Challenging the United Kingdom's Decision not to Support the Resettlement of the Chagos Islands: R (on the application of Hoareau and Bancoult) v Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs [2020] EWCA Civ 1010

Abstract

1. The long-running Chagos litigation has now entered into its third decade with the Court of Appeal’s decision in R (Hoareau and Bancoult) v Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs. The appeal was brought by Ms Solange Hoareau and Mr Louis Olivier Bancoult to challenge the Divisional Court’s earlier judgment. The appeal concerns a decision taken at the very highest level of government in 2016, which was to refuse to support the resettlement of the Chagossians to the British Indian Ocean Territory (‘the BIOT’). The Chagossians had originally been the inhabitants of the BIOT and many still wish to return to the outer islands of the Chagos Archipelago. Rather than supporting resettlement, the UK government offered the Chagossians about £40 million in compensation over the course of 10 years. The appeal was heard in May 2020 by Sir Terence Etherton MR, Green LJ and Dingemans LJ, and judgment was handed down on 30 July 2020.