Judicial Review Trends and Forecasts 2020

Click here for full size version of Martin Rowson’s JR trends masterpiece.
               

As this conference has now started you must contact Rinku Yunusa, Events Coordinator, directly to arrange access and pay for tickets if you have not already done so.  Recordings of sessions will be made available to delegates after the event. 

• A week of breakfast and late afternoon / early evening online seminars, on the theme of ‘executive power’, designed to allow flexibility between training and work commitments
• All sessions recorded for access to paying delegates post-event
• Massively reduced pricing this year! £190 full price, £150 discounted (+ VAT)
• Total of 15 Hrs BSB / CPD available throughout the week for those requiring this

Monday 12 October

9:00 – 10:30 Plenary sessions

Opening Address

The Rt Hon Lord Justice Singh, UK Court of Appeal – “Judicial Review in 2020: a view from the Court of Appeal”
Introduced by Jo Hickman, Director, Public Law Project

Top Public Law Cases of the Year

Bijan Hoshi, Public Law Project
Jason Pobjoy, Blackstone Chambers
Nusrat Zar, Herbert Smith Freehills

17:00 – 18.30

The operation of the Administrative Court during COVID and the move to online courts

This panel asks ‘where are we now and where do we want to be, and for successful open justice what do we want to retain?’

Chair: Mr Justice Swift
Natalie Byrom, The Legal Education Foundation and UK Independent Reviewer of COVID-19 Adaptations to Courts, Access to Justice
Jo Hynes, Public Law Project
Rachel Jones, Blackstone Chambers
Shu Shin Luh, Doughty Street Chambers

Tuesday 13 October

9:00 – 10:30: Breakouts: Please select 1 of 2.

1.Citizens’ rights post-Brexit
This session will focus on Part 2 of the Withdrawal Agreement, specifically EU citizens’ rights and the European Union Settled Status scheme (EUSS)
Tim Buley QC, Landmark Chambers
Marina Fernandez-Reino, The Observatory Centre on Migration, Policy and Society
Nicole Masri, Rights of Women
Ollie Persey, Public Law Project

2. Judicial Review of the Regulators
Andrew Lidbetter and Jasveer Randhawa, Herbert Smith Freehills

16:00 – 18:00: Plenary panels

Judicial Review of the delegated power to legislate
In recent times Parliament has conferred upon the Executive potentially far-reaching powers to legislate, such as in the context of separation from the European Union and in the response to the Covid-19 pandemic. This talk will address some of the general principles and recent case law that may be of particular relevance to the judicial supervision of powers to legislate.
Hanif Mussa, Blackstone Chambers

The use and abuse of statutory instruments
This session will examine the UK Government’s use of statutory instruments as its primary method of law-making, even for important matters of policy and often with little parliamentary oversight. This session will use Brexit and Covid-19 statutory instruments as case studies to examine broader systemic issues with the UK’s statutory instrument system
Tom de la Mare QC, Blackstone Chambers
Alexandra Sinclair, Public Law Project and LSE

Wednesday 14 October

9:00 – 10:30: Breakouts: Please select 1 of 2

3. The Post-EU Transition Landscape: Trade and Sanctions
With the pandemic having forced countries to withdraw from one another and the end of the transition period now looming, the UK’s relations with the rest of the world will be key. This session considers: the prospects for international trade with our partners, including the progress transitioning EU third country free trade agreements into UK agreements… and the UK Internal Market Bill.  The panel will also look at the opportunities for sanctioning those who threaten our interests, including the framework for trade, financial and immigration sanctions in the UK; and the likely terrain of public law challenges in both these contexts and what potential claimants and defendants can learn from elsewhere.
Chair: Dr Julinda Beqiraj , Maurice Wohl Senior Research Fellow in European Law, Bingham Centre for the Rule of Law
Zahra Al-Rikabi, Brick Court Chambers
Kate Meakin, Herbert Smith Freehills
Dr Federico Ortino, Kings College London
Naina Patel, Blackstone Chambers

4. Using the law to protect the vulnerable during COVID-19
This panel will look at the way public law and Judicial Review has been used during the pandemic to protect vulnerable communities across the areas of health, immigration detention, asylum support and NRPF, and support for children.
Chair: Rosa Curling, Leigh Day
Ayesha Christie, Matrix Chambers
Deborah Gellner, ASAP
Khatija Hafesji, Monckton Chambers
Julian Milford QC, 11 Kings Bench Walk

16:00 – 17:30:  Access to justice – challenging unlawful systems and obtaining redress
This discussion looks at access to justice, in the context of identifying systemic unfairness, and obstacles to obtaining redress. Speakers will look at the constitutional right of access to justice and the case-law on its scope and application in practice, and at the Windrush compensation scheme as an example of failure to provide an adequate remedy when a mass injustice has been clearly defined and identified.
Charlotte Kilroy QC, Blackstone Chambers
Jacqui McKenzie, Centre for Migration Advice and Research and Mckenzie Beute Pope
Chai Patel, Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants
Harriet Wistrich, Centre for Women’s Justice and Birnberg Peirce

Thursday 15 October

9:00 – 10:30: Breakouts – please select 1 of 2

5. Race discrimination claims
Why do so few human rights lawyers carry race discrimination claims? We pose this question to leading practitioners dealing with actions against the police, public inquiries and traveller and gypsy legal support and ask ‘What is the role of public law in tackling systemic race discrimination?’
Chanel Dolcy, Bhatt Murphy
Sara Lomri, Public Law Project
Denisa Gannon, Coventry Law Centre
Allison Munroe QC, Garden Court Chambers
Farhana Patel, Bindmans

6. Procurement and commissioning
This session looks at recent case law of specific relevance to procurement and commissioning of services involving the voluntary sector and the provision of support and services to vulnerable groups. It will also take a look at Government commissioning during a national emergency.
Chair: Jonathan Blunden, DLA Piper
Jason Coppel QC, 11KBW
Zoe Leventhal, Matrix Chambers
David Lock QC, Landmark Chambers
Parishil Patel QC, 39 Essex Chambers

16:00 – 17.30: Plenary panel

Executive power and the pandemic
The panel will consider the way Executive Power has been used in response to the COVID pandemic in different jurisdictions.
Chair: Prof Jeff King, UCL
Tom Hickman QC, Blackstone Chambers
Jeremy Miles AM, Counsel General for Wales and Welsh Minister for European Transition
Kate O’Regan, Director, Bonavero Institute of Human Rights and South Africa’s COVID-19 Designated Judge
Arianna Vedaschi, Full Professor of Comparative Public Law, Bocconi University and  Trinity College Dublin COVID-19 Law and Human Rights Observatory

Friday 16 October 

09.00 – 10.30 The dynamics of Judicial Review litigation
One of the features of judicial review claims during COVID (especially in the lockdown period) was the extraordinarily high number of claims that settled before hearing. Yet this was no aberration. This session looks at the dynamics of judicial review; the impact of the pre-action protocol (PAP) stage and, where PAP does not lead to a concession, the fact that many cases settle very quickly post-issue after interim relief granted.
Chair: Alison Pickup, Public Law Project
Carla Clarke, Child Poverty Action Group
Polly Glynn, Deighton Pierce Glynn
Zia Nabi, Doughty Street Chambers
Professor Maurice Sunkin, University of Essex

10.30 Closing conversation: Elizabeth Prochaska, Chair of Public Law Project and barrister, 11KBW will be in conversation with Paul Craig, Emeritus Professor of English Law, Oxford University. They will discuss the Government’s proposed need for constitutional reform and the Independent Panel’s review of judicial review.

Then, later than planned due to transatlantic time difference…

16:00 – 17:30: Algorithmic decision making and data discrimination
Chair: Dr Joe Tomlinson, Public Law Project and University of York
Professor Jeremias Adams-Prassl, University of Oxford
Cori Crider, Foxglove
Kevin de Liban, Legal Aid of Arkansas
Ravi Naik, AWO

Thank you to Blackstone Chambers and Herbert Smith Freehills for their support of this year’s JR Trends and Forecasts.

Please note that all bookings are manually processed by our Events team – allow up to 2 business days to receive confirmation of your booking. To organise any group bookings of five people or more, please email Amélie.

Please email Amélie for student ticket queries.

Should you have any ticket or programme queries, please email the PLP Events Team.