Case Study



Case Study

Introduction

This is a case based on Life, a group committed to bringing an end to the practice of abortion, and Wulfrun Local Authority, who give counselling services for young people in their area with a view to addressing the health risks associated with sexually transmitted disease and to advise on contraception.

Non-violent action is any protest action that does not involve violence to any person or property, is conducted openly and in a disciplined way. It includes any form of public assembly and street march and even deliberate breaches of the law, such as trespass and passively resisting arrest. (Stöppler 2004: 20-21)

Non-violent action can help by drawing public and media attention to a particular issue, thus putting political pressure on government to deal with the issue.

There is a conflict during the local protest activity and police arrested the group. This paper reveals the solutions for the situation given below.

Question One:

The national branch of Life seek to challenge the decisions of Wulfrun local author in relation to the counselling service on the basis that

1. the provision of an abortion service is ultra vires and

2. that the service amounts to a violation of article 2 of the ECHR

Advise Life as to the likelihood of success.

This is a public matter, and the ultimate (though not necessarily the most appropriate) means by which public law disputes are resolved is by bringing the matter before the Administrative Court using a claim for judicial review. Only then, will a public law wrong have occurred. Generally, it does not matter if the judge, faced with the same decision, would have decided the merits of the case differently. This reflects the fact that judicial review involves 'supervision' of administrative decision making - did the public body act in a lawful manner in deciding the way that it did.

In this situation we can say that it is a ultra vires. In R v. Morgentaler 3 SCR 463 1993 the provincial legislation was of prohibiting abortions outside hospitals. The question arose that whether legislation ultra vires province as being in pith and substance criminal law. The trial judge held that the legislation was ultra vires the province because it was in pith and substance criminal law and acquitted the respondent. This decision was upheld by the Court of Appeal.

Life, might be successful, even considering the situation above. For example, the applicants had been abandoned at birth by her mother, who had officially requested that her identity be kept secret. The applicant subsequently succeeded in obtaining certain non-identifying information about her natural family, including several siblings, but the authorities refused to provide her with more specific information. In concluding that there had been no violation of Article 2, the Court emphasised that there were competing interests, including those of third parties such as the applicant's adoptive parents and the members of her natural family, as well as a more general interest, namely the avoidance of illegal abortions and the abandonment of children other than ...