Law According To A King

Hill v Chief Constable of West Yorkshire [1988] 1 AC 53 was a landmark case in establishing limits on third party liability for tortious negligence. The estate of Hill, the final victim of Peter Sutcliffe (better known as the Yorkshire Ripper), sued the Chief Constable of West Yorkshire police, claiming that their failure to apprehend the killer sooner negligently caused her death. Anyone with some knowledge of the Yorkshire Ripper case is aware of the disastrous investigation led by the police, which failed time-and-time-again to catch Sutcliffe, who they had interviewed nine times in connection with the murders. The 1982 Byford report heavily criticised the police for what was, at the time, the largest manhunt in British history – they had focussed too heavily on hoax confessional tapes and letters (against the advice of experts and victims alike) and their poor filing system meant that officers were left underprepared and key connections were not made linking evidence to Sutcl

The US Supreme Court is likely better known to readers than any other court on the planet. Its hyper-politicised confirmation hearings, nation-changing judgments, and larger-than-life characters have thrown the Court to the forefront of national and international news and consciousness. Whereas in the UK, gay marriage could be attributed to the support of the Prime Minister David Cameron and his coalition partners in the Liberal Democrats, in the US, it is attributed to the Court's 'liberal' wing and the swing-Justice Kennedy - just one example of the difference between the two systems. Nevertheless, whilst Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Brett Kavanaugh may have captured your attention, there are still seven more judges on the Court that you need to know. To illustrate their approach to constitutional interpretation, I have included a very brief analysis of their positions on four key issues: abortion rights, LGBTQ+ rights, executive power, and campaign finance reform.