IMMIGRATION

The headnote from KB (Art 8: points-based proportionality assessment) Albania [2022] UKUT 161 (IAC): Although judges in the immigration jurisdiction should adopt the “balance sheet” approach to ECHR article 8 proportionality assessments, they must not ascribe points to factors weighing on either side of the balance. The judge in this case had assigned points out of 10 to each of the factors weighing for and against the removal of KB to Albania. With all the government’s talk of points based systems one can perhaps understand why a judge might have gone down this road. But it’s not actually a very good way of deciding cases. The Upper Tribunal decision is worth reading for the elucidation and endorsement of the correct “balance sheet” approach. And for the finding in...

The High Court has declared that Home Office policy on allowing migrants to have access to public funds is unlawful for failing to take account of the best interests of children, or of a previous judgment along similar lines. The case is R (AB & ors) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2022] EWHC 1524 (Admin).  Background It is almost a decade since the introduction of the ten-year route to settlement for people granted permission to stay in the UK on the basis of their family or private life, and the application of the no recourse to public funds (NRPF) restriction to grants of permission on the ten-year route. Since then, there have been numerous challenges to the no-benefits policy. It was most recently held to be unlawful i...

In tribute to beloved author Michael Bond (1926-2017), who died yesterday, I am republishing this blog post reviewing the film Paddington, based on the character created by Bond. The blog post was originally published on 1 December 2014 and versions of it appeared in the New Statesman and Financial Times. Law is pretty abstract. Unlike the role of a doctor or a builder, that of a lawyer is difficult to explain to a young mind. When my children eventually ask me about what I do when I “work” (confusingly simultaneously a place I seem to go to and a thing I do at home; either takes me away from them) my plan is to explain that I help strangers from far off places find new homes. Like Paddington Bear. I never knew the Michael Bond books as a child but...