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A fairly quiet week – though not for Mrs May…
Leicester City Council and criticism of Israel
In R (Jewish Rights Watch, t/a Jewish Human Rights Watch) v Leicester City Council [2018] EWCA Civ 1551 , the Court of Appeal ruled unanimously that a resolution by Leicester City Council “insofar as legal considerations allow, to boycott any produce originating from illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank until such time as it complies with international law and withdraws from Palestinian Occupied territories” was not in breach of the Council’s Public Sector Equality Duty under s.149 of the Equality Act 2010. The losing appellants, however, claimed that they had won …
… and both parties declared it to be “a landmark ruling”. So maybe everyone was happy with the outcome: we noted the judgment here .
Coroners and prioritising deaths
The Ham & High reports that HM Senior Coroner for Inner North London, Mary Hassell, admitted to a public meeting in Camden Town Hall that her previous policy of enforcing a “cab-rank rule” for dealing with deaths in her jurisdiction had been wrong. The meeting was held after the Chief Coroner` had advised her to draw up a formal policy “to show a departure from the previous system”.
France, laïcité and universities
On 13 December 2016, the Revd Michel Deneken (anonymised in the subsequent opinion of the Conseil d’État ) was elected President of the University of Strasbourg. In a case which one cannot imagine ever arising in the UK, the higher education union SNESUP-FSU [ Syndicat national de l’enseignement supérieur – Fédération syndicale unitaire ] challenged Judgment no. 1703016 of 14 December 2017 by the tribunal administratif of Strasbourg rejecting its request for the annulment of Fr Deneken’s election. The President of the 3rd chamber of the cour administrative d’appel of Nancy then sought the opinion of the Conseil d’État on the interpretation of the respect for rights and freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution and the provisions of Article L. 712-2 of the Education Code. The union had argued, in short, that the election of a priest as President […]