The Supreme Court Answered My Request.....Unfortunately
In last week's episode of the podcast we considered the principle of ex turpi causa, the idea that a person should not be able to benefit from their own illegal act by bringing a claim for damages.
The latest test that the courts now apply is from Patel v Mirza [2016] and while it is a good start it is still far from perfect. It relies heavily on the vague notion of 'policy considerations' when arriving at a judgment.
At the end of last week's episode I called on the Supreme Court to tighten the ship when it comes to this area of the law and, to my surprise, they answered my request!
Unfortunately the result is not the one we might have hoped for. Instead of developing the law further the Justices went backwards and inexplicably ended up relying on old case law that should have been banished to the history books by this point.
The consequences of this decision will sadly go far beyond theoretical legal argument. At the heart of the case is a woman who suffers from paranoid schizophrenia and the decision of the court with respect to someone who suffers from mental health issues is not exactly enlightened.
If you are interested and would like to find out more then check out a link to the show here: