Emma Dixon

Emma undertakes a wide range of public law work, and particularly enjoys getting to grips with complex and specialised areas (both EU and domestic) in a short space of time.

Recent key cases include Catholic Care (Diocese of Leeds) v Charity Commission (gay adoption and the Catholic Church), R (Tate and Lyle) v Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change (renewable energy subsidy and State Aid), and Medical Justice v Secretary of State for the Home Department (protective costs in challenge to asylum removal policy).

Details of Emma’s particular experience in the following specialist public law fields are set out below: discrimination and equality; environment; EU law; health; media law; police/criminal law; protective costs; social security.

Discrimination and Equality

Emma has for many years specialised in equality law, with particular breadth and depth of expertise in challenges under Article 14 ECHR and those relating to discrimination on grounds of disability, religion, sex and sexual orientation.

• Catholic Care (Diocese of Leeds) v Charity Commission (CA/2010/0007) (Charity Tribunal)
  Counsel for the Respondent, the Charity Commission, in this case relating to the refusal of a catholic charity to offer its adoption services to same-sex couples.  The Tribunal upheld the Charity Commission’s decision to refuse permission to the charity to amend its objects clause so as to permit discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation, holding that the proposed less favourable treatment of same-sex couples did not constitute a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim for the purposes of ECHR Article 14.
• Seldon v Clarkson Wright & Jakes [2009] EWCA Civ 889 (pending before the Supreme Court)
  Counsel (with Dinah Rose QC) for the Secretary of State, intervening, in this case relating to the default retirement age and the justification of direct age discrimination.
• R (Age UK) v Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills [2010] ICR 260, [2009] EWHC 2336 (Admin)
  Counsel (with Dinah Rose QC) for the Secretary of State in this case, commonly referred to as ‘Heyday’, which challenged the compatibility with EC law of the default retirement age of 65.
• R (Garnham and Harrison) v Secretary of State for Health [2009] ACD 61, [2009] EWHC 574 (Admin)
  Junior counsel for the Secretary of State in this claim under domestic law and Article 14 ECHR relating to the making of cash payments in lieu of healthcare services to NHS patients.
• R (British Medical Association) v General Medical Council [2008] EWHC 2602 (Admin)
  Counsel (with Robert Englehart QC) for the GMC in this case about age discrimination in the GMC’s regime for the registration of medical practitioners. 

Environment

Emma has broad experience of environmental law judicial review in diverse fields, including:   planning law; biodiversity; renewable energy; water resources; fisheries; pesticides; and the CRC energy efficiency scheme.

• R (Tate & Lyle) v Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change [2011] EWCA Civ 664
  Counsel (with Mike Fordham QC) for the appellant company in this judicial review challenge to the allocation of Renewables Obligation Certificates to electricity generators raising EU law and State Aid issues.
• Cooper v Attorney-General [2011] 2 WLR 448, [2010] EWCA Civ 464
  Junior counsel for the Appellant in this, the first case in which the English courts have considered the principles of Köbler liability in damages for errors of EC law by the domestic courts.  The case relates to errors of EC law by the English Court of Appeal in earlier proceedings alleging defects in the Environmental Impact Assessment procedure for the Westfield shopping centre in London.
• R (Downs) v DEFRA [2009] 3 CMLR 46, [2009] EWCA Civ 664 (CA)
  Counsel (with Mike Fordham QC) for the claimant, an award-winning pesticides campaigner, in this landmark judicial review of Government pesticides policy in the context of EC Directive 91/414/EC.  The case considered the effects of crop-spraying on rural residents.
• Eley v Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government [2009] EWHC 660 (Admin)
  Counsel for the claimant in this statutory appeal to the Administrative Court against the decision of a planning inspector concerning the extent of the duty of disclosure on a party to proceedings before the inspector. 
• R (Deepdock) v National Assembly for Wales [2010] QB 163, [2009] EWCA Civ 94
  Counsel (with John Howell QC) for Anglesey County Council in declaratory proceedings regarding the building of a yacht marina in a disputed statutory shellfishery.
• Kay v Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis [2009] HRLR 10, [2008] 1 WLR 2723, [2008] UKHL 69
  Counsel (with Mike Fordham QC) for the claimant environmental campaigner in his successful House of Lords challenge to the policing of the London Critical Mass cycle ride.
• R (Buglife) v Thurrock Thames Gateway Development Corporation [2009] 2 P&CR 8, [2008] EWCA Civ 1209, The Times 18 November 2008
  Counsel (with Mike Fordham QC) for Buglife, the Invertebrate Conservation Trust, in its judicial review challenge relating to the protection of biodiversity in planning law.  The case concerned the protection of one of the top three sites nationally for rare and endangered invertebrates.

EU Law

Emma has for many years had a significant EU law dimension to her practice.  She has particular knowledge of EU discrimination law and environmental law.  She also has in-house EU experience in the government legal service, where she had responsibility for the implementation of the Employment Framework Directive and the Human Tissue Directive.  Significant EU cases include the following.

• Cooper v Attorney-General [2011] 2 WLR 448, [2010] EWCA Civ 464
  Junior counsel for the Appellant in this, the first case in which the English courts have considered the principles of Köbler liability in damages (based on the Francovich principle) for errors of EC law by the domestic courts.  The case relates to errors of EU law by the English Court of Appeal in earlier proceedings relating to European law Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) requirements.
• R (Tate & Lyle) v Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change [2011] EWCA Civ 664
  Counsel (with Mike Fordham QC) for the appellant company in this challenge to the allocation of Renewables Obligation Certificates to electricity generators.  The case raises EU law issues about State aid.
• Seldon v Clarkson Wright & Jakes [2009] EWCA Civ 889 (pending before the Supreme Court)
  Counsel (with Dinah Rose QC) for the Secretary of State, intervening, in this case relating to the default retirement age and the justification of direct age discrimination in EU law.
• R (Age UK) v Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills [2010] ICR 260, [2009] EWHC 2336 (Admin)
  Counsel (with Dinah Rose QC) for the Secretary of State in this case, which challenged the compatibility with EU law of the default retirement age of 65.
• R (Downs) v DEFRA [2009] 3 CMLR 46, [2009] EWCA Civ 664 (CA)
  Counsel (with Mike Fordham QC) for the claimant, an award-winning pesticides campaigner, in this landmark judicial review of Government pesticides policy in the context of the requirements of EU law set out in Directive 91/414/EC.  
• Lassal v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions [2009] EWCA Civ 157
  Counsel for the Secretary of State in this social security case in which the Court of Appeal referred to the ECJ questions relating to the temporal scope of the EU citizenship directive. 

Health

• R (Garnham and Harrison) v Secretary of State for Health [2009] ACD 61, [2009] EWHC 574 (Admin) (above)
  Junior counsel for the Secretary of State in this case in which the Court considered the history of the NHS and its statutory framework when ruling on the question of whether cash payments could be made to patients in lieu of medical services.
• R (Ayling) v Secretary of State for Health (Admin Court, 2008)
  Counsel for the Secretary of State in this challenge to Government decisions arising out of the Ayling enquiry.

Media Law

• Emma has for many years pursued a particular specialism in public law matters relating to journalism and the media.  She was junior counsel in the landmark case of Reynolds v Sunday Times [2001] 2 AC 127 (protection for political speech) and advised the BBC in relation to the passage of the Broadcasting Act and Defamation Act 1996.  She now regularly advises broadcasters as to their public law obligations, including in relation to freedom of speech, discrimination law and political/election issues.

Police/Criminal Law

• Kay v Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis [2009] HRLR 10, [2008] 1 WLR 2723, [2008] UKHL 69 (above)
  Counsel (with Mike Fordham QC) for the claimant environmental campaigner in his House of Lords challenge to the policing of the Critical Mass cycle ride.
• R (Director of Revenue and Customs Prosecutions) v CCRC (2007) 1 Cr App R 30 (Admin Court)
  Counsel (with Beverley Lang QC) for the defendant, the Criminal Cases Review Commission, in this judicial review by a prosecutor of referrals of money-laundering convictions on the basis of a subsequent change in the common law.
• R (da Silva) v (1) DPP (2) IPCC [2006] EWHC 3204 (Admin), [2006] 1 Pol LR 176 (Divisional Court)
  Counsel for the Independent Police Complaints Commission in this challenge to prosecution decisions in relation to the police shooting, at Stockwell underground station, of Jean Charles de Menezes.

Protective Costs

Emma has developed a discrete specialism in the area of protective costs orders, both in the environmental field and in public law challenges generally.

• R (Medical Justice) v SSHD [2011] EWCA Civ 269, [2011] WLR (D) 95
  Counsel for the respondent charity, instructed by the Public Law Project, in this purported appeal by the Secretary of State against conditions on permission to appeal imposed by the Administrative Court.
• R (Buglife) v Thurrock Thames Gateway Development Corp [2009] 1 Costs LR 80, [2008] EWCA Civ 1209
  Counsel (with Mike Fordham QC) for the charity defending a Protective Costs Order  (‘PCO’) in an environmental judicial review.
• Eley v Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government [2009] EWCA Civ 1632
  Counsel for the claimant defending, before the Court of Appeal, a Protective Costs Order granted in this statutory appeal relating to non-disclosure in planning law.

Social Security

• Lassal v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions [2009] EWCA Civ 157
  Counsel for the Secretary of State in this social security case in which the Court of Appeal referred to the ECJ questions relating to the temporal scope of the EU citizenship directive.     
• Tkachuk v SSWP [2007] EWCA Civ 515 (CA)
  Counsel for the Secretary of State in this Court of Appeal case relating to the provision of income support to asylum-seekers.

Professional Disciplinary (including police law)

Emma has been regularly instructed by the General Medical Council, both in advisory matters and in court, as well as on behalf of (and against) other professional regulators, including the Hearing Aid Council.  

• R (British Medical Association) v General Medical Council [2008] EWHC 2602 (Admin), Times, January 19, 2009
  Counsel (with Robert Englehart QC) for the GMC in this case about age discrimination in the GMC’s regime for the registration of medical practitioners.
• Rogers v General Medical Council [2008] EWHC 2741 (Admin)
  Counsel for the General Medical Council, successfully defending this statutory appeal raising questions as to the effect on a doctor’s fitness to practise of a police caution.
• R (Da Silva) v (1) DPP (2) IPCC [2006] EWHC 3204 (Admin), [2006] 1 Pol LR 176 (Div Ct)
  Counsel for the Independent Police Complaints Commission in this challenge to prosecution decisions in relation to the police shooting, at Stockwell underground station, of Jean Charles de Menezes.

Emma spent a two-year period in the Government Legal Service earlier in her career.  In that role, she advised Government on the implementation of the Employment Framework Directive; on ECHR, social security and pensions aspects of the Civil Partnerships Bill; and on a wide range of health issues including:  human fertilisation and embryology (including EU aspects and implementation of the Human Tissue Directive); assisted dying; and medical ethics and healthcare (including HIV; testing and vaccination of healthcare workers; and consent issues).  She is able to bring her unique experience of legal policy-making, legislation (including statutory drafting), and EU implementation - as well as Government litigation - to bear on all aspects of her public law work for both claimants and defendants.

Subsequently, in 2007, Emma was appointed Counsel to Lord Carter’s Working Party on regulation of the pharmaceutical profession.

Emma also regularly advises public bodies in relation to their public law obligations under the equality legislation, including as to the form, content and drafting of statutory Equality Schemes and related enforcement proceedings by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC).

Emma is a referral member of the Environmental Law Foundation (ELF), and frequently speaks on environmental law topics to a range of audiences, which have included DEFRA and ELF. 

Publications: 

Contributor to:

• Butterworths’ Human Rights Law and Practice (1999) and Supplement (2000)
• Sweet & Maxwell’s Administrative Court: Practice and Procedure (2006)
• Tolley’s Discrimination in Employment Handbook (2008)

Other Information:

VAT registration number:  877698144