Tag: right to protest
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Daniella Lock: In Defence of the Divisional Court’s Palestine Action Ruling
This post responds to important issues raised by Dane Luo and Gabriel Tan with regard to one of the grounds upheld by the Divisional Court in the judicial review of Palestine Action’s proscription (R (Ammori) v Home Secretary [2026] EWHC 292 (Admin)). The ground was upheld on the basis that the Home Secretary’s proscription decision considered…
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Dane Luo and Gabriel Tan: Non-Textual, Purposive Limits on Policy? The Divisional Court’s Errors on the Home Secretary’s Proscription Policy in the Palestine Action Judgment
On 13 February 2026, the Divisional Court (Dame Victoria Sharp PKBD, Swift and Steyn JJ) upheld the judicial review brought against the proscription of Palestine Action under the Terrorism Act 2000: R (Ammori) v Home Secretary [2026] EWHC 292 (Admin).The Court dismissed two grounds: failing to give Palestine Action the opportunity to make representations (ground…
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Paul O’Connell: Anticipatory Repression and the Proscription of Palestine Action
The proscription of Palestine Action in July 2025 represents more than an aggressive application of counter-terrorism law. It reveals a broader, qualitative shift in the British state’s approach to political dissent—one best understood, I argue, through the concept of ‘anticipatory repression’. Proscription and Its Critics Palestine Action is a direct action network that has, since…
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Richard Martin: Counting Cumulative Impact: More Public Order Law Additions
Following the horrific antisemitic attack at a Manchester synagogue in October, the government has announced plans to amend sections 12 and 14 of the Public Order Act 1986. The proposed changes would explicitly allow police to consider the cumulative impact of frequent protests when imposing conditions on public processions and assemblies. This announcement carries a…
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Nour Haidar: Home Secretary vs Palestine Action: The Constitutional Implications of Widening the Legal Understanding of Terrorism
On 23 June 2025 the Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, announced in Parliament that she had “decided to proscribe Palestine Action under section 3 of the Terrorism Act 2000.” Section 3 of the 2000 Act gives the Home Secretary the power to proscribe an organisation by laying before Parliament an order to add the organisation to…
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Tim Sayer: The Passive Virtues and the Abuse of Delegated Legislation: Courts, the Political Constitution and the Public Order Act 1986 (Serious Disruption to the Life of the Community) Regulations 2023
In 1961 Alexander Bickel argued that the US Supreme Court should adopt what he called the ‘passive virtues’ – minimising engagement with hard constitutional questions so as to keep its powder dry for the most essential issues. One such question that appears headed for the UK courts is the Home Secretary’s decision to use delegated powers in…
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Karolina Szopa: Triumph for Abortion Rights, or a Trojan Horse? The Abortion Services (Safe Access Zones) (Northern Ireland) Bill and Proportionality Assessment
Introduction On the 7 December 2022, the judgment of the UK Supreme Court in the Reference by the Attorney General for Northern Ireland – Abortion Services (Safe Access Zones) (Northern Ireland) Bill (‘SAZ’) affirmed the legality of a measure aimed at strengthening the exercise of the right to abortion in Northern Ireland (NI). The case concerned a…
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Christopher McCrudden: Democracy, protests, and Covid-19: the challenge of (and for) human rights
Two excellent databases enable us to track the effect of Covid-19 on political protests and demonstrations. Both the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project tell a similar story: that the effect of the virus has been mixed. Some protest movements that were active before the pandemic are…
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David Mead: Be careful what you wish for….it may never happen: the curious incident of peaceful protest under the coalition
If a week’s a long time in politics, then two years is surely a couple of lifetimes? Hidden away – it now seems – in the coalition’s Programme for Government was the pledge to “restore rights to non-violent protest”. Even in the civil liberties section, it was always the poor relation to the big hitters…