News

Supreme Court Decision on Control Orders
21 June 2010

Robin Tam QC was leading counsel for the Secretary of State in the case of AP v Home Secretary, in which a 7-judge constitution of the Supreme Court looked again at the circumstances in which a control order would unlawfully deprive an individual of his liberty for the purposes of Article 5 of the ECHR. When restoring the decision of the High Court, the Supreme Court said that the weight to be given to any relevant consideration was always a question of fact, and subject only to a challenge for irrationality. However, any control order whose curfew period was no more than 16 hours a day would only deprive the individual of his liberty if the other conditions imposed were unusually destructive of the life that he might otherwise have been living; and any isolation attributable to unreasonable conduct on his part or on the part of his family and friends should be disregarded.