July 2014

By way of an update on this case, which was featured in last month’s Newsletter, on 25^th June the High Court dismissed an application to stop the amalgamation of Newtownbreda and Knockbreda High Schools.

Full reasons for rejecting the challenge to the Education Minister’s plans, to close both schools and build a new one, will be published by the NI Courts Service in due course. 

Another Advocate-General’s opinion, which is particularly relevant to local government, is that of A-G Mengozzi in a French case involving a lifetime ban on gay men donating blood.

A-G Mengozzi opined that France’s lifetime ban is not justifiable stating that it was too broad and generic.  He said that consideration needed to be given to individual sexual behaviour, and not simply sexual orientation, 

On 9^th July the High Court of England and Wales ruled that a system for fast-tracking asylum claims has ‘serious failings’ and is therefore being operated unlawfully by the government. 

The Detained Fast-Track (DFT) system keeps asylum-seekers in detention while a decision on their case is quickly processed by the Home Office.  It is used for approximately one-fifth of people claiming asylum in the UK. 

The Judge, while not finding that the system itself was unlawful, declared that the following elements of it were unfair:

In 2010 France introduced a law making it illegal for anyone to cover their face in a public place.  This case was brought by a French woman who argued that the ban on wearing the Muslim full-face veil, known as the Niqab, violated Article 8 ECHR (respect for private and family life), Article 9 (freedom of thought, conscience and religion) and Article 14 (prohibition on discrimination).