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Citizens v the state: the latest rulings from the UK's higher courts

⚖️ Citizens v the state snapshot loading…

The courts where people challenge a minister, a department, a council or a regulator — and what they have just decided. The tile links to each ruling; it does not summarise one.
All six courts Newest first, across the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeal, the High Court and the Upper Tribunal.
Judgments are loading…
Where a challenge to the state actually goes
Administrative CourtJudicial review starts here — a claim against a minister, a department, a council or a regulator. A case of real constitutional weight is listed before a Divisional Court of two or three judges.
Court of Appeal (Civil Division)The first appeal.
UK Supreme CourtThe last word — and the only one of the three that speaks for the whole United Kingdom.
Specialist routes off the main line
Immigration and asylum judicial reviews go to the Upper Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber), and some tax ones to the Upper Tribunal (Tax and Chancery Chamber). Planning claims are heard in the Planning Court — a specialist list inside the Administrative Court, which is why they carry an (Admin) citation and arrive in that court's list above rather than one of their own.
Straight to the top
The "leapfrog" under the Administration of Justice Act 1969 lets a case of national importance go from the High Court to the Supreme Court, skipping the Court of Appeal, where waiting would be costly.
Not everything of this kind is judicial review
The Post Office Horizon litigation (Bates v Post Office) was a group action in the King's Bench Division on ordinary contract and negligence grounds — which is why that court is in the list above too. Windrush and infected blood were compensation schemes and statutory inquiries rather than litigation at all.
Scotland and Northern Ireland go a different way
A Scottish challenge goes to the Court of Session — the Outer House, then the Inner House on appeal — not the High Court, which in Scotland is criminal only. Northern Ireland's goes to the High Court in Belfast. Neither publishes through Find Case Law, so neither appears above: a Scottish or Northern Irish reader is looking at an English and Welsh list plus the Supreme Court, which does cover them.
And after all that
Once domestic remedies are exhausted, the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

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⚖️ How to read Citizens v the state

What judicial review is
Not an appeal. A judicial review asks whether a public body was entitled to do what it did — whether it had the power, followed the right procedure, took account of what the law told it to, or reached a decision no reasonable body could reach. The court can quash the decision and send it back; it does not usually substitute its own. That is why a claimant can win and still get the same answer second time round, lawfully made.
Why so many case names begin with "R"
Because a judicial review is formally brought by the Crown on the citizen's behalf: R (on the application of Smith) v Secretary of State. The same thing is often written the other way about — Smith, R (on the application of) v Secretary of State — which is the form most of these judgments actually use. Both mean a citizen challenging the state. R v Smith, with no "on the application of", is something else entirely: that is the Crown prosecuting.
The two labels are ours, and they are read from the name only
"Judicial review" comes from that naming convention in the case title. "Public body" names the party after the "v" when it matches a list of public bodies we keep — a department, a council, a police force, a regulator, a statutory scheme. A case with no label is not necessarily private: it means we could not tell from the name, and we would rather say nothing than guess. Both labels describe who was in court, never who won.
What this tile cannot tell you, and why
It cannot tell you which rulings matter, what a case decided, or what it changes — because working any of that out means reading the judgment, and The National Archives' Open Justice Licence does not permit us to read inside judgments programmatically ("computational analysis", which the service describes as searching in bulk to identify, extract or enrich contents). So we publish what the service's own feed publishes and send you to the ruling itself. Nothing on this tile is a summary of a judgment, and nothing on it is legal advice.
What the date means
The day the court first published the document — not the day of the hearing, and not the day the ruling takes effect. A judgment handed down in July can appear in September.
Where the list does not reach
Find Case Law covers England and Wales, plus the UK Supreme Court and the Privy Council, which are UK-wide. In its own words it "does not contain judgments or decisions from Scottish, Northern Irish or Irish courts or tribunals". Within England and Wales we ask six courts only — the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeal (Civil Division), the Administrative Court, the King's Bench Division and two Upper Tribunal chambers — so criminal appeals, the family courts and the First-tier tribunals are not here either. A court that fails to answer is shown greyed out rather than dropped, because a missing court and a quiet court are different things.
Where to go next
The Supreme Court publishes a plain-English press summary and a video of the hand-down for its own judgments, and the judiciary publishes press summaries for High Court and Court of Appeal cases it considers to be of public interest. Both are linked from the judgment page this tile sends you to.
Source
Find Case Law, The National Archives — the service's own public feed, six courts, re-read every half hour. Contains information licensed under the Open Justice - Licence v2.0.

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