Litigation update – SE (Zimbabwe) v The Secretary of State for the Home Department [2014] EWCA Civ 256 (13 March 2014)

16.03.2014 – Luqmani Thompson & Partners represented the appellant in SE (Zimbabwe), challenging, amongst other things, the decision of the Court of Appeal in SS (Nigeria) v SSHD [2013] EWCA Civ 550. The appeal was dismissed. Jackson LJ, addressing the SS (Nigeria) point and giving lead judgment, said as follows:

57. The third ground of appeal involves a lengthy attack upon the reasoning and conclusions of Laws LJ in SS (Nigeria) with which the other members of the court agreed. This attack occupies eleven pages of SE’s skeleton argument.

58. I can see that the decision in SS (Nigeria) does give rise to difficult issues, which might merit further argument in an appropriate case. One important issue concerns the extent to which Parliament can pre-empt the operation of the evaluative exercise under ECHR article 8, by enshrining a particular policy objective in primary legislation. It may be said that the conclusions of the court in SS (Nigeria) go some way beyond AP (Trinidad & Tobago) v SSHD [2011] EWCA Civ 551 and the other authorities to which Laws LJ refers. But none of these issues are matters for this court.

59. This court is bound by the unanimous conclusions of the Court of Appeal in SS (Nigeria). The Upper Tribunal in the present case correctly understood and applied the reasoning of this court in SS (Nigeria). If the correctness of SS (Nigeria) is to be challenged, that must be a matter for the Supreme Court, in the event that permission to appeal is granted.