''Three Rivers DC v Governor of the Bank of England''

001 UKHL 16 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit (measurement), unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment ...

is a

UK banking law United Kingdom banking law refers to banking law in the United Kingdom, to control the activities of banks. History The Bank of England was originally established as a corporation with private shareholders under the Bank of England Act 1694, to r ...

and EU law case concerning government liability for the protection of depositors and the preliminary ruling procedure in the European Union.

Facts

Depositors in the UK branch of

Bank of Credit and Commerce International The Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) was an international bank founded in 1972 by Agha Hasan Abedi, a Pakistani financier. The bank was registered in Luxembourg with head offices in Karachi and London. A decade after opening, BCC ...

(BCCI) sought damages from the

Bank of England The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom and the model on which most modern central banks have been based. Established in 1694 to act as the English Government's banker, and still one of the bankers for the Government of ...

for failing in its supervisory duties. The Bank had granted BCCI authorisation in a way that breached the

First Banking Directive First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and reco ...

77/780. The government argued that the Directive was not intended to give rights to individual depositors. Clarke J dismissed the action, and the

Court of Appeal A court of appeals, also called a court of appeal, appellate court, appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to hear an appeal of a trial court or other lower tribunal. In much of t ...

by a majority ( Hirst and Robert Walker LJJ, Auld LJ dissenting) dismissed the appeal. The depositors had to base their claim on the intentional tort of misfeasance in public office because in English law, it was not possible for the regulatory authority to be held liable for negligence in the exercise of its supervisory functions.

Judgment

The House of Lords held that the Directive was only a first step toward mutual recognition of authorisations of member states to credit institutions, and individual depositor protection was not an objective of the Directive. There was no need to refer to the ECJ. The delays and costs of making a reference were great, given the very small likelihood that they would have made a wrong interpretation. Lord Hope said the Directive did not define a depositor and so did not define the class of persons who might have rights. Article 3(1) obliged member states to require credit institutions to have authority to operate, but BCCI had commenced before the Directive. Articles 6 and 7 did not impose any duty of supervision on national authorities.

Notes

This case essentially establishes that the Hansard can be used as an external aid to statutory interpretation.

References

{{reflist House of Lords cases Court of Justice of the European Union case law Bank of England

Facts

Judgment

See also

Notes

References