LawTeacher
7,174
Articles Published
LawTeacher.net is the UK’s leading provider of academic legal support, offering both writing services and an extensive collection of law study resources for students in the UK and overseas.
Founded in 2003 by Grey’s Inn graduate Barclay Littlewood, the Company was built on a commitment to excellence, with unique guarantees and a high standard of service from day one.
The team includes over 500 UK legally qualified writing experts, with many practising solicitors and barristers, and several former lecturers.
Areas of Expertise
Contract LawCriminal LawConstitutional and Administrative LawEU LawTort LawProperty LawEquity and TrustsJurisprudenceCompany LawCommercial LawFamily LawHuman Rights LawEmployment LawEvidencePublic International LawLegal Research and MethodsDispute ResolutionBusiness Law and PracticeCivil LitigationCriminal LitigationProfessional ConductTaxationWills and Administration of EstatesSolicitors’ Accounts
Articles by LawTeacher
Tillman v Egon Zehnder Ltd [2019] UKSC 32
Article. Published: November 3, 2026
Ms Tillman wished to join a competitor within six months of leaving Egon Zehnder Ltd. A covenant barred her from being “interested” in a competing business. The Supreme Court held that this word unreasonably prohibited even a minority shareholding, but that it could be severed so the remainder of the covenant survived and restrained her […]…
Routier and another v Commissioners for Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs [2019] UKSC 43
Article. Published: November 3, 2026
The Supreme Court held that a gift of United Kingdom assets to a charitable trust governed by Jersey law was entitled to inheritance tax relief. Because the EU rules on free movement of capital do not apply in Jersey, the transfer was a movement of capital to a third country, and a judge-made restriction confining […]…
Sveriges Angfartygs Assurans Forening (The Swedish Club) and others v Connect Shipping Inc and another [2019] UKSC 29
Article. Published: November 3, 2026
After a fire aboard the RENOS, her owners claimed a constructive total loss from the hull insurers. The Supreme Court held that the cost of repair includes salvage and safeguarding costs incurred before notice of abandonment, but not SCOPIC charges incurred to prevent environmental damage. It set aside the earlier order and remitted the question […]…
Samuels v Birmingham City Council [2019] UKSC 28
Article. Published: November 3, 2026
The Supreme Court quashed Birmingham City Council’s decision that Ms Samuels was intentionally homeless after she lost her tenancy through rent arrears. Affordability had to be judged by an objective assessment of her reasonable living expenses, including those of her children, rather than by asking whether she had enough flexibility in her budget to meet […]…
Vedanta Resources PLC and another v Lungowe and others [2019] UKSC 20
Article. Published: November 3, 2026
The Supreme Court dismissed an appeal about whether the English courts had jurisdiction over claims by some 1,826 Zambian villagers for damage allegedly caused by toxic emissions from the Nchanga Copper Mine. Although the connecting factors otherwise pointed overwhelmingly to Zambia, the Court upheld the finding that there was a real risk the claimants would […]…
R (on the application of Derry) v Commissioners for Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs [2019] UKSC 19
Article. Published: November 3, 2026
Mr Derry claimed share loss relief of £414,500 against his 2009/10 income after selling shares at a loss. The Supreme Court held that sections 23 and 131 to 133 of the Income Tax Act 2007 gave him a clear entitlement to deduct that loss in the year he specified, and that Schedule 1B to the […]…
In the matter of an application by Hugh Jordan for Judicial Review (Northern Ireland) [2019] UKSC 9
Article. Published: November 3, 2026
The Supreme Court held that a relative who complains of delay in an article 2 investigation may claim damages under the Human Rights Act 1998 as soon as the delay itself is a breach, and need not wait until the inquest is over. A court may stay that claim, but only where the stay is […]…
KV (Sri Lanka) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2019] UKSC 10
Article. Published: November 3, 2026
KV relied on medical evidence in an asylum appeal. His expert explained why the pattern of his scars fitted his account of torture. The Supreme Court held that an expert could address that consistency and that the tribunal had mishandled an alternative explanation. The tribunal had to hear the appeal again. The claim and the […]…
Lachaux v Independent Print Ltd and another [2019] UKSC 27
Article. Published: November 3, 2026
The Supreme Court held that section 1 of the Defamation Act 2013 requires a claimant to show, as a matter of fact, that a publication has caused or is likely to cause serious harm to reputation, rather than relying only on the words’ inherent tendency to injure. In Bruno Lachaux’s libel actions over newspaper allegations […]…
In the matter of an application by Dennis Hutchings for Judicial Review (Northern Ireland) [2019] UKSC 26
Article. Published: November 3, 2026
Dennis Hutchings challenged a certificate directing that he be tried without a jury on charges arising from the fatal shooting of John Paul Cunningham during an army patrol he commanded in 1974. The Supreme Court held that the Director of Public Prosecutions had acted within the wide powers in the Justice and Security (Northern Ireland) […]…
Stocker v Stocker [2019] UKSC 17
Article. Published: November 3, 2026
Nicola Stocker told her former husband’s new partner on Facebook that he had “tried to strangle” her. The Supreme Court held that an ordinary reader would understand that as a violent grip on the neck, not an attempt to kill, and that the trial judge had been wrong to let dictionary definitions decide the point. […]…
R (on the application of Newby Foods Ltd) v Food Standards Agency [2019] UKSC 18
Article. Published: November 3, 2026
The Supreme Court held that residual pork and chicken meat recovered by Newby Foods Ltd through a mechanical shearing process must be classified as mechanically separated meat under EU food-hygiene rules. That classification prevents the product from counting towards meat content and subjects it to the labelling and production restrictions in the Food Standards Agency’s […]…
Poole Borough Council v GN (through his litigation friend “The Official Solicitor”) and another [2019] UKSC 25
Article. Published: November 3, 2026
Two children alleged that their local authority had failed to protect them from harassment by neighbours. The Supreme Court held that the pleaded facts did not show an assumption of responsibility by the council or its social workers. Nor did those facts disclose grounds to take the children into care. Their negligence claim therefore could […]…
Telereal Trillium v Hewitt [2019] UKSC 23
Article. Published: November 3, 2026
The Supreme Court considered how to value a vacant Blackpool office for rating where comparable offices were occupied at substantial rents, but the parties agreed that nobody would have paid a positive rent for the building itself. By a majority, it held that the statutory hypothesis still required the value to be assessed by reference […]…
R & S Pilling t/a Phoenix Engineering v UK Insurance Ltd [2019] UKSC 16
Article. Published: November 3, 2026
The Supreme Court held that a motor insurance policy did not cover a car owner's liability for a fire caused while he was carrying out substantial welding repairs to his vehicle on his employer's private premises. The policy had to be read so as to meet the compulsory cover required by the Road Traffic Act […]…
Konecny v District Court in Brno-Venkov, Czech Republic [2019] UKSC 8
Article. Published: November 3, 2026
The Supreme Court held that a person convicted in his absence, whose conviction remains binding and enforceable but who has an unqualified right to a retrial after surrender, is treated as convicted and unlawfully at large, not as merely accused, under the Extradition Act 2003. Delay before conviction therefore does not start the statutory passage-of-time […]…
Cameron v Liverpool Victoria Insurance Co Ltd [2019] UKSC 6
Article. Published: November 3, 2026
The Supreme Court held that a claimant cannot sue a hit-and-run driver who cannot be identified merely by describing him as the person who drove a particular car at the time of the collision. Ms Bianca Cameron sought a judgment against that unnamed driver so that Liverpool Victoria, which had issued a policy on the […]…
Hancock and another v Commissioners for Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs [2019] UKSC 24
Article. Published: November 3, 2026
The Supreme Court held that Mr and Mrs Hancock could not use a mixed conversion of loan notes to take the gain on their sale of shares in Blubeckers Ltd outside capital gains tax. Although some notes had become qualifying corporate bonds before all the notes were converted together into further such bonds, the conversion […]…
Actavis Group PTC EHF and others v ICOS Corporation and another [2019] UKSC 15
Article. Published: November 3, 2026
The Supreme Court dismissed an appeal by the owner and exclusive licensee of a patent for a 1 to 5 mg dose of tadalafil, the active ingredient in Cialis, and held that the patent lacked an inventive step. An earlier patent had already disclosed tadalafil as a treatment for erectile dysfunction, and routine dose-ranging trials […]…
SAE Education Ltd v Commissioners for Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs [2019] UKSC 14
Article. Published: November 3, 2026
The Supreme Court held that SAE Education Ltd was a college of Middlesex University, so its supplies of higher education in the United Kingdom were exempt from VAT. A body need not be a constitutional part of a university to be “a college of such a university”. What matters is whether its educational work is […]…
R (on the application of DA and others) v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions [2019] UKSC 21
Article. Published: November 3, 2026
Two groups of lone parents and children challenged the revised household benefit cap introduced in 2016. They argued that lone parents with very young children faced special barriers to working enough hours to qualify for an exemption. The Supreme Court dismissed both appeals by five votes to two. The revised cap The original benefit cap, […]…
R (on the application of Privacy International) v Investigatory Powers Tribunal and others [2019] UKSC 22
Article. Published: November 3, 2026
Privacy International asked the High Court to review an Investigatory Powers Tribunal decision that what were called thematic warrants could authorise computer hacking by GCHQ. Section 67(8) of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 said that the Tribunal’s decisions, including decisions as to its own jurisdiction, were not to be questioned in any court. […]…
In the matter of an application by Geraldine Finucane for Judicial Review (Northern Ireland) [2019] UKSC 7
Article. Published: November 3, 2026
The Supreme Court held that government statements had created a legitimate expectation of a public inquiry into the 1989 murder of Patrick Finucane, but that the government could lawfully depart from the promise on genuine macro-political policy grounds. The investigations that had taken place, including Sir Desmond de Silva’s review, did not satisfy the procedural […]…
Commissioners for Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs v Joint Administrators of Lehman Brothers International (Europe) [2019] UKSC 12
Article. Published: November 3, 2026
The Supreme Court decided that interest paid to proving creditors out of the surplus in the administration of Lehman Brothers International (Europe) was “yearly interest”. Although it was paid as a lump sum only after a surplus had been found, and did not accrue from day to day, it compensated creditors for being kept out […]…
Robinson (formerly JR (Jamaica)) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2019] UKSC 11
Article. Published: November 3, 2026
The Supreme Court held that, once a protection or human rights claim has been refused and no appeal is pending, further submissions on those grounds attract a right of appeal under section 82 of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002 only if the Secretary of State first accepts them as a fresh claim under […]…
Perry v Raleys Solicitors [2019] UKSC 5
Article. Published: November 3, 2026
Raleys admitted that they had negligently failed to advise Mr Frank Perry, a retired miner with vibration white finger, to claim a services award for help with domestic tasks. The Supreme Court held that he still had to prove, on the balance of probabilities, that competent advice would have led him to make an honest […]…
Takhar v Gracefield Developments Limited and others [2019] UKSC 13
Article. Published: November 3, 2026
Mrs Takhar sought to set aside a judgment dismissing her claim that properties had been transferred because of undue influence, relying on later handwriting evidence that a profit-share agreement treated as genuine by the trial judge carried a transposed signature. The Supreme Court held that, because fraud had not been alleged at that trial, she […]…
Wells v Devani [2019] UKSC 4
Article. Published: November 3, 2026
An estate agent and a vendor agreed by telephone that the agent would be paid 2% plus VAT if he found a purchaser for unsold flats, but they never stated when that commission would become payable. The Supreme Court held that their words and conduct still made a binding contract: on the usual understanding, commission […]…
In re Gallagher and the joined appeals of P, G and W (criminal records disclosure) [2019] UKSC 3
Article. Published: November 3, 2026
People with old and comparatively minor criminal records challenged rules that still required those records to be disclosed for work with children or vulnerable adults. The Supreme Court held that the revised schemes were clear enough to be “in accordance with the law” under article 8, and that disclosure by defined categories, rather than case-by-case […]…
R (on the applications of Hallam and Nealon) v Secretary of State for Justice [2019] UKSC 2
Article. Published: November 3, 2026
The Supreme Court refused, by a majority, to declare incompatible with the presumption of innocence a rule that compensation for a miscarriage of justice is payable only where fresh evidence shows beyond reasonable doubt that the person did not commit the offence. Mr Hallam and Mr Nealon had their convictions quashed as unsafe after years […]…
Reference by the Attorney General for Northern Ireland of devolution issues to the Supreme Court pursuant to Paragraph 34 of Schedule 10 to the Northern Ireland Act 1998 (No 2) (Northern Ireland) [2019] UKSC 1
Article. Published: November 3, 2026
The Attorney General for Northern Ireland asked the Supreme Court to answer five questions about whether Northern Ireland departments could take decisions while ministers and the Executive were not in office. The Court did not answer them. It adjourned the reference so that the issues could, if appropriate, be argued against the facts of existing […]…
Halliburton Company v Chubb Bermuda Insurance Ltd (formerly known as Ace Bermuda Insurance Ltd) [2020] UKSC 48
Article. Published: November 3, 2026
An arbitrator accepted an appointment in a related insurance dispute without telling Halliburton. The Supreme Court distinguished the question he should have asked at the time of appointment from the question the court had to decide later: did the circumstances known at the removal hearing give a fair-minded observer reason to doubt his impartiality? The […]…
Enka Insaat Ve Sanayi AS v OOO Insurance Company Chubb [2020] UKSC 38
Article. Published: November 3, 2026
The parties chose London as the seat of arbitration for a Russian construction project but did not expressly choose a law for the contract. The legal question in 2020 was which law determined the scope of their promise to arbitrate. This mattered because a subrogated insurer had brought proceedings in Moscow. The contract and the […]…
Test Claimants in the Franked Investment Income Group Litigation v Commissioners for Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (limitation) [2020] UKSC 47
Article. Published: November 3, 2026
The Supreme Court held by a majority that, under section 32(1)(c) of the Limitation Act 1980, a mistake of law is discoverable when the claimant knows or could with reasonable diligence know, with sufficient confidence to justify the preliminaries to a claim, that a worthwhile claim arises. This departed from the view in Deutsche Morgan […]…
Unwired Planet International Ltd and another v Huawei Technologies (UK) Co Ltd and another [2020] UKSC 37
Article. Published: November 3, 2026
The Supreme Court held that an English court may restrain infringement of a valid UK patent which is essential to a telecommunications standard unless the implementer takes a worldwide licence of the owner’s portfolio on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms, and may settle the disputed terms of that licence. Huawei’s and ZTE’s appeals, in claims […]…
Robinson (Jamaica) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2020] UKSC 53
Article. Published: November 3, 2026
Under the EU citizenship rules at issue in 2020, a British child’s dependent relationship with a parent could give that parent a derivative right of residence. The Court considered whether “exceptional circumstances” imposed an extra hurdle beyond the existing public-policy and proportionality tests for deportation. The Home Secretary sought to deport a Jamaican national following […]…
R (on the application of Friends of the Earth Ltd and others) v Heathrow Airport Ltd [2020] UKSC 52
Article. Published: November 3, 2026
This appeal concerned the 2018 designation of the Airports National Policy Statement, which supported a third runway at Heathrow. The Supreme Court examined the climate policies and evidence the Secretary of State had to consider at that stage. A separate development consent process would be needed before a runway could be built. The appeal concerned […]…
Mastercard Incorporated and others v Walter Hugh Merricks CBE [2020] UKSC 51
Article. Published: November 3, 2026
The Supreme Court dismissed Mastercard’s appeal and held that the Competition Appeal Tribunal had applied the wrong legal tests when it refused to certify a vast opt-out consumer claim. Difficulties in quantifying the alleged loss, and a proposal to share any award equally, were not in law reasons to shut the claim out at the […]…
Secretary of State for Health and others v Servier Laboratories Ltd and others (binding effect of EU findings) [2020] UKSC 44
Article. Published: November 3, 2026
Could Servier treat findings about the market for a medicine as binding answers to different questions in an English damages action? The Supreme Court held that it could not. The General Court’s partial annulment of a competition decision did not settle how prescribers would have acted or what losses health authorities could recover. Servier developed […]…
R (on the application of Maughan) v Her Majesty’s Senior Coroner for Oxfordshire [2020] UKSC 46
Article. Published: November 3, 2026
An inquest jury could not use the short-form conclusion of suicide under the direction it received, yet its narrative findings said the deceased had probably intended to take his own life. His brother’s challenge required the Court to decide which standard of proof governed an inquest conclusion. James Maughan died in prison. The coroner directed […]…
Alexander Devine Children’s Cancer Trust v Housing Solutions Ltd [2020] UKSC 45
Article. Published: November 3, 2026
The Supreme Court refused to modify covenants forbidding building on open land beside a children's hospice, so that 13 affordable homes already built there in deliberate breach could lawfully remain and be occupied. The Upper Tribunal had been entitled to find that blocking that use was contrary to the public interest, but it had wrongly […]…
Ecila Henderson v Dorset Healthcare University NHS Foundation Trust [2020] UKSC 43
Article. Published: November 3, 2026
An NHS trust admitted that negligent care had allowed an event to occur which would otherwise have been avoided. Ms Henderson sought damages for losses resulting from her own offence of manslaughter and the order imposed by the criminal court. The Supreme Court considered where the illegality defence limited that claim. The conviction and the […]…
Peninsula Securities Ltd v Dunnes Stores (Bangor) Ltd [2020] UKSC 36
Article. Published: November 3, 2026
The Supreme Court held that a covenant by a shopping-centre developer, preventing substantial competing retail units in favour of an anchor tenant, did not engage the common-law doctrine against restraint of trade. Covenants of this kind have long formed an accepted part of commercial leasing arrangements, so they are enforceable without any inquiry into reasonableness. […]…
Commissioners for Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs v Parry and others [2020] UKSC 35
Article. Published: November 3, 2026
Mrs Staveley moved pension funds to a different plan and did not take benefits before her death. Her executors disputed two inheritance tax charges. The Supreme Court treated the decision to transfer and the omission to draw benefits separately under the legislation then in force. Mrs Staveley died in December 2006. Shortly beforehand she transferred […]…
Shagang Shipping Company Ltd v HNA Group Company Ltd [2020] UKSC 34
Article. Published: November 3, 2026
The Supreme Court restored a judgment enforcing a parent company’s guarantee of a ship charter. The guarantor’s only evidence of bribery was confessions made in China. The trial judge found that bribery was not proved, and that torture could not be ruled out as a reason for the confessions. The Court of Appeal was wrong […]…
R (on the application of Gourlay) v Parole Board [2020] UKSC 50
Article. Published: November 3, 2026
After successfully judicially reviewing the Parole Board’s refusal to recommend his transfer to open conditions, Mr Gourlay sought his costs. The Board had remained neutral and had not taken part. The Supreme Court dismissed his appeal against the refusal of a costs order, holding that the lower courts made no error of law in applying […]…
Commissioners for Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs v London Clubs Management Ltd [2020] UKSC 49
Article. Published: November 3, 2026
The Supreme Court dismissed HMRC’s appeal about the gaming-duty treatment of free non-negotiable chips and bet vouchers issued by a casino. It held that these promotional items are not stakes staked with a value in money or money’s worth when a banker’s profits are calculated under the Finance Act 1997. Their face value therefore does […]…
Stoffel & Co v Grondona [2020] UKSC 42
Article. Published: November 3, 2026
Maria Grondona dishonestly obtained a mortgage advance so that Mr Mitchell could raise finance, and her solicitors then failed to register the transfer and the related charges. She claimed the loss caused by that failure. The Supreme Court held that her mortgage fraud did not bar the claim. Ms Grondona agreed to obtain mortgage finance […]…
R (on the application of Pathan) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2020] UKSC 41
Article. Published: November 3, 2026
Mr Pathan applied to extend his permission to stay so that he could continue working for his employer. While that application was outstanding, the Home Office revoked the employer’s licence to sponsor migrant workers and, three months later, refused the application without having told him. The Supreme Court held that fairness required prompt notice of […]…
Lehtimäki and others v Cooper [2020] UKSC 33
Article. Published: November 3, 2026
The Supreme Court held that the only member free to vote in a charitable company could be directed to approve a $360 million grant once the court had decided that the grant was in the charity’s best interests. The grant was the agreed means of separating the management of the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (UK) […]…
