The applicant, a U.K. national, alleged that section 2(1) of the Suicide Act 1961, which contained an offence of aiding and abetting suicide under English law, violated her rights under the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (the Convention), in particular Articles 2 (right to life), 3 (freedom from torture …Read more

In July 1998, the European Parliament and the Council created and enacted a Council Directive (“directive”) to ban all forms of advertising or sponsorship that directly or indirectly promoted a tobacco product in the Community. In December 1998, the UK government announced its intention to implement the directive by banning tobacco advertising, as permitted by …Read more

The three applicants were mental patients held in state hospitals who had been convicted of homicide.  At the time of their convictions, the medical view was that all psychiatric conditions were treatable to an extent.  However, relevant medical knowledge had moved on, and medical advice was now that the conditions of the three applicants were …Read more

Residents of a residential elderly care facility sought judicial review of a decision to close the facility. Plymouth City Council (“Plymouth”), the owner and operator of several residential elderly care facilities, decided to close two of its facilities, including Granby Way, the home of the eight claimants. The claimants sought judicial review of Plymouth’s decision. …Read more

Eight applicants, all British citizens, lived on properties in the areas surrounding Heathrow Airport. They complained that United Kingdom’s “noise quota” policy introduced in 1993 allowing for increased flights and levels of noise at night and especially in the early morning interfered with their rights pursuant to Article 8 (right to respect for his or …Read more

The applicant brought an action on behalf of her mentally ill son, Mark Keenan, who killed himself in prison, alleging the State was in violation of Articles 2 (right to life), 3 (prohibition of torture) and 13 (right to an effective remedy) of the European Convention. The applicant alleged that her son, who was known …Read more

Jodie and Mary were conjoined twins connected at the lower abdomen. Each had their own vital organs, but one of Jodie’s arteries supplied oxygenated blood to Mary. The twins were surgically capable of being separated, but doing so would leave Mary’s deficient heart and lungs without support and lead to her death. However, if the …Read more

The applicants, who were heroine addicts, had been arrested and convicted for drug related offences. Upon their arrest, the solicitor had maintained that they were unfit to be interviewed as they were displaying early stages of heroine withdrawal. However, the Force Medical Examiner assessed both applicants as fit to be interviewed. Both applicants failed to …Read more

The applicant was a United Kingdom national and on his arrival at Manchester from Pakistan with N, N was found possessing heroin with the value of 100,000 pounds sterling. The applicant was released as he hadn’t possessed heroin. The police installed a listening device on B’s (a friend of the applicant’s) house without his knowledge, …Read more

Hutchison Reid, the respondent, was convicted of culpable homicide in 1967. He was made the subject of a hospital order and a restriction order without any time limit under the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1955 (the Criminal Procedure Act). A restriction order under the Criminal Procedure Act could only be made if the person posed …Read more

Mr. Lustig-Prean and Mr. Beckett were discharged from the Royal Navy on the basis of their sexual orientation. In June 1994, Mr. Lustig-Prean was approached by military service police and, wanting to avoid further and less discrete investigations, Mr. Lustig-Prean admitted that he was homosexual. In May 1993, Mr. Beckett admitted to his superiors that …Read more

The Applicants were both exemplary members of the Royal Air Force and had been discharged solely due to being homosexual. The first appellant was an enrolled nurse.  An anonymous female caller left a message on the applicant’s answering machine stating that she knew about the applicant’s homosexuality and afterwards informed the air force authorities. In a …Read more

In 1996, Glen Fielding was sentenced to four years imprisonment. Whilst incarcerated, Fielding, a man who had sex with men, requested condoms but was refused on the basis that it was against Prison Service policy to provide condoms to a prisoner who was not HIV-positive; there was no evidence that Fielding was HIV positive. The …Read more

Agnes Rae was passively exposed to cigarette smoke as a civilian employee at the Wishaw Police office during 1979 to 1994. She became ill as a result of this exposure. The Strathclyde Regional Council were the largest employer in Scotland at the time of this matter, and employed their own Occupational Health Department. In 1999, …Read more

North West Lancashire Health Authority (the Authority), the Appellant, appealed against an order quashing the Authority’s decision to refuse gender reassignment treatment to A, D and G, the Respondents. A, D and G all suffered from “gender identity dysphoria,” or transsexualism. Each had male physical characteristics but female sexual identity. A and G had been …Read more

C’s mother was HIV infected. C, who was born in April 1999 was breastfed by her mother despite concern that this increased C’s potential to become infected by HIV if she was not already HIV positive. The local authority sought a direction for a blood test to be carried out to test C’s HIV status …Read more

The appellant was a medical practitioner whose registration was suspended on several occasions following decisions of the Health Committee of the General Medical Council (“Committee”) that her fitness to practice was impaired by reason of her mental condition. In 1998, when the option of imposing an indefinite suspension was available to the Committee under section …Read more

McGinley (M) and Egan (E) were servicemen who had been present on a Pacific island in 1958 when atmospheric tests of nuclear weapons had been carried out (five in M’s case and one in that of E). During the tests service personnel had been ordered to line-up in the open and to face away from …Read more

The applicants are Mrs. Mulkiye Osman and her son Ahmet Osman. Mr. Ali Osman, the husband and father of the applicants, respectively, was shot dead by Mr. Paul Paget-Lewis on 7 March 1988. Mr. Paget-Lewis was a former instructor of Ahmet Osman and had developed a strong attachment to him. Ahmet Osman was also wounded …Read more

Mr. L was a mentally retarded person who was incapable of consenting to medical treatment. From the age of 13, he had been a resident at the Bournewood Hospital which was governed by the appellant, NHS Trust. Mr. L was discharged from the hospital on a trial basis into the community with paid carers, though …Read more

A 36 weeks-pregnant woman, referred to as “MS”, sought care as a new patient at a local National Health Service (NHS) practice on 25th April 1996. She previously had not sought any ante-natal care. She was quickly diagnosed with pre-eclampsia, a condition threatening the life and health of both her and her baby. She rejected …Read more

Applicant is a British citizen and a minor born in 1984 who was beaten on several occasions by his stepfather with a garden cane, causing bruises all over his body, until he was placed under child protection in 1990. The stepfather was charged with assault occasioning actual bodily harm and tried but was found not …Read more

Applicant’s father served as a catering assistant in the British Royal Air Force and had been present at Christmas Island during four nuclear tests. Applicant was diagnosed with leukemia at an early age. Her records of admission to hospital included, under the heading “Summary of Possible Causative Factors” that her father was exposed to radiation. …Read more

L, who was profoundly mentally retarded and incapable of consenting to medical treatment, was admitted informally for in-patient treatment by an National Health Service Trust as he appeared fully compliant and did not resist admission. As a consequence the Trust avoided invoking the Mental Health Act regime. L applied, by his next friend, for judicial …Read more

S, who was 36 weeks pregnant, was diagnosed with severe pre-eclampsia, a life-threatening condition of pregnancy characterized by high blood pressure, and with moderate depression. She was advised that her health and her life, and that of her baby, were in real danger and that she needed to be admitted immediately to hospital for an induced …Read more

Michael Barry was an 81-year-old man who suffered from a number of disabilities and lived alone within the Gloucestershire County Council (the Council). Barry was originally assessed as requiring a number of home care services, but after budgetary cuts the Council informed Barry that they would no longer be able to perform cleaning and laundry …Read more

Mr. and Mrs. Blood were married and attempting to have a family. Unfortunately, Mr. Blood contracted meningitis and went into a coma prior to any conception, so Mrs. Blood requested that doctors take sperm by electro-ejaculation while Mr. Blood was in the coma. The doctors took two different samples, and Mr. Blood passed away soon …Read more

A health authority applied for a High Court declaration that it would be lawful to undertake an emergency caesarean operation on MB whose foetus was found to be in the breech position after MB agreed to have the operation theoretically but refused in practice due to her fear of needles. The declaration was granted, and …Read more

The applicant, an individual suffering HIV/AIDS, brought action under Article 3 (freedom from torture or inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment) of the European Convention on Human Rights when he was threatened with expulsion from UK to St Kitts where he would not have access to necessary medical treatment and no family home or close …Read more

Applicant was a British national suffering from mental illness whilst on prison remand in 1984. He had served sentences for various physical assault convictions. The court imposed a hospital order on the applicant and subjected him to a heightened restriction order for the protection of the public from serious harm under the 1983 Mental Health …Read more