Hounga v. Allen at the Supreme Court
| DOI | 10.1177/1358229115571815 |
| Published date | 01 September 2015 |
| Date | 01 September 2015 |
| Author | Chris Monaghan |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Article
Hounga v. Allen
at the Supreme Court:
The defence of illegality
in race discrimination
cases and the competing
public interest in preventing the
exploitation of illegal immigrants
Chris Monaghan
Abstract
The defence of illegality operates to prevent a person from benefiting from his/her own
illegal conduct. The question to determine in Hounga v. Allen (2014) UKSC 47 was
whether an illegal immigrant could bring a claim for race discrimination against the
person who had arranged for his/her entry into the United Kingdom. It was a question
answered in the negative by the Court of Appeal, as their Lordships had not wished to
condone the appellant’s illegal conduct. Upon appeal, the Supreme Court disagreed with
the Court of Appeal’s decision that the discrimination claim was linked to the appellant’s
illegality and permitted the claim to succeed. The Supreme Court’s decision in Hounga v.
Allen is of considerable importance, as its application of the ‘inextricable link’ test pro-
vides a way for such claims to succeed, and permits the recovery of a civil remedy.
Interestingly, Lord Wilson, in his judgment, held that the claim could succeed (even
where it had been tainted with illegality, which was not the case here), as it was in the
public interest to protect people who were in the appellant’s position. His Lordship
considered that the public interest in protecting vulnerable illegal immigrants out-
weighed the public interest in applying the defence of illegality.
School of Law, University of Greenwich, London, UK
Corresponding author:
Chris Monaghan, School of Law, University of Greenwich, Queen Mary Court, Old Royal Naval
College, Park Row, Greenwich, London SE10 9LS, UK.
Email: c.monaghan@greenwich.ac.uk
International Journalof
Discrimination and theLaw
2015, Vol. 15(3) 178–188
ªThe Author(s) 2015
Reprints and permission:
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DOI: 10.1177/1358229115571815
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