Supreme Court fallout: How campaigners plan to take UK government to court over trans human rights

The Good Law Project is hoping to raise £50,000 to take the issue back to the courts.

A legal campaign group is trying to force the UK government to change its equalities law on the back of the Supreme Court ruling on the definition of a woman.

The Good Law Project has launched an online crowdfunder for £50,000, with the aim of taking UK equalities minister Bridget Phillipson to court, claiming the UK may now be in breach of human rights law.

If the legal push was ultimately successful, it could lead to the Equality Act 2010 being declared “incompatible” with human rights, which would exert pressure on the UK government to change the act.

A demonstration for trans rights outside the UK Government Office at Queen Elizabeth House in Edinburgh in 2023 | Press Association.

The campaign comes after the Supreme Court ruled the terms “woman” and “sex” in the Equality Act 2010 refers to biological sex.

The judges also said the Scottish Government was “incorrect” in its guidance which suggested trans women could be classed as women for some pieces of legislation.

However, the Good Law Project said the court’s decision, along with comments made by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and Ms Phillipson, would “shamefully deny the reality of trans existence and will lead to daily humiliation for trans people and for cis people who choose not to dress ‘normally’.”

The campaign group said: “We believe that the Supreme Court ... has placed or revealed the United Kingdom in breach of its obligations under the Human Rights Act.”

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The group said it had a legal team of KCs and “at least one trans barrister” ready to lead the legal challenge, stressing they will be supported by “heavyweight policy experts in equality law”.

Should the crowdfunder be successful, the Good Law Project is not seeking to overturn last week’s Supreme Court ruling, but have the Equality Act 2010, as it relates to trans people, declared incompatible with human rights.

“We believe the UK is now in breach of its obligations under the Human Rights Act and the European Convention on Human Rights and we plan to ask the High Court for a declaration of incompatibility,” the group said.

“We believe the legal arguments are strong, but we must also point out that the Supreme Court has revealed a readiness on the part of our courts to disapply, in the case of trans people, normal legal and procedural safeguards.”

Professor David Cabrelli, an expert in labour law at Edinburgh University, said the project had “a good chance” of bringing forward legal action if the crowdfunder was successful.

He said: “What often happens is if someone thinks the wording of a piece of legislation is A, and a court decides no, it is B, you can essentially mount a human rights argument because of the Human Rights Act 1998, which incorporates the European Convention on Human Rights into UK law.

“They will argue the UK, as a member state of the Council of Europe, is failing to abide by its obligations to have laws on trans equality which are consistent with European human rights laws.”

Prof Cabrelli said the lawyers would use Article 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights to say the Equality Act 2010, following the Supreme Court ruling last week, discriminates against the trans community.

He said: “They want what is called a declaration of incompatibility. It is not trying to overturn [the Supreme Court verdict] because it is attacking a completely different legislative point.

“The human rights angle was not discussed at last week’s verdict. It was just what does the word ‘sex’ mean in the Equality Act, is it to be interpreted in a biological or in a certificated way.

“Rather than overturning the verdict, it wants to say the law is in breach of human rights law.

“It is not to say the meaning of sex as biological is unlawful, it is to say the meaning is incompatible and then it would be over to the Westminster Parliament to change the wording of the Act so it is not incompatible.

“It would be up to the government to change the law so the trans community is protected.”

However, Prof Cabrelli said it was “unclear” exactly which human right the Good Law Project would be claiming was being breached. He said: “This is going to run and run.”