Following a slow march protest on Earl’s Court Road in London in November 2023, three Just Stop Oil (JSO) protesters were convicted of an offence under s 7 Public Order Act 2023 (POA 23).[1] This is the offence of interfering with key national infrastructure – for more information about this offence see here. For the purposes of this protest, […]
What is Section 281(5)? Lurking amongst many criminal offences, ready to be triggered by a commencement regulation, are references to s.281(5) Criminal Justice Act 2003. This section extends the maximum sentence for summary offences, whose previous (or rather current) maximum was 6 months, to 51 weeks. The relevant part reads as follows: (4) Subsection (5) applies to any summary offence […]
It is odd, given the long history that civil disobedience has in the UK, that Hoffman’s Bargain has been given such short shrift with not so much as a sideward glance.
Attempting to link arguments of proximity to possessiveness in relation to ‘circumstances’ so that it may relate to the wording of the legislation is artificial, complicated, and unclear.
It is also not only protesters or police who may struggle with this new definition – the factors that Judge Laws considered regarding disruption in this case were telling.
Entry into the road now appears to be a blanket cause for arrest in of itself. Repeating this day in and day out, regardless of the number of protesters actually charged, results in the protesters never actually protesting or causing any disruption at all – which is the outcome the police appear to be seeking.
