Carol Harlow QC
Emeritus Professor, London School of Economics
Carol Harlow is emeritus professor of law at the LSE. She is Queens Counsel (honoris causa) (1996); Fellow and Council Member of the British Academy (1999, 2004); Fellow of the London School of Economics (2005); Emeritus Member of Society of Legal Scholars (2005). She was awarded a Leverhulme Fellowship in 2002.
In a new paper for Policy Exchange’s Judicial Power Project, Professor Carol Harlow QC (Hon) looks at the problem of the judicialisation of administrative justice. After a homeless refugee turned down a flat on the grounds that the shape of its windows remind her of the prison in Iran where she was tortured, a housing officer concluded that this ended the local authority’s obligation to house her. That decision was then reviewed by one county court judge, three Court of Appeal judges, and five Supreme Court justices. The Supreme Court’s involvement was necessary to rebuff attempts by the European Court of Human Rights to judicialise administrative law and practice. Professor Harlow’s paper commends the Supreme Court’s approach, arguing that it shows how domestic judges and lawmakers can form a “Parliament Square Axis” to limit European judicial overreach.
