Scottish Human Rights Law Group

Structural impartiality and immigration judges

In similar vein to the ruling of the Appeal Court in Starrs v. Ruxton, a decision here by a part-time special adjudicator appointed by the Lord Chancellor to consider immigration and asylum appeals in Scotland was struck down on the basis that the Scottish court considered that there were insufficient formal guarantees in the terms and conditions of his appointment to ensure the adjudicator’s independence and impartiality from the influence Westminster Executive, of which the Lord Chancellor was a member.     

This decision was a rather enthusiastic extension of existing jurisprudence because it applied human rights derived standards to the Lord Chancellor at a time before the Human Rights Act applied them to him, and used these Convention derived consideration in an area, asylum and immigration, where the Strasbourg court has traditionally been very reluctant to enter. 

This is available to read here