Human Rights
Court of Appeal rules that 'kettling' demonstrators 'not unlawful'
The Court of Appeal has just ruled that 'kettling' or the containment of the crowd is lawful.
The appeal was brought by the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis ('the Commissioner') against a decision of the Divisional Court (Sir Anthony May PQBD and Sweeney J). By that decision, the Divisional Court decided that, in certain respects, the crowd control carried out by the Metropolitan Police in connection with two demonstrations (known, at least in these proceedings, as the Royal Exchange demonstration and the Climate Camp), which took place in the City of London on Wednesday, 1 April 2009, did not constitute 'lawful police operations'.
The decision was made in the context of judicial review proceedings brought by the claimants, who were both involved in the Climate Camp, to challenge a number of the policing decisions made in connection with the handling of the crowd which attended the two demonstrations.
The Court of Appeal ruled (Lord Justice Hughes and Lord Justice Sullivan) that:
'In view of the fact that we are allowing the Commissioner's appeal, it is not necessary to deal with his further argument that, even if the containment and push north were not lawful operations, the Court should not have declared that, as a result, the claimants' Article 5 rights were infringed.
COMMENTS
Add a comment...