High Court continues clinician privacy injunctions in end of life cases.
Abbasi v Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation [2021] EWHC 1699 (Fam)
Two end of life cases were before the President of the Family Division. In each the child had died, in one after a determination that life-support should be withdrawn and in the other before the court could rule. Contra mundum privacy injunctions were in place from the outset of the inherent jurisdiction proceedings to protect […]
Trans man who gave birth to a child must be registered as “mother”
R (TT) v Registrar General for England and Wales & Ors [2019] EWHC 2384 (Fam)
Establishes a definition of the term ‘mother’ for the first time under the English common law. Held: it is medically and legally possible for an individual, whose gender is recognised in law as male, to become pregnant and give birth to their child. Whilst that person’s gender is ‘male’, their parental status, which derives from […]
Court lifts anonymity order on transgender claimant seeking to be recorded as father not mother on child’s birth certificate
TT v The Registrar General For England And Wales [2019] EWHC 1823 (Fam)
This case involves an application made by interested media parties, to remove a claimant, TT, from the protection of the anonymity order, but retain a bar on directly naming their child, YY. The anonymity order refers to an ongoing case involving a transgender’s application to be named the biological father on their child’s birth certificate, despite giving birth to them.
Held: The present anonymity order shall be varied so that Claimant’s child will be referred to as YY only but the Claimant’s name will be published. As the Claimant has agreed to the publication of a documentary on national TV which reveals the his identity, the court is not persuaded that the publication of the additional information of naming the Claimant in these proceedings, is, of itself, sufficient to engage the child’s Art 8 rights.
Court makes final care order in case where children and mother had lost their entitlement to diplomatic privileges and immunities
A Local Authority v X & Ors [2018] EWHC 874 (Fam)
The key issues in this case “fell into two categories: the first concerned the court’s jurisdiction to make final care orders in respect of children if those children continued to have diplomatic immunity by reason of their mother’s employment in the X High Commission; the second comprised classic welfare issues in public law children proceedings […]
Human Rights Act 1998 has not modified the principle of judicial immunity
Mazhar v the Lord Chancellor [2017] EWHC 2536
Claim brought under the Human Rights Act 1998 in respect of an order made by a High Court judge without notice and out of hours for the forcible removal of the claimant from his family home. The Court concluded that there was nothing in the Human Rights Act that provided a power in a court or tribunal to make a declaration against the Crown in respect of a judicial act. The HRA had not modified the constitutional principle of judicial immunity.