Are you bent on civil disobedience? What if that means you breach a court order?

We’re all lawyers here at Law Answered and sometimes, when we’re looking at law updates we come across cases which just interest us. Secretary of State for Transport and another v Cuciuran [2020] is just one of those and we thought we’d share it with you!

Breach of a court order can lead to imprisonment for contempt of court (non-lawyers sometimes find that a bit of a surprise - but it makes plenty of sense). The courts take a pretty dim view of persistent breach, but it turns out that they’re prepared to a be a bit more lenient if the breach is part of civil disobedience. It’s good to know that our right to protest can be recognised in this way.

In this case protesters about the route for HS2 were faced with an order not to enter a specified parcel of land. They disobeyed in a way described by the court as “just about” non-violent. They had climbed over fences and entered the area of land; the claimants alleged that the behaviour had caused considerable costs and delays to the project and sought an order for committal.

The court had to determine the length of prison sentence applicable. It concluded that in an ordinary case of disobedience, not linked to civil protest, a sentence of 18 months’ imprisonment would have been justified. In the light of the protest this was reduced to 6 months, of which the defendants would have been required to serve half, but the sentence was then suspended.

So is this case of any use to you in essay writing? It would be useful in any piece of work about civil rights or around court flexibility on sentencing. You could certainly discuss your views on whether this was a good or bad approach. What do you think?