliamentary stages. The monarch was and is the constitutional source and fountain of justice from whom the jurisdiction of the UK courts is formally