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NLJ this week: Worrying developments on judicial review ousters

04 August 2023
Issue: 8036 / Categories: Legal News , Judicial review , Procedure & practice , Constitutional law
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The government succeeded in blocking a potential judicial review, in a recent case on ouster clauses (Oceana). How concerned should we be about this development?

Writing in this week’s NLJ, Nick Wrightson, partner at Kingsley Napley, notes that the decision itself is narrow enough so as not to ‘significantly imperil the rule of law’. Looking ahead, however, he warns there may be trouble to come.

He writes: ‘The real concern… is that Oceana is proof of concept for a particular form of ouster clause, and the government is already identifying other opportunities to exclude judicial review using this “template”': for example, the Illegal Migration Act 2023, which contains ouster clauses very similar to the one considered in Oceana.

Read more from Wrightson on ouster clauses here.

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NEWS
Tech companies will be legally required to prevent material that encourages or assists serious self-harm appearing on their platforms, under Online Safety Act 2023 regulations due to come into force in the autumn
Commercial leasehold, the defence of insanity and ‘consent’ in the criminal law are among the next tranche of projects for the Law Commission
The Bar has a culture of ‘impunity’ and ‘collusive bystanding’ in which making a complaint is deemed career-ending due to a ‘cohort of untouchables’ at the top, Baroness Harriet Harman KC has found
Lawyers have broadly welcomed plans to electronically tag up to 22,000 more offenders, scrap most prison terms below a year and make prisoners ‘earn’ early release
David Lammy, Ellie Reeves and Baroness Levitt have taken up office at the Ministry of Justice, following the cabinet reshuffle
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