procedure. Furthermore, as the facts of the earlier cases demonstrated and Bromley explained, the court needed to keep injunctions against persons unknown under review even if they were final in character. In that regard, the Master of the Rolls made the point that, for as long as the court is concerned with the enforcement of an order, the action is not at an end.
4.
A new type of injunction?
108. It is convenient to begin the analysis by considering certain strands in the arguments which have been put forward in support of the grant of newcomer injunctions, initially outside the context of proceedings against Travellers. They may each be labelled with the names of the leading cases from which the arguments have been derived, and we will address them broadly chronologically. 109. The earliest in time is Venables, discussed at paras 32-33 above. The case is important as possibly the first contra mundum equitable injunction granted in recent times, and in our view correctly explains why the objections to the grant of newcomer injunctions against Travellers go to matters of established principle rather than jurisdiction in the strict sense: ie not to the power of the court, as was later confirmed by Lord Scott of Foscote in Fourie v Le Roux at para 25 (cited at para 16 above). In that respect the Venables injunction went even further than the typical Traveller injunction, where the newcomers are at least confined to a class of those who might wish to camp on the relevant prohibited sites. Nevertheless, for the reasons we explained at paras 25 and 61 above, and which we develop further at paras 155-159 below, newcomer injunctions can be regarded as being analogous to other injunctions or orders which have a binding effect upon the public at large. Like wardship orders contra mundum (para 31 above), Venables- type injunctions (paras 32-33 above), reporting restrictions (para 34 above), and embargoes on the publication of draft judgments (para 35 above), they are not limited in their effects to particular individuals, but can potentially affect anyone in the world. 110. Venables has been followed in a number of later cases at first instance, where there was convincing evidence that an injunction contra mundum was necessary to protect a person from serious injury or death: see X (formerly Bell) v O’Brien [2003] EWHC 1101 (QB); [2003] EMLR 37; Carr v News Group Newspapers Ltd [2005] EWHC 971 (QB); A (A Protected Party) v Persons Unknown [2016] EWHC 3295 (Ch); [2017] EMLR 11; RXG v Ministry of Justice [2019] EWHC 2026 (QB); [2020] QB 703; In re Persons formerly known as Winch [2021] EWHC 1328 (QB); [2021] EMLR 20 and [2021] EWHC 3284 (QB); and D v Persons Unknown [2021] EWHC 157 (QB). An injunction contra mundum has also been granted where there was a danger of a serious violation of another Convention right, the right to respect for private life: see OPQ v BJM [2011] EWHC 1059 (QB); [2011] EMLR 23. The approach adopted in these cases has generally been based on the Human Rights Act rather than on principles of wider
Page 35
348
Made with FlippingBook interactive PDF creator