Abstract
This opinion discusses the Darwall v Dartmoor National Park Authority (2025) case. The opinion argues that it would be wrong to interpret the Darwall case as one which involved any significant development in the law of the commons or access land more generally. Instead, it argues that it is a case where the Supreme Court applied ordinary principles of statutory interpretation to find that what had long been understood as the position since the 1980s (that the public had a right to camp on Dartmoor) was indeed what the Dartmoor Commons Act 1985 had conferred on the public.
Keywords
Wild campwild campingcampingDartmoor CommonsCommonsDartmoor National Park AuthorityNational ParksOpen Spaces Societyopen spacepublic accessopen-air recreationpublic benefitSupreme CourtAttorney Generalstatutory interpretationinterpretationwordslegislative contextstatutory contextbyelawprinciple of legality.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.