Series editors: Rosalind Comyn, Sarah Hannett KC, Zoe Leventhal KC, and Aidan Wills
This ‘25 for 25’ blog series is a collection of posts by Matrix members on twenty-five significant public law and human rights cases in which Matrix members have been involved in the twenty-five years since Matrix was founded.
The views expressed in these posts are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the members involved in these cases.
18/03/2026
Big Brother Watch and Others v UK [GC], App. Nos. 58170/13, 62322/14 and 24960/15, 25 May 2021
Written by: Prof. Philip Leach Background Big Brother Watch and 14 other civil liberty groups and individuals (including ACLU, Amnesty International, English Pen and Liberty) sought to challenge the scope and magnitude of the electronic surveillance programmes operated by the UK Government (through GCHQ), in the aftermath of revelations made by Edward Snowden in 2013 […]
11/03/2026
Verein KlimaSeniorinnen Schweiz & Ors v Switzerland (Grand Chamber) (App. No 53600/20), 9 April 2024
Written by: Anirudh Mathur Background This complaint concerning alleged climate-related human rights violations was brought before the European Court of Human Rights by a Swiss non-profit association along with four retired Swiss women. The first applicant was a non-profit association established to promote and implement effective climate protection on behalf of its members, the general […]
04/03/2026
R (Miranda) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2016] EWCA Civ 6
Written by: Zoe McCallum Background Edward Snowden stole hundreds of thousands of documents from the US National Security Agency to expose far-reaching and entirely covert global surveillance programmes run by the US and its “Five Eyes” intelligence counterparts (including Britain). He was the source for journalists at The Guardian and The Washington Post (who broke […]
25/02/2026
R (Osborn) v The Parole Board [2013] UKSC 61
Written by: Tim James-Matthews Background The Parole Board has the power to determine whether to release a prisoner from prison on the papers, without an oral hearing. Such decisions carry significant consequences for the liberty of the prisoner concerned, and they also entail a careful assessment of the risk which the prisoner may pose to […]
18/02/2026
R (Bridges) v South Wales Police [2020] EWCA Civ 1058
Written by: Ian Helme “You can’t ban technology. Sure, that might lead to a dystopian future or something, but you can’t ban it”: David Scalzo, co-founder of Clearview AI, quoted in Your Face Belongs To Us by Kashmir Hill, Simon & Schuster, 2023. Background In 2017 South Wales Police (“SWP”) began trialling the use […]
11/02/2026
Re Gallagher; R (P) v Secretary of State for Justice; R (G) v Secretary of State for the Home Department; R (W) v Secretary of State for Justice [2019] UKSC 3
Written by: Aidan Wills Background This consolidated appeal arose from four judicial review claims challenging the mandatory disclosure of certain information about spent criminal convictions and reprimands (“convictions”). Each of the claimants applied for or wished to apply for work involving young and/or vulnerable people meaning that information about their convictions for minor historic offences […]
28/01/2026
For Women Scotland Ltd v. The Scottish Ministers [2025] UKSC 16
Written by: Hayley Webster Background The Scottish Parliament enacted legislation with the aim of increasing the number of women on public boards (the Gender Representation on Public Boards (Scotland) Act 2018 or “ASP 2018”). The Scottish Ministers issued statutory guidance which stated that the definition of ‘woman’ is the same as that in the Equality Act 2010 (“EA”), namely “a […]
21/01/2026
R (Steinfeld and Keidan) v Secretary of State for the International Development [2018] UKSC 32
Written by: Nathan Roberts Background Rebecca Steinfeld and Charles Keidan are a different-sex couple who wished to formalise their relationship but had a conscientious objection to marriage. When Parliament introduced same-sex marriage by the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013, it left the Civil Partnership Act 2004 (CPA) in place only for same-sex couples. From March 2014, therefore, […]
14/01/2026
Ahmed v HM Treasury [2010] UKSC 2 and [2010] UKSC 5
Written by: Zoe Brereton Background Ahmed v HM Treasury concerned a challenge to the validity of two Orders in Council — the Terrorism Order and the Al-Qaida Order —implementing the UK’s international obligations to freeze the assets of those involved in terrorism. Both Orders were made by the Treasury without any Parliamentary scrutiny. They allowed the Treasury to freeze assets where (under the Terrorism Order) there were “reasonable grounds for suspecting” that a person was involved in terrorism, […]
07/01/2026
R (Begum) v. Governors of Denbigh High School [2006] UKHL 15
Written by: Sarah Hannett KC Issue arising Did the decision of the school governors, to refuse to permit a Muslim pupil (“SB”) to wear a jilbab to school, breach SB’s right to manifest her religion under Article 9(1) of the European Convention of Human Rights (“ECHR”)? Further, did the decision constitute a breach of her right to education under […]
17/12/2025
CN v United Kingdom, App No.4239/08, 13 November 2012 – (2013) 56 EHRR 24
Written by: James Robottom The late Professor Conor Gearty KC memorably called the English tendency to view our law as the great protector of human rights and civil liberties an example of us living on “fantasy island”. Beware the English exceptionalism, he warned, of those who argue the common law offers, and has always offered, […]
10/12/2025
Miller, Dos Santos, Pigney & others v Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union [2017] UKSC 5
Written by: Helen Mountfield KC In Miller No 1, or the Article 50 case as it is often known, an 11-judge Supreme Court decided, by a 8-3 majority, that Parliamentary authority was required to permit the Prime Minister to invoke Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union (TEU) following the Brexit referendum of 24 […]