Editorial

This issue sees an exclusive focus on court judgments. Two of the cases reported were decided on their own facts, which were quite unusual in each instance. Savage, however, is of much wider scope and the outcome from the National Health Service perspective was most disappointing, particularly since the trust involved won comprehensively at first instance.

Taking any case to court is an educated gamble. Your witnesses might collapse or the judge might simply not like them or believe what they say. In the Court of Appeal, where no witnesses are heard, decisions may sometimes turn on an unexpected authority: in Savage, it was a claim against the Russian state involving a prisoner. The House of Lords increasingly considers decisions from Commonwealth jurisdictions and the United States, as well as Europe, in assessing whether or not UK law should move in a new direction. Domestic case-law, therefore, has a much more international dimension to it than was so even 20 years ago.