Breaking! The UK Supreme Court Upholds The Government’s Ban On Ivory By Revoking A Final Attempt By Antiques Dealers To Overturn It
Lauren Lewis
The landmark UK Ivory Act has passed its final hurdle with the announcement on August 17th that the Supreme Court has refused to allow an appeal by antiques dealers against a Court of Appeal decision in May.
The Act was introduced after the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) revealed, in its groundbreaking research in 2017, that the UK was the world’s leading exporter of antique ivory, particularly to China and Hong Kong; two illegal trade hotspots.
Despite being passed in 2018, with overwhelming support and cross-party Parliamentary backing, the Act has been challenged at every opportunity by a small group of traders operating as Friends of Antique Cultural Treasures (FACT). It was first challenged at a judicial review in the High Court in November 2019, again at an appeal in February of this year against the High Court’s decision in favor of the Act, and, most recently, at the Court of Appeal’s decision in May upholding the Act’s validity and legality.
“We are delighted to learn that the Supreme Court has rejected a further application to appeal against the UK Government’s ivory ban, considered one of the strictest of all bans globally,” Mary Rice, EIA Executive Director, said in a statement. “This marks the end, finally, of a long and challenging legal drama and means that we can now celebrate the decision to close the UK’s ivory markets and congratulate the UK for its perseverance and tenacity in upholding the ban. The next challenge to help give the world’s precious elephants a future is to close the EU’s ivory markets.”
EIA has been in the vanguard of a campaign to adopt ivory trade restrictions in the UK, arguing that any legal trade in ivory provides cover for the illegal trade because it is difficult to distinguish between antique and newly carved ivory.
