Human Rights and Civil Liberties

Overview

Landmark’s barristers regularly appear in the leading cases in the Supreme Court, Court of Appeal and High Court, instructed by both claimants and defendants. We have acted in significant cases on abortion, free speech and protest issues, the benefits cap, the bedroom tax, national security, torture and inhuman treatment, protection of LGBT rights and rights impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Landmark has been involved in some of the most important human rights and civil liberties cases and continues to be at the forefront of this area of law.

Our members take on a significant amount of legally aided and pro bono work in this field. Past clients have included Reprieve, CPAG, JCWI, Medical Justice, BID, the AIRE Centre, and the National Deaf Children’s Society.

Examples of high profile and key cases are the following:

• Supreme Court challenge to the 2-child benefits policy in R (SC) v SSWP. This is the leading case on various issues including the margin of appreciation in the human rights context, the use of Parliamentary materials and the use of unincorporated international agreements.
• Supreme Court challenge to the civil standard of proof in the context of applying for gang injunctions in R (Jones) v Birmingham CC & Secretary of State.
• Supreme Court challenge to the SSHD’s decision to deprive Shamima Begum of her British citizenship.
• Supreme Court challenge to the Abortion Service (Safe Access Zones) Bill, which makes it a criminal offence to protest within 100m of an abortion clinic. Members of Landmark Chambers acted for the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission.
• A series of challenges to COVID-19 laws and decisions, including lockdown, the Government’s policy on care homes, vaccination requirements for care home workers, international travel, designating certain countries to the red list, managed quarantine.
• Supreme Court challenge to the limited abortion rights in Northern Ireland, brought by the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission.
• Challenge in Trinidad and Tobago in Jones v AG of Trinidad and Tobago against the laws that criminalised all gay sexual activity.
• The Met Police’s banning of the Sarah Everard vigil in Clapham Common leading to a successful challenge by Reclaim These Streets in the High Court that this breached their Article 10 and 11 ECHR rights.
• Supreme Court challenge to the benefits cap in R (JS) v SSWP.
• A series of cases challenging the lawfulness of the “no recourse to public funds” regime conditioning people’s leave to remain on the basis that it breaches article 3 ECHR.
• Court of Appeal challenge to the decision that a transgender man must be referred to as the “mother” on their child’s birth certificate: R (McConnell) v Registrar General for England and Wales.
• Supreme Court challenge involving the circumstances in which removal of a seriously ill individual to another country would result in breach of Article 3 ECHR (inhuman and degrading treatment).

A number of Landmark’s barristers have been recognised in Chambers & Partners and Legal 500 for their strength in this area, and regularly give talks which focus on this subject.