Tag Archive for 'ecthr'

Any answers?

The April edition of Legal Action brings news that Hurst v UK has settled. As will be seen from the ECtHR’s Statement of Facts and Questions to the Parties Hurst involved a secure tenant who murdered a neighbour, the applicant’s son, during the course of possession proceedings. Ms Hurst brought proceedings in the domestic courts, which reached their conclusion in R (Hurst) v London Northern District Coroner [2007] UKHL 13; [2007] 2 AC 189. Those proceedings were concerned with the duties of a coroner, particularly where the death had occurred before the Human Rights Act 1998 had come into force.

Ms Hurst had also commenced civil proceedings against the police … Read the full post

Glad To See Y’Back Again?

Gladysheva v Russia (App. No. 7097/10)

Courtesy of the always excellent ECHR blog, comes an interesting Strasbourg decision, particularly in relation to the question of just satisfaction. It has, regrettably, taken me ages to write this up. Any students who have had to write essays about it in the meantime clearly have sadistic tutors.

The facts of the case bear some similarity with Tuleshov v Russia, but there are a few differences and what is quite interesting about this case is what the ECtHR does about just satisfaction.

The basic facts are that Ms Gladysheva was a bona fide purchaser of a flat in Moscow. The previous owner … Read the full post

The bottled water of principle

There is an interesting interview with Baroness Hale of the Supreme Court on the UKSC blog, (also reposted on the Guardian Law site, which has been really rather good since launch).

Lady HaleIt is well worth a read, not only for Lady Hale fighting for the separation of the Supreme Court from Government by insisting on bottled water in the canteen in the face of MoJ policy, but for her views on the operation of the Supreme Court. There is much of interest on diversity on the bench and in the SC, and, for housing lawyers, particularly on the question of socio-economic ‘positive rights’, where she sees a mismatch … Read the full post

I think they're trying to tell us something

The European Court of Human Rights has just given judgment in Paulic v Croatia (App. No. 3572/06), a case on Article 8 and possession proceedings. Given the unbroken trend of authority from Connors to Zehentner, via McCann and Cosic (all noted in the excellent and Tarantino-themed post by Dave, here), it shouldn’t be too difficult to guess how this case went.

Mr Paulic was a civilian employee of the Yugoslav People’s Army (“YPA”) who, in 1991, was granted the right to occupy (and purchase) a flat owned by the YPA. In July 1991, the Croatian state prohibited all land transactions involving property which was owned by the YPA. … Read the full post

Way too secure

Gauci v Malta [2009] ECHR 1280 [Link is to rtf]

Hat-tip to the Garden Court Bulletin for this one.

Mr G owned a property in Malta. It had been let under a 25 year tenancy agreement in 1975. On the expiry of that agreement, the tenants, who owed other property themselves, were able to exercise a right to new lease under under Maltese Act XXIII of 1979 as they were resident.

Under the 1979 Act, the maximum rent that the Rent Review Board could set for the premises was 420 euro per year. The market rent was assessed in 2002 at 280 euro per month. Mr G brought proceedings, complaining … Read the full post

Evictions and Proportionality

We’re a bit late with this one, and it is arguably quite a biggie (hat tip to Niki Goss who first pointed it out, to me at least, in the comments here).

Anyway, Cosic v Croatia is a decision of the European Court of Human Rights that should be of interest as both Connors and McCann are referred to as the Court reaches its conclusion that a possession order was a disproportionate interference with the Applicant’s Art 8 rights, because she was not given the possibility of having the proportionality and reasonableness of it tested.  In the process the Court gives what might be construed as “guidance” to the … Read the full post

Expanding the Public Law defence, a bit

What Doherty v Birmingham City Council (Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government intervening) [2008] UKHL 57 actually means for a public law defence to possession claims, particularly summary possession, was the subject of London Borough of Hillingdon v Collins & Another [2008] EWHC 3016 (Admin). This is what was to have been a CMC in the Administrative Court, but turned, by the nature of circumstances, into a consideration of the scope and boundaries of the post Doherty defence. As we’ve previously noted, the House of Lords in Doherty did little to actually make things clear, so Hillingdon v Collins is an important judgment.

The case involved … Read the full post



row of sheds footer image
2 pages