Alex Ustych appears in important case about freedom of expression in the age of social media

22 November 2019

The judicial review is brought by Harry Miller, a former police officer who tweets about transgender issues and opposes potential reforms to the Gender Recognition Act 2004 (to introduce gender self-identification). A complaint was received by Humberside Police about the tweets, on the basis that they were allegedly hateful, transphobic and offensive to members of the transgender community. Applying the College of Police guidance on hate crimes, the complaint was recorded as a ‘non-crime hate incident’ and an officer offered him words of advice about the complaint.

Mr. Miller challenges the legality of the College of Police guidance on recording ‘non-crime hate incidents’ based on a complainant’s perception and the proportionality of Humberside Police decisions pursuant to the guidance. The claim gives rise to complex and novel issues, such as the scope of the ‘chilling effect’ concept in Article 10 ECHR jurisprudence in circumstances where no legal restriction or sanction was applied to Mr. Miller. The case was heard over two days  by Mr Justice Julian Knowles and has attracted national media coverage:

Telegraph
Guardian
BBC


Related barristers

Alex Ustych

Call 2010

Search

Join our mailing list to receive the latest news and event updates.

Subscribe

Popular

16 April 2024

Chambers is delighted to announce that Head of Chambers, Jason Beer KC is one of only…

Discover more

14 February 2022

The first hearings of the Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry commenced today.  Previously a non-statutory…

Discover more

15 February 2023

This is an ‘Original Manuscript’ of an article published by Taylor & Francis Group in the Journal…

Discover more
Affiliations

 

Affiliations

Portfolio Builder

Select the practice areas that you would like to download or add to the portfolio

Download    Add to portfolio   
Portfolio
Title Type CV Email

Remove All

Download


Click here to share this shortlist.
(It will expire after 30 days.)