Adam Clemens looks at the courts’ approach to balancing a person’s right to demonstrate with the powers of the police to stop them
It’s a pretty safe bet that public demonstrations—from animal rights to Iraq—will increase. Policing of demonstrations will, inevitably, come in for closer scrutiny because Art 10 and 11 rights (freedom of expression and peaceful assembly) under the European Convention on Human Rights (the Convention) now have proper recognition. Any failure by police forces to realise the strengths and the implications of those rights—and their obligation to facilitate lawful protest—will lead to ineffective planning, and tortured arguments being taken on appeal when plans break down and civil actions or judicial reviews rain down. In April, the police failed on an Art 2 (right to life) Convention point in Van Colle v Chief Constable of the Hertfordshire Police [2007] EWCA Civ 325, [2007] All ER (D) 190 (Apr) in which the defendant in criminal allegations carried out his threat to kill Giles Van Colle, the main prosecution witness against him. Damages were reduced from £50,000
