Law digests: 16 February 2024

Human rights

R (on the application of Castellucci) v Gender Recognition Panel and other cases [2024] EWHC 54 (Admin), [2024] All ER (D) 13 (Feb)

The Administrative Court dismissed the consolidated claims by the claimant for: (i) permission to appeal in the Family Division under s 8 of the Gender Recognition Act 2004 against the defendant panel’s refusal to grant a gender recognition certificate (GRC) to specify their acquired gender as non-binary; and (ii) an application for judicial review against the panel’s decision. The claimant, a citizen of California, had moved to the UK on a Tier 1 ‘Global Talent’ visa. The claimant had been diagnosed with gender dysphoria and was legally recognised as non-binary by the State of California. Their certificate of live birth was also amended to change their sex from male to ‘non-binary’. The claimant’s challenge against the panel’s decision was grounded on: (i) whether ‘on an ordinary construction’ of the Act, it permitted ‘the recognition of a foreign-acquired gender that could not otherwise be obtained under English law’