Nicholas Dobson looks to the future of riot damage compensation
“If you carry on doing that I’ll read you the Riot Act!” So might a hapless parent or teacher plead to their unruly charges. But the real Riot Act 1714 (removed only in 1973 by the Statute Law (Repeals) Act of that year) meant business. For, if more than 12 people “unlawfully, riotously, and tumultuously assembled together”, it allowed a justice of the peace (or other specified local official) to command the assembly to disperse and within an hour “peaceably to depart to their habitations or to their lawful business”. If not they were liable to “suffer death” as felons.
But the fundamentals of human nature remain unchanged. Riots can still erupt and afflict even a modern and supposedly civilised society. As Lord Hodge pointed out in the Supreme Court on 20 April 2016, for four days from 6 to 9 August 2011, “London suffered from serious rioting” with the rioters causing extensive damage to property: “Property owners and insurers suffered significant losses.”
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