Ian Smith enters into the tussle between employment law & human rights
The column this month is, unusually, devoted to only one case. There are currently an unusual number of cases on employment law before the Supreme Court. One very important one on whether and, if so, when “loss of career” damages may be awarded in a common law action was heard towards the end of June (Edwards v Chesterfield Royal Hospital NHS Trust) and its result is awaited with a mixture of fascination and trepidation. In the meantime, we have had the first judgment in the forthcoming series of them, concerning the always controversial area of the interaction of employment law and human rights law, this time in the context of rights to representation before internal disciplinary hearings.
The question of representation
R (G) v Governors of X School [2011] UKSC 30, [2011] All ER (D) 220 (Jun) is the much awaited Supreme Court decision on the question which has arisen in the last couple of years as to whether there is ever a right
