human rights art 6 and due process uk

8/13/2019 human rights art 6 and due process uk

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Contents

I. Introduction

II. The Position Before the Human Rights Act

- The Principles of Natural Justice

- The Strasbourg Jurisprudence

- Scotland and England

III. The Extensive Scope of Article 6(1) ECHR

- A Pr ivate Law Paradigm

- The Outer Boundar ies of Article 6(1)

IV. The Content of Protection Under Article 6(1)

- Adjudication under the Human Rights Act: a Deferential

Approach?

- The Policy/Fact-Fi nding Distinction

- The Requir ements of an I ndependent and Impartial Tr ibunal

- Evaluation of the Approach to Protecting Procedural Fairness Under Ar ticle 6(1)

V. Concluding Remarks

VI. Bibliography

I. Introduction

With the inception of the Human Rights Act 1998 (HRA) into UK law came a new era of

rights adjudication. This statute meant that Convention rights were directly enforceable in

courts across the country. It provides that it is unlawful for all public authorities to act

incompatibly with the fundamental rights protected by the European Convention on Human

Rights (ECHR).1The civil element of Article 6(1) ECHR, providing for the right to a fair

trial, was regarded as having particularly wide-reaching implications for the way in which

government decision-making was to be conducted.2The standards imposed by the HRA

were thought to have particular influence in terms of the judiciarys methods of statutory

interpretation and review of administrative acts.3As such, its impact on administrative law,

and the wider constitutional setting in the UK, was expected to be significant.
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Although the requirements of natural justice under the common law have traditionally sought

to ensure procedural fairness in decision-making, these are now buttressed by the

protections afforded by Article 6(1); thus a new approach to protecting procedural rights is

required.4But the innovations of Article 6(1) have not been without their problems. Article

6(1) provides that: in the determination of his civil rights and obligationseveryone is

entitled to a fair and public hearing within a reasonable time by an independent and impartialtribunal established by law.5The phrase civilrights and obligations at the heart of Article

6(1) and its interpretation have proved pivotal in determining its effect on administrative law

in the UK.6Described as a problem of exceptional complexity,7both the domestic and

Strasbourg courts have wrestled with the extent to which Article 6(1) applies to

administrative decision-making.

In some instances Article 6(1) has required that procedural protection be afforded to novel

situations in the administrative sphere, and the courts have responded to this expansive

interpretation of the scope of the Article by relaxing the requirements of an independent and

impartial tribunal in looking at the proceedings as a whole to determine fairness. Related to

this is the debate surrounding the sufficiency of review under the right of appeal to guaranteesuch procedural safeguards. Furthermore, there are the substantive requirements of Article

6(1), to which the courts have responded by modifying the test of bias and by imposing morestringent requirements in terms of independence of the judiciary.

At the outset, it is noted that each of these separate innovations and resulting problems are

interconnected.8Additionally, the issues and policies at play have been coaxed to the

forefront of a background of wider debate surrounding the standards of review of executive

action under the HRA, in both Scotland and England; the relationship between the judiciary

and other branches of government; and statutory interpretation. This study will examine the

state of procedural protection before the HRA, introducing the relevant concepts for

discussion. It will then move on to evaluate the extent to which the interpretation of the

provisions of Article 6(1) has brought novel considerations to matters of applicability of

procedural fairness. Finally, it evaluates the receptiveness of the judiciary in implementing

the procedural safeguards as required by the Convention and the extent to which this has

impacted upon the effect Article 6(1) has had.

II. The Position Before the Human Rights Act

The Principles of Natural Justice

The principles of natural justice have long been accepted to be judge-made. In brief, they

encompass the notion that the individual be given an adequate hearing and that the

adjudicator is unbiased.9In terms of applicability, due process rights have traditionally been

applied to a wide range of interests and decision-making bodies.10Although specific

legislation may occasionally provide guidance on the applicability of procedural fairness, it

often does not address the issue.11Thus the courts have generally proceeded on the basis that

process rights are triggered where the claimant has a right, interest or legitimate expectation

which justifies the application of procedural protection.12

Arguably, the criteria for the applicability of natural justice are fairly open-ended. Procedural

protection may be triggered where the applicant has a recognised proprietary or personalright,13but the term interest is wider. It has been held to encompass the situation where the
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individual does not have any substantive entitlement in law in the particular case.14Thus

process rights have been held to be applicable where unions and trade associations have been

concerned and the applicant merely has an interest, rather than a substantive entitlement.15

Furthermore, where a public body has made a representation to the applicant to the effect that

they are eligible for procedural protection, such a legitimate expectation would give rise to

protection.16

In deciding the content of procedural rights for a particular case, the courts will employ a

balancing test where they weigh up the interests of the individual with the effects on the

administration.17Thus the courts may consider that the full array of safeguards is applicable

(such as notice, representation, an oral hearing, and cross-examination), or that considerably

less are appropriate, with a broad spectrum in between.18Inherent in such a balancing

exercise is flexibility; indeed, Lord Loreburn freely acknowledged the necessity of such

flexibility in the approximation of applicability of procedural safeguards.19In deploying this

technique, Craig observes that process rights are modelled on those of the ordinary courts,

and anybalancing is undertaken within this context.20However, in non-adjudicative

procedures, such as the realm of social welfare, there has been hesitancy in applyingprocedural checks. In this sphere, there has been an inclination to accord a great deal of

deference to the public body administering the benefit.21Furthermore, the principles ofnatural justice have not been extended to the making of norms of a legislative nature, or to

policymaking.22

As well as the right to hearing and its attached safeguards, there is also the rule against bias.

Under the common law, the decision-maker must not have a pecuniary or personal interest in

the outcome of the proceedings.23The test for bias has changed over time due to issues of

clarity and the influence of the ECHR. InMcCarthy it was held to be a reasonable suspicion

of bias.24Confusion ensued when Lord Denning M.R. articulated a slightly different

formulation: a real likelihood.25However, in Gough, the House of Lords held that the same

test should be applied in all cases of apparent bias,26and, in terms of degree, the test should

be whether there was a real danger of bias.27This approach was subject to adaptation in

Porter v Magill.[28]There it was held that, in accordance with the principles utilised by the

ECtHR, the test was whether the fair-minded and informed observer, having considered the

facts, would conclude that there was a real possibi lity that the tribunal was biased.28The

influence of Article 6 on the common law rule of bias is thus readily apparent from the case

law adapting the test to secure compliance with the Convention.

Although the common law may secure the right to an impartial decision-maker where the

precepts of natural justice are deemed to apply, there has been some debate as to whether italso provides for the independence of that decision-maker. Some of the ambiguity

surrounding this issue stems from the fact that conceptually impartiality and independence

are interrelated. This is demonstrated by the fact that inRe Medicaments the Court of Appeal

asserted that there is a requirement in the common law that the decision-maker be

independent: the requirement that the tribunal should be independent and impartial is one

that has long been recognised by English common law.29However, the case itself actually

concerned a claim of bias rather than institutional independence, and thus it is doubtful how

much authority can be taken from this.30

Hence it is arguable that the requirement of an independent tribunal can be attributed to

being one of the innovations of Article 6. Juss comments: It is interesting to note that Article6 has forced English judges to recognise and develop a right to an independent and impartial
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adjudication.31Nevertheless, there is some authority for the proposition that independence

existed in the common law before the internalisation into UK law of Article 6. The matter of

independence was directly raised inBewry.[33]Here, it was alleged that the Housing Benefit

Review Board, partly comprised of local council members who had rejected the initial

application for housing benefits, was not independent.32Article 6 did not apply as the facts

of the case occurred before the enactment of the HRA. Thus Moses J considered the commonlaw and stated that the right of review of a determination of a statutory entitlement is akin to

the right of access to a court and carries with it a right to an independent and impartial

tribunal.33As a result, the common law provided protection similar to that under Article

6(1). Although this reasoning was questioned inMcLellan,[36]these doubts do not seem to

relate to the existence of such a principle.34Consequently it appears that this is authority for

the premise that where Article 6(1) is not engaged (where the applicants civil rights and

obligations are not being determined), the common law may afford similar protection.35The

extent to which Article 6(1) has influenced the development of the domestic jurisprudence in

this area will be examined in Part IV.

Strasbourg Jurisprudence

Based on the principle that a democratic society is founded on the rule of law, the ECtHR has

stated the right to a fair administration of justice holds such a prominent place that a

restrictive interpretation of Article 6(1) would not correspond to the aim and purpose of that

provision.36Thus the Strasbourg Court has given Article 6(1) a purposive and, debatably,

expansive interpretation.37The phrase civil rights and obligations has been held to require

that the ECtHR makes its own autonomous judgment in deciding where such rights and

obligations arise in a dispute.38However, the Court has not formulated a definition of this

term. Its approach instead has been to rule on a case-by-case basis.39Arguably, such a

method necessarily lends itself to the incremental development of the meaning of the phrase.Accordingly, Harris contends that: the Courts interpretation of the wording of Article 6(1)

has evolved over time, to the point where its fair trial guarantee has a much greater reach than

was first apparent and, in particular, provides a basis for controlling executive action by

governments far more than might have been expected.40Thus it is apparent that Article 6(1)

has the potential to require, firstly, that procedural safeguards be implemented in a wide

range of situations and, secondly, to raise issues about the scope of judicial review under the

traditional common law.

One of the main issues of the Strasbourg jurisprudence on Article 6(1) is that the phrase civil

rights and obligations is concerned with essentially private law rights.41The early cases

established that the phrase not only encompassed those rights which were clearly of a privatenature (such as personal or property rights), but also extended to include all proceedings the

result of which is decisive for private rights and obligations.42This differs from the common

law in that, traditionally, the judiciary have been mindful of the plethora of administrative

bodies and the different interests of the claimant.43Thus the domestic courts have not

accorded much importance to whether the interest was, in juridical terms, strictly classified as

a right.44Through this interpretation, Article 6(1) has been extended to situations such as

grants of licences,45planning determinations,46and social security benefits,47with no outer

boundaries as to applicability determined as of yet by the ECtHR. As a consequence, this

wide interpretation gives Article 6(1) the capacity to impose new and far-reaching restraints

upon the use of discretion by administrative bodies.48
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Where Article 6(1) is engaged, the applicant is entitled to a fair hearing by an independent

and impartial tribunal established by law. From the Strasbourg jurisprudence, factors with

which to have regard in determining whether a body is independent are: the manner of its

appointment, the existence of guarantees from outside pressure, its term of office, and if the

body presents an appearance of independence.49Further, inRingeisen v Austria it was held

that the decision-maker should be independent from the parties and the executive.50

Impartiality entails that: First, the tribunal must be subjectively free of personal prejudice or

bias. Secondly, it must also be impartial from an objective viewpoint, that is, it must offer

sufficient guarantees to exclude any legitimate doubt in this respect.51However, it has been

held that, where an administrative body making the decision does not comply with Article

6(1), it must be subject to the control of a judicial body that is independent and impartial.52

Thus, compatibility may depend upon the existence of adequate appeal rights, or judicial

review, to a judicial body having full jurisdiction, which provides the guarantees of Article

6(1).53Full jurisdiction has been held to mean that the reviewing court can consider the

complaint for itself; it must also be able to quash the decision being challenged and find that

a new decision should be made by an impartial body.54But this does not require that the

reviewing body be able to substitute its judgment on the merits.55When assessing thesufficiency of review, the ECtHR will have regard to the subject-matter and the statutory

setting.56It is apparent from this that, in determining the sufficiency of the scope of review

required to satisfy Article 6(1), there is potential for it to demand more intensive standards of

judicial scrutiny.

Thus, with the inception of Convention rights into domestic law, the implications that Article

6(1) would have on administrative procedure and the ways in which it would interact with the

rules of natural justice were viewed with interest.57On a wider level, in the immediate

aftermath of the coming into force of the HRA, some commentators noted possible

indications that the UKs constitution was moving from being based in practice and

convention, to one where the rule of law, in the form of fundamental rights, [was]the

foundational principle.58Conversely, in terms of Article 6(1) specifically, there were fears

that the principles of natural justice derived from the common law would merge with those

based on the HRA.59This might necessarily alter the approach of the UK judiciary into a

single body of law theorised on the foundation of the central role of rights.60

Additionally, there was concern as to the effect that the higher standards of judicial scrutiny

required under the HRA would have on the scope of judicial review as it was traditionally

known. Feldman, for example, anticipated the potential for a diminution of the significance

between substantive and other grounds of review, stating that such an injection of

generalised substantive values into the legal rules which delimit the four corners of publicauthorities powers would affect the procedural grounds of judicial review in domestic law.61These concerns were not unwarranted; it has been argued that the question of the reach of

judicial review hasbeen further complicated rather than resolvedby the HRA.62This

matter will be further examined in Part IV.

However, the commencement of the HRA did not herald the beginning of the impact the

Convention has had on administrative law in the UK. Before the HRA came into force in

domestic law, its indirect effect was recognised by the English judiciary: the Convention

exerted a persuasive and pervasive influence on judicial decision-making in this country,

affecting the interpretation of ambiguous statutory provisions, guiding the exercise of

discretions, bearing on the development of the common law.63

However, the position inScotland was markedly different. It has been said that, in contrast to England in the 1990s,
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that Scottish courts had accorded barely any recognition to the European Convention on

Human Rights.64But aside from the difference in respect paid to human rights within the

respective jurisdictions before the HRA, is there a different standard of procedural protection

stemming from the difference in scope of judicial review?

Scotland and England

In determining the boundaries of review in England, there must be a public element, as

judicial review is a public law remedy.65In comparison, the applicability of judicial review

in Scotland is based on no such public/private divide. Although the grounds are the same in

both jurisdictions, in West Lord Hope stated that in Scotland, differing from England, the

competency of the application [for judicial review] does not depend upon any distinction

between public law and private law, nor is it correct in regard to issues about competency to

describejudicial review as a public law remedy.66Instead, where the decision-maker is

exercising a jurisdiction, it is based on the existence of a tripartite relationship between the

decision-maker, the individual affected and a third party who delegated the decision-making

power.67This means that powers derived solely from contract and review of domestic

tribunals (the internal disciplinary bodies of, for example, professional bodies and trade

unions) are not excluded from review in Scotland.68

Such a distinction has some repercussions in terms of the effect of s.6(1) HRA, which

stipulates that public bodies may not act incompatibly with the Convention. In determining

whether a body is a public authority, s.6(3)(b) HRA provides this definition extends to

persons exercising functions of a public nature. Thus, certain private and non-statutory

bodies may be amenable to judicial review from this formulation.69In England, these bodies

are not subject to judicial review where the decision-making is dependent upon contractual

relationships.

70

Since in Scotland the application of judicial review is not reliant on thepublic-private divide, public law protections have been given a much broader reach as a

result of the particular tests used by theScottish courts.71

However, in accepting that the different tests for availability of review in the two

jurisdictions result from different perceptions as to the function of this remedy, McHarg

argues that, in many cases, this functional divergence makes little or no difference to the

practice of judicial review in each jurisdiction.72Furthermore, despite this nexus within

which to subject a wider range of bodies to review, there is no evidence of the Scottish courts

providing higher standards of procedural protection for individuals.73Thus, despite both the

ideological and slight operational differences in the scope of judicial review between

Scotland and England, it appears that, practically, the vast majority of cases will be treatedthe same and therefore there is no obvious disparity in reviewability of human rights claims

between the two jurisdictions.

III. The Extensive Scope of Article 6

A Private Law Paradigm

In determining Article 6s initial applicability, the courts must consider whether the decision

at issue determines the applicants civil right. As discussed in Part II, the effectively

private law meaning the Strasbourg court has accorded the phrase requires that analysis asto whether Article 6(1) is engaged is predicated upon an essentially private law paradigm.74
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This innovation of Article 6(1) has provided the judiciary with new interpretative challenges.

Due to the fact that the Strasbourg Court has read the terms of Article 6(1) expansively and in

an arguably incremental manner, it has proven difficult for UK courts to follow ever-

developing and unclear ECtHR jurisprudence. Consequently, there are concerns as to the

outer boundaries of Article 6s scope and thus to what extent it requires procedural

safeguards in different areas of administrative decision-making.

The unease as to the ever-expanding scope of Article 6(1) relates to the fact that it is difficult

to draw specific principles from the Strasbourg jurisprudence and thus determining where the

Article is applicable is a challenge. For example, some ECtHR cases emphasise the nature of

the connection between the claimants interest and rights in private law.75However, others

focus on the fact that public law rights may be analogous to rights in private law.76Thus,

where under the common law the courts will employ a balancing exercise between the

competing considerations in determining if procedural safeguards should apply, Craig argues

that Strasbourg does not consider whether or not the interest affected is important enough to

merit procedural protection.77Rather, in one form or another, it bases its reasoning as to the

applicability of Article 6(1) on whether the interest affected does in some way resemblerights in private law.78Therefore, in cases concerning Article 6(1), the domestic courts must

apply an alien paradigm of reasoning to that usually undertaken in the common law indetermining the applicability of procedural safeguards.

As a result, the procedural protection afforded by Article 6(1) has been extended to areas not

classically regarded as within the sphere of public law. Juss contends that Since many

matters that were hitherto classified as private will now become public once they are seen as

affecting the civil rights and obligations of a party, the dividing line between public law

and private law will need re-drawing.79As a consequence, many matters that were

previously not justiciable under public law will now fall within the scope of Article 6(1) in

judicial review applications.80This is an indication of the potential of Article 6(1) to impose

more stringent procedural safeguards in new and innovative areas, and raises questions as to

the appropriateness of judicialisation of administrative decision-making procedures.

However, the domestic courts have not been wholly surprised by the expansion of Article 6s

safeguards to cover administrative decision-making, as the traditional conception of

procedural fairness necessitates judicial scrutiny of the legality of basically all governmental

decisions affecting the individual.81Although protection may be afforded under the common

law already, problems have arisen from the fact that Article 6(1) was intended to have a

more limited application than a common lawyer would suppose;82thus it was not envisaged

that the arguably more structurally rigid requirements of an independent and impartialtribunal contained with its terms would be extended to apply to such a range of decision-

making processes. Consequently, the judiciary has expressed dismay at the extent to which

there is still potential for the scope of civil rights and obligations to be expanded further.83

InBegum, Lord Millet said that, in developing its jurisprudence extending the scope of

Article 6 to cover administrative decision-making, the Strasbourg Court has not proceeded

by reference to principle or on policy grounds; instead it has adopted an incremental and to

English eyes a disappointingly formalistic approach, making it difficult to know where the

line will finally come to be drawn.84

As a result, the courts have had to

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human rights art 6 and due process uk