IN BRIEF
- Common law rights: alive and functioning.
- Unlawful imprisonment at common law not limited to occasions of a deprivation of liberty in Art 5 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
On 12 February 2020 Lady Hale delivered the unanimous judgment of the Supreme Court in R (on the application of Jalloh (formerly Jollah)) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2020] UKSC 4, [2020] All ER (D) 56 (Feb).
The particularly interesting legal question was whether imprisonment in tort law ought to be aligned with the concept of deprivation of liberty (distinct from a, lesser, restriction of liberty) in the jurisprudence of Art 5 of the European Convention on Human Rights (the Convention).
Appeal
The secretary of state appealed against the claim which had succeeded below (leading to damages in the sum of £4000) and argued that the two concepts should be aligned. She did so because the claim concerned an unlawful curfew period of
