Public law update: December 2025

• In human rights cases, courts are still grappling with the tension between fulfilling their constitutional role of ensuring accountability for executive interference with rights and respecting the judgment of the decision-maker.
• The extent to which judicial review applies in a contractual context remains a difficult area, with inconsistency between recent case outcomes, showing the context-specific nature of such issues.
• The courts continue to take a strict approach to delay in commencing judicial review proceedings, particularly in the planning and infrastructure context.

Interference with ECHR rights

In Shvidler v Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs [2025] UKSC 30, the Supreme Court dealt with combined appeals under the sanctions regime (where judicial review principles apply), raising issues under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The focus was the correct approach of both first instance and appellate courts in determining whether interferences with ECHR rights are proportionate.

The Supreme Court confirmed that first instance courts must conduct their own assessment of proportionality