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NLJ this week: Greta & the frequently changing rules of policing protest

12 April 2024
Issue: 8066 / Categories: Legal News , Human rights , Public , In Court
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In this week’s NLJ, Neil Parpworth, of Leicester De Montfort Law School, looks at the Greta Thunberg case, and her subsequent acquittal, through the lens of public order legislation

Swedish activist Thunberg recently pleaded not guilty to a public order offence in connection with a protest outside an oil industry conference at a hotel on London’s Park Lane.

Parpworth uses Thunberg’s case to explain, and assess the impact of, recent changes to policing powers and the right to peaceful assembly. Who defines what amounts to ‘serious disruption to the life of the community’, and are the courts being sufficiently robust with regard to decisions by the police?

The author writes: ‘A protestor must know exactly what it is they must do, or refrain from doing, for it to be fair and just for them to be penalised for breaching a condition.’

MOVERS & SHAKERS

DWF—19 appointments

DWF—19 appointments

Belfast team bolstered by three senior hires and 16 further appointments

Cadwalader—Andro Atlaga

Cadwalader—Andro Atlaga

Firm strengthens leveraged finance team with London partner hire

Knights—Ella Dodgson & Rebecca Laffan

Knights—Ella Dodgson & Rebecca Laffan

Double hire marks launch of family team in Leeds

NEWS
In this week's NLJ, Steven Ball of Red Lion Chambers unpacks how advances in forensic science finally unmasked Ryland Headley, jailed in 2025 for the 1967 rape and murder of 75-year-old Louisa Dunne. Preserved swabs and palm prints lay dormant for decades until DNA-17 profiling produced a billion-to-one match
Charlie Mercer and Astrid Gillam of Stewarts crunch the numbers on civil fraud claims in the English courts, in this week's NLJ. New data shows civil fraud claims rising steadily since 2014, with the King’s Bench Division overtaking the Commercial Court as the forum of choice for lower-value disputes
Bea Rossetto of the National Pro Bono Centre makes the case for ‘General Practice Pro Bono’—using core legal skills to deliver life-changing support, without the need for niche expertise—in this week's NLJ
Charles Pigott of Mills & Reeve reports on Haynes v Thomson, the first judicial application of the Supreme Court’s For Women Scotland ruling in a discrimination claim, in this week's NLJ
The Supreme Court issued a landmark judgment in July that overturned the convictions of Tom Hayes and Carlo Palombo, once poster boys of the Libor and Euribor scandal. In NLJ this week, Neil Swift of Peters & Peters considers what the ruling means for financial law enforcement
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