Foundations in Law 1
The case of R (Lumba) v Secretary of State for the Home Office 1 is a leading case regarding
the tort of false imprisonment. This is because the ruling discusses several key issues,
including the conditions required for a detention to be lawful; the public law issues
surrounding the use of an unpublished Government policy as a basis for detention; and the
awarding of damages for false imprisonment. Furthermore, as a Supreme Court decision,
the ruling in Lumba sets a precedent that binds all lower courts considering similar cases to
follow the ‘ratio decidendi’ from Lumba when making their decision2.
Lumba was subsequently considered and followed in the case of R (Kambadzi) v Secretary of
State for the Home Department.3 The cases came before the court at the same time -
Kambadzi’s judgement was delayed so that Lumba could be decided first and the precedent
set in Lumba could be used4. Consequently, Lumba is key to the judgement in Kambadzi; for
example, Lord Dyson’s statement in Lumba that “the breach of public law must bear on and
be relevant to the decision to detain”5 was applied in Kambadzi to find his detention
unlawful, since the public law breach in that case (the failure to review Kambadzi’s
detention) “bore on and was relevant to the decision to detain” 6.
There are similarities between Lumba and Kambadzi, including factual similarities; both
cases involve a foreign national who was initially imprisoned and then further detained after
their sentence pending deportation. Additionally, there was a public law error which
rendered the detention unlawful in both cases. These similarities are significant because, as
mentioned above, the doctrine of precedent states that the court “must follow that
previous decision if the case before them is similar to that earlier case” 7, which will have
influenced the decision in Kambadzi. Furthermore, both cases follow the principles set out
by Lord Wolff in R (Singh) v Governor of Durham Prison 8, that the statutory power of
1
R (Lumba) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2011] 2 WLR 671
2
James Holland and Julian Webb, ‘Learning Legal Rules: A Students' Guide to Legal Method and Reasoning’ (9 th
edn, Oxford University Press 2016) chapter 6
3
R (On the Application of Kambadzi) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2011] 4 All ER 975
4
Ibid [2]
5
R (Lumba) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2011] 2 WLR 671 [68]
6
R (On the Application of Kambadzi) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2011] 4 All ER 975 [33]
7
James Holland and Julian Webb, ‘Learning Legal Rules: A Students' Guide to Legal Method and Reasoning’ (9 th
edn, Oxford University Press 2016) 158
8
R (Hardial Singh) v Governor of Durham Prison [1984] 1 WLR 704 [706D]
1
The case of R (Lumba) v Secretary of State for the Home Office 1 is a leading case regarding
the tort of false imprisonment. This is because the ruling discusses several key issues,
including the conditions required for a detention to be lawful; the public law issues
surrounding the use of an unpublished Government policy as a basis for detention; and the
awarding of damages for false imprisonment. Furthermore, as a Supreme Court decision,
the ruling in Lumba sets a precedent that binds all lower courts considering similar cases to
follow the ‘ratio decidendi’ from Lumba when making their decision2.
Lumba was subsequently considered and followed in the case of R (Kambadzi) v Secretary of
State for the Home Department.3 The cases came before the court at the same time -
Kambadzi’s judgement was delayed so that Lumba could be decided first and the precedent
set in Lumba could be used4. Consequently, Lumba is key to the judgement in Kambadzi; for
example, Lord Dyson’s statement in Lumba that “the breach of public law must bear on and
be relevant to the decision to detain”5 was applied in Kambadzi to find his detention
unlawful, since the public law breach in that case (the failure to review Kambadzi’s
detention) “bore on and was relevant to the decision to detain” 6.
There are similarities between Lumba and Kambadzi, including factual similarities; both
cases involve a foreign national who was initially imprisoned and then further detained after
their sentence pending deportation. Additionally, there was a public law error which
rendered the detention unlawful in both cases. These similarities are significant because, as
mentioned above, the doctrine of precedent states that the court “must follow that
previous decision if the case before them is similar to that earlier case” 7, which will have
influenced the decision in Kambadzi. Furthermore, both cases follow the principles set out
by Lord Wolff in R (Singh) v Governor of Durham Prison 8, that the statutory power of
1
R (Lumba) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2011] 2 WLR 671
2
James Holland and Julian Webb, ‘Learning Legal Rules: A Students' Guide to Legal Method and Reasoning’ (9 th
edn, Oxford University Press 2016) chapter 6
3
R (On the Application of Kambadzi) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2011] 4 All ER 975
4
Ibid [2]
5
R (Lumba) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2011] 2 WLR 671 [68]
6
R (On the Application of Kambadzi) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2011] 4 All ER 975 [33]
7
James Holland and Julian Webb, ‘Learning Legal Rules: A Students' Guide to Legal Method and Reasoning’ (9 th
edn, Oxford University Press 2016) 158
8
R (Hardial Singh) v Governor of Durham Prison [1984] 1 WLR 704 [706D]
1
