Campaigners seeking a judicial review against the closure of six libraries in north-west London lost their bid in the High Court yesterday.  They argued that Brent Council’s approach to assessing the need for library services and alternative proposals by community groups was in breach of the duty to provide a comprehensive and efficient library service under section 7 of the Public Libraries and Museums Act 1964, that the Council had failed to comply with the public sector equality duties under s. 149 of the Equality Act 2010, and that the consultation process had been inadequate.

The consultation was said to have been unfair because the Council had not provided sufficient information to enable consultees to make submissions as to which libraries should be retained if closures were necessary, and had failed to provide sufficient information to those who wished to advance community-based solutions to keeping libraries open, or the basis on which such alternative proposals would be appraised.

Ouseley J. granted permission to apply for judicial review but dismissed the claims, holding that the Council had discharged the statutory duties under the 1964 Act and the 2010 Act and that there had been “a very extensive consultation programme”.  The Judge refused permission to appeal or an interim stay to prevent the libraries being closed pending the outcome of any appeal by campaigners.  This is the first of a number of claims challenging library closures.  Judgment is also expected shortly in a similar case against Gloucestershire County Council.

Piers Gardner has today been featured in the Times’ Lawyer of the Week.  Piers recently acted for Yukos, the oil company, in the European Court of Human Rights, in a $98bn claim for compensation – the largest commercial dispute ever litigated.

The Court of Appeal has dismissed the appeal of ICO Satellite Limited against a judgment of the Administrative Court refusing a claim for judicial review of Ofcom’s decision to write to the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) to request the cancellation of the spectrum and orbital assignments registered in its Master International Frequency Register.  This is the first occasion on which the Court of Appeal has had the opportunity to consider Ofcom’s  Procedures for the Management of Satellite Filings.  The Court of Appeal rejected the argument that Ofcom was required to take account of the impact or lack of impact of the decision on third parties or that the decision was not proportionate.  It also concluded that Ofcom did not base its decision on an incorrect view of what the ITU regime required or that certain statements of ITU officials could be treated as authoritative of the institutional position of the ITU.

Christopher Vajda QC and Ben Rayment were instructed by Ofcom.

Members of Monckton Chambers have  significant experience in the area of communications regulation generally as well as in advising on and litigating the potentially complex regulatory disputes that can arise in the context of satellite filings.

Congratulations go to Jon Turner QC who has been nominated for the 2011 Sydney Elland Goldsmith Bar Pro Bono Award.

The winner will be anounced at the Bar Conference, Saturday 5 November by Lord Goldsmith.

The Bar Pro Bono Unit is a charity which helps to find pro bono (free) legal assistance from volunteer barristers who assist with advice, representation and help at mediation in cases in all tribunals and courts in England and Wales.

Following the European Court of Justice hearing in July of this year, Advocate General Kokott has delivered her Opinion in which she rejects a challenge brought by United, Continental and American airlines, and their trade association the Air Transport Association of America (ATA), to the lawfulness of including international aviation in the EU emissions trading scheme.  She agrees with the six Member States including the UK, the three European institutions, and an international coalition of environmental organisations, that the Directive which extends the scheme to international aviation does not breach public international law.

Advocate General Kokott rejects the claim that the Directive contravened the Chicago Convention, the Kyoto Protocol and the ‘Open Skies Agreement’  between the EU and the US.  Similarly, Kokott’s Opinion rejects the claim that the Directive contravened customary international law principles, including the principle of the sovereignty of States over their own air space, as she considered that if flights are bound to or depart from an airport within the territory of the European Union there is an adequate territorial link for the EU to exercise jurisdiction and to include the whole of the flight in question in the EU emissions trading scheme.

A final judgment of the Court will follow at a later date.

The coalition of environmental groups were represented by Jon Turner QC and Laura Elizabeth John.

Eric Metcalfe joins Monckton Chambers from JUSTICE, one of the leading organisations on law reform and human rights where he was the director of human rights policy.

During this time Eric was involved in many key cases concerning national security in the UK, including Ahmed and others v HM Treasury (asset freezing by way of Order in Council), A and others (No 2) (admissibility of torture evidence), MB v Secretary of State for the Home Department (use of secret evidence in control order appeals), and Corner House v Serious Fraud Office (halting of the BAE fraud investigation on national security grounds). Eric has substantial expertise in constitutional law; immigration; data protection and privacy; equality and non-discrimination; freedom of information and judicial review having been involved in many of the leading cases in these fields over the last decade. These include 17 cases before the House of Lords, 7 before the UK Supreme Court, and 7 before the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights.

Having worked both as a government lawyer and as policy director for a leading human rights organisation, Eric is well-placed to advise both public and private bodies on a wide range of public law and human rights issues.

Eric’s arrival reinforces our reputation as one of the leading sets in the fields of public law and human rights law. The past decade has seen an enormous growth in human rights litigation, both in our domestic courts and in other European courts, as well as before the Court of First Instance, European Court of Justice, European Court of Human Rights and international tribunals. Eric joins members of Monckton Chambers who have been at the heart of this expansion.

Eric comments:

“I am extremely pleased to be joining Monckton Chambers. With the EU about to accede to the

European Convention on Human Rights, and with the growing importance of the EU Charter in its own right, Monckton is the ideal place for me to develop my practice in public law, human rights and EU law.”

David Hockney, Senior Clerk:

“I am delighted that Eric has accepted our offer of tenancy. His very considerable experience and profile as Policy Director of Justice will further strengthen our collective expertise within our EU and Public Law group and provide genuine value added to the whole range of our clients.”

Paul Lasok QC, Head of Chambers:

“Eric’s recruitment strengthens an already strong position that Monckton Chambers has in the areas of public law, EU law and human rights, to the benefit of our clients.”

On 19 October, Eric Metcalfe will chair the Judicial Review session of the 13th annual Human Rights Law Conference, organised jointly between Sweet & Maxwell and JUSTICE. The conference’s afternoon keynote speaker will be Lord Judge, the Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales.

The European Court of Human Rights has given judgment on the merits of the largest commercial dispute ever litigated.

Yukos Oil Company, formerly the largest and most successful Russian oil company, challenged the imposition and enforcement of additional tax liabilities for four years (2000-3) together with fines and penalty interest amounting to €19.6Bn. The Russian authorities took draconian enforcement measures, which involved freezing all the company’s assets as soon as the first assessment was made, sweeping its bank accounts, forbidding the company to use its assets to meet the tax liabilities and imposing fines for the resulting non-payment. As a result, Yukos was paralysed and its crown jewel asset, YNG which produced as much oil as Libya, was sold at an auction at which only one participant bid, at a price fixed not by reference to YNG’s value, but merely to a part of the Yukos tax liabilities which were outstanding. Yukos was declared bankrupt, its assets were sold, largely to the State controlled oil company Rosneft, and Yukos was dissolved in October 2007, without any dividend to its 50000 shareholders.

The European Court held that the Russian tax proceedings were unfair in breach of Article 6 and the retrospective reinterpretation of Russian law to ‘justify’ the imposition of fines and penalty interest was unlawful, contrary to the Convention standard.

Although the interpretation of the tax liabilities which were applied to Yukos was foreseeable, the Court held that the crux of the case was the rapid and inflexible enforcement of those liabilities. Yukos had been effectively paralysed because all its assets were frozen from the first assessment. In the Court’s view, two factors in particular contributed to Yukos’ demise and showed that the Russian authorities had failed to strike a fair balance and violated Article 1 of Protocol No 1:

1. the bailiff’s choice of Yukos’ principal subsidiary as the first target for auction, without considering the implications for the company’s future: this dealt Yukos a ‘fatal blow’;

2. the Russian authorities were unyielding and inflexible in response to requests for time to pay and the bailiffs imposed additional fines amounting to €1.15 Bn, which had to be paid before the taxes, but the payment of which was prohibited under the freezing orders.

The issue of just satisfaction under Article 41 ECHR was reserved to further pleading.

Yukos was represented throughout the proceedings by Piers Gardner.

 

The 2011 Chambers Bar Awards shortlist has been announced.  Monckton Chambers has once again been nominated for ‘Set of the Year’ for Competition/EU after winning the award last year.

Additionally, we are pleased to announce Daniel Beard QC has been nominated for ‘Silk of the Year’ along with Josh Holmes for ‘Junior of the Year’, both for Competition/EU.

The results will be announced at The London Hilton on Park Lane on Thursday, 27 October.

In Fulham Football Club (1987) Limited v Sir David Richards, The Football Association Premier League Limited  [2011] EWCA Civ 855, the Court of Appeal held that unfair prejudice petitions under section 994 of the Companies Act 2006 may be referred to arbitration and that, accordingly, Mr Justice Vos had been correct to order a stay pursuant to section 9 of the Arbitration Act 1996 (“the 1996 Act”) of  Fulham FC’s petition. This is the first judgment at appellate level in this jurisdiction to examine the concept of “arbitrability”.

The underlying dispute between Fulham FC, on the one hand, and Sir David Richards and the Football Association Premier League Ltd (“the FAPL”), on the other, relates to the involvement of Sir David in the transfer of Peter Crouch from Portsmouth FC to Tottenham Hotspur FC in July 2009. Fulham FC alleges: first, that Sir David’s involvement in that transfer was in breach of his company law duties, the Football Association Rules, the Agents Regulations (under the FA Rules) and the FAPL’s Articles of Association;  and, secondly, that the FAPL has conducted itself to the prejudice of some part of its members, including Fulham FC,  in carrying out and accepting the conclusions of an inadequate investigation and in failing to provide any assurance that Sir David’s conduct would not be repeated.

In December 2010, Vos J held: that previous High Court authority to the effect that unfair prejudice petitions were non-arbitrable (Exeter City AFC Ltd v Football Conference Ltd [2004] 1 WLR 2910) had been wrongly decided; that Sir David and the FAPL were entitled to a stay under section 9 of the 1996 Act, there being two separate arbitration agreements covering the subject matter of the dispute underlying the petition; and that the stay applications raised an important point of law such that his judgment ought to be made publicly available ([2011] Ch. 208). The judge also granted Fulham FC permission to appeal.

The Court of Appeal dismissed Fulham FC’s appeal, holding for reasons different from those of Vos J that there ought to be stay under section 9. The Court of Appeal reasoned as follows:

i. that s. 1(b) of the 1996 Act requires that restrictions on arbitrability be strictly limited to “only…such safeguards as are necessary in the public interest” (Patten LJ dissenting and holding this provision to apply only to restrictions on the method chosen to resolve arbitrable disputes);

ii. that whether or not the dispute is arbitrable does not turn on the relief sought or on the particular facts of the case but on whether s. 994 petitions in general attract “a degree of state intervention and public interest such as to make it inappropriate for disposal by anything other than judicial process“;

iii. that neither the relevant statutory provisions nor public policy require that s. 994 petitions be held to be incapable of arbitration; and

iv. that an arbitration clause would be unenforceable “insofar as it included within the scope of the reference the question of whether the company should be wound up“, but that this did not preclude the arbitration of “the dispute between shareholders or the company which forms the grounds upon which such relief may be sought“, with the parties then able to seek relief from the Court on the basis of the arbitrator’s findings.

Paul Harris QC  represented Fulham FC.

The new Public Procurement (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2011 which come into force on 1 October will see the basic time limit for starting any proceedings not claiming ineffectiveness reduced to 30 days from the date of knowledge.

There are also other changes to the suspension regime (which now operates on the issue of a claim, as long as the CA is aware of the claim) and the mandatory bases for rejecting an economic operator (Bribery Act etc).

August has been a busy month for the legislator adding all these various technical changes, as well as expanding the procurement regime to contracts in the defence and security sectors with some adaptations to the public sector procurement regime.

Members of Monckton Chambers provide suppliers, contracting authorities and utilities with a full range of services, from non-contentious advice during the tender process to representation in highly complex litigation and, where appropriate, mediation.

Monckton Chambers has 28 practitioners specialising in procurement law, dealing with hundreds of sets of procurement instructions each year. We believe our range of procurement experience and expertise surpasses that of any other chambers.