Administrative and public law is one of Monckton’s core specialisms, and is an area in which we have long had a strong reputation for both wide-ranging and in-depth expertise. Regardless of the complexity of a particular public law dispute, Monckton Chambers has an array of market leading practitioners at all levels of seniority able to assist. Our members’ rare blend of experience means we are equally sought after in connection with judicial review claims in the commercial regulatory sphere as in respect of high–profile public interest and civil liberties challenges.

‘Administrative and public law’ is a broad practice area, within which our specific areas of expertise include:

• Civil liberties & human rights
• Commercial and regulatory judicial review, including:
  • Aviation, road & rail regulation
  • Energy and utilities regulation
  • Healthcare and pharmaceutical regulation
  • Telecommunications regulation
• Community Care
• Constitutional law
• Discrimination and Equality
• Education
• Environment
• Housing
• Immigration
• Judicial review of central government decisions
• Judicial review of local government decisions
• Police and prison law
• Social Security

Legal issues arising in the context of public law disputes are often cross-cutting, involving diverse other areas of law. Our public law expertise overlaps with practice areas including:

• Consumer law & business regulation
• Competition law
• Data protection & information
• EU law and EU relations law
• Public international law
• Public law issues in commercial law
• Public procurement
• Tax & duties

Our practitioners undertake work on behalf of both claimants and defendants, offering the exceptional quality of service our clients have come to expect. Members act for individuals, families, NGOs and charities, companies, regulators and local authorities to ensure their rights are upheld and their interests protected. A large number of our members are appointed to the Attorney General’s ‘A’, ‘B’, ‘C’ and ‘PIL’ Panel of Counsel, from which they represent clients including Secretaries of State and central government agencies in challenges to their decisions (click here to see panel members).

We offer broad experience in judicial review challenges before not only the Administrative Court but also other specialist courts and tribunals such as the Competition Appeal Tribunal and the Information Tribunal. Our members appear in domestic and international courts, at every level of the court and tribunal system.

Monckton is committed to publicly funded work as well as that which is privately paid, and many members work pro bono on public interest litigation. We are regularly instructed in urgent matters including claims requiring applications for interim relief.

 

Monckton Chambers has extensive experience in all areas of commercial litigation and arbitration. The commercial team is well placed to provide advice and representation, and builds upon Chambers’ outstanding expertise in the EU, competition, and sports fields, as well as offering specialist commercial practitioners.

In addition to its Commercial & Chancery Court practice, Chambers’ members also boast formidable experience and expertise in a number of foreign jurisdictions, including Ireland, the British Virgin Islands, the Isle of Man, Gibraltar, The Channel Islands, the United States, Russia and the CIS states, Australia, India, and Belgium.

Members of Chambers also have expertise and experience in all major arbitral institutions and rules including LCIA, ICC, CIArb, SCAI, LMAA, UNCITRAL, ICAC (Russia), HKIAC, SIAC, and ICSID.

Specific areas of expertise include:

• Aviation
• Banking & Finance
• Civil & Commercial Fraud
• Commercial Chancery
• Company
• Competition
• Energy & Natural Resources
• Insolvency and Restructuring
• Insurance
• Offshore
• Partnership
• Private International Law
• Shipping & Commodities
• Sports

Monckton Chambers is consistently lauded as one of the top sets for Tax & Duties in the legal directories.

Monckton Chambers is a first-rate set known for its extensive work across the full gamut of indirect taxation disputes. Chambers frequently acts for the Revenue and for taxpayers in cases relating to VAT, anti-dumping charges, input and exit taxes and landfill taxes, among others. Members regularly appear at all levels of the court and tribunal system, and routinely handle cases before the Supreme Court and the ECJ. The set has been instructed in a number of recent notable and precedent setting matters
Chambers & Partners 2023

Monckton Chambers boasts ‘a number of excellent barristers at a senior and junior level’, offering an unrivalled breadth of experience in indirect tax matters; combining VAT expertise with extensive knowledge of EU, human rights and public law
Legal 500 2023

Members of Monckton Chambers are recommended in Who’s Who Legal as Global and National Leaders in the fields of Tax Controversy and Corporate Tax.

Members of Monckton Chambers routinely act for both the taxpayer and HMRC and one of our greatest strengths is our ability to put together the right teams for the right cases.

Members combine specialist knowledge of Value Added Tax (VAT) and other indirect taxes with extensive expertise in EU, human rights and public law, which have for many years formed the bedrock of our reputation for excellence.

VAT

Members of Monckton Chambers have represented taxpayers and HMRC in dozens of leading cases, many of them in the Court of Appeal, Supreme Court and European Court of Justice.

Members have extensive experience of judicial review applications, for which Chambers’ acknowledged expertise in both indirection taxation and public law is invaluable.

Specific areas of VAT expertise include:

• Assessments and penalties
• Exemptions and zero-rating
• Input tax and partial exemption
• Multiple/single supplies
• Place of supply
• Remedies, repayment and restitution of overpaid VAT and compound interest
• Special schemes
• Abusive practices
• VAT-related judicial review
• Vouchers, customer loyalty schemes
• MTIC fraud
• Crypto-currencies
• VAT groups
• Charities
• Local authorities
• Property
• Education
• Financial services
• European Court procedure
• EU Relations law

Customs duties

Specific areas of customs duties expertise include:

• Tariff classification
• Preferential customs treatment
• Inward/outward processing
• Community transit
• Tariff quota

Excise duties

Specific areas of excise duties expertise include:

• Alcoholic liquor
• Tobacco
• Hydrocarbon oil
• Other related matters such as;
  • Production
  • Processing
  • Holding
  • Movement of excise goods
  • Approval and registration of traders, warehouse keepers and tax warehouses.

Noteworthy excise duties cases in which Monckton Chambers members have acted include General Transport Service SPA in the Court of Appeal (2020), British-American Tobacco (Holdings) Ltd v HMRC  (2017) and Molson Coors Brewing Company (UK) Ltd v HMRC in the Court of Appeal (2017).

Environmental & other taxes

Specific areas of environmental & other taxes expertise include:

• Aggregates Levy
• Air passenger duty
• Climate change levy
• Landfill tax

Members of Chambers acted in the test case landfill tax litigation in HMRC v Devon Waste Management, Biffa Waste Services and Veolia in the Court of Appeal (2021).

Betting & gaming duties

Specific areas of betting & gaming duties expertise include:

• Remote gaming duty
• General Betting Duty
• Machine games duty
• Pool betting duty
• Horserace betting levy

Members of Monckton Chambers have acted in high-profile betting and gaming duties litigation, including Revenue and Customs v London Clubs Management in the Supreme Court (2020) and the Rank litigation relating to taxation of income from gaming machines, in the Supreme Court and Court of Justice of the EU.

State aid and tax

Members have acted in landmark litigation on state aid and tax including Apple’s appeal to the General Court against the EU Commission decision finding that Apple’s tax treatment in Ireland constituted unlawful State aid (2020) and Credit Suisse Securities (Europe) Ltd v HMRC (2019).

Monckton Chambers is acknowledged as a pre-eminent set in all areas of competition law.

We offer specialists at every level of seniority, to suit every type of competition law case. Our members are recognised leaders in their field, who consistently appear in the leading competition cases in both the European and domestic courts.

Our areas of expertise include:

• Antitrust (Article 101 TFEU/Chapter I Competition Act 1998 and Article 102 TFEU/Chapter 2 Competition Act 1998)
• Class actions
• Fast track competition claims.
• Mergers
• Public undertakings;
• Specific sectoral regimes, including telecommunications; utilities (gas, electricity, and water); health; and financial services
• State aid

We advise and represent clients on proceedings in a wide range of contexts, including:

• Administrative proceedings
• Appeals and judicial review
• Private competition law actions

Members act in competition law actions and inquiries in many countries around the world (including in Hong Kong), and in international competition law arbitrations and mediations: see here for a list of arbitrators. As well representing clients members also act as expert witnesses on UK and EU competition law.

See individual CVs for details of members’ recent and significant cases.

Members of Monckton Chambers write, edit and/or contribute to numerous leading competition law publications and periodicals, including:

• Lindsay & Berridge, The EU Merger Regulation: Substantive Issues (5th ed., 2017);
• Bellamy & Child, European Union Law of Competition (8^th ed., 2018, and updates);
• Brealey, Competition Litigation: UK Practice and Procedure (2nd ed., 2019).