Source: All England Reporter
Publisher Citation: [2007] All ER (D) 334 (Nov)
Neutral Citation: [2007] UKHL 51
Court: House of Lords
Judge:

Lord Hoffmann, Lord Rodger of Earlsferry, Lord Walker of Gestingthorpe, Lord Carswell and Lord Brown of Eaton-under-Heywood
Representation Robin Allen QC and Akua Reindorf (instructed by the Commission for Racial Equality) for the claimant.
  Gavin Millar QC and Michael Ford (instructed by Thompsons) for the defendant.
Judgment Dates: 21 November 2007

Catchwords

Race relations - Discrimination - Employment - Non-selection of complainant as candidate for elections by Labour Party - Qualifying bodies - Whether employment tribunal having jurisdiction to hear complaints - .

The Case

The Labour party was not a qualifying body for the purposes of s12 of the . That did not mean that a political party was entitled to discriminate on racial grounds: it was not. But the relevant prohibition was in s 25, not s 12. Moreover, a decision made by a competent tribunal as to jurisdiction was binding on the parties, even though a later decision might show that it was erroneous in law. Thus, the Employment Appeal Tribunal was a court of competent jurisdiction to determine whether or not the Labour party was a qualifying body within the meaning of s 12, whether the issue was formulated as one of fact or law. There was no basis for distinguishing between questions which 'go to its jurisdiction' and those which did not.

Practice Areas

If you are a LexisLibrary subscriber you can read more about this case here.

Lexis®Library

  • An Official transcript is the final version of the judgment prepared by shorthand writers. LexisLibrary contains all judgments from the High Court and aboveView Judgment
  • Cases related to this particular case that are related to, or discuss this caseView related cases
  • Commentary discussing this particular case from LexisLibrary's comprehensive range of titles including Butterworths, Halsbury's and TolleyView related commentary
  • The All England Law Reports comprises judgments with headnotes and catchwords indicating the area of law and key issues of the case prepared by legally qualified editorsFind AllER Reports