R (Factortame Ltd) v Secretary of State for Transport

R (Factortame Ltd) v Secretary of State for Transport was a judicial review case taken against the United Kingdom government by a company of Spanish fishermen who claimed that the United Kingdom had breached European Union law (then Community Law) by requiring ships to have a majority of British owners if they were to be registered in the UK. The case produced a number of significant judgements on British constitutional law, and was the first time that courts held that they had power to restrain the application of an Act of Parliament pending trial and ultimately to disapply that Act when it was found to be contrary to EU law. The litigation was lengthy, and is typically divided into five main stages: Factortame I, where the High Court and then the House of Lords (which functioned as the final court of appeal prior to 2009) both made a reference to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) on the legality of the Merchant Shipping Act 1988's ("MSA") requirement for UK fishing vessels to be 75% UK owned.

Source: Wikipedia — R (Factortame Ltd) v Secretary of State for Transport (CC BY-SA 4.0)