When does peaceful protest turn into criminal damage? In this week’s NLJ, Nicholas Dobson tackles the ‘lawful excuse’ defence, covering recent case law including high-profile environmental group Extinction Rebellion’s spray-painting of a council building
It’s an interesting philosophical debate and, for obvious reasons, a high-profile area of law. Dobson, who writes on local government, public law and governance, looks at the arguments deployed in court and investigates the latest developments in this area of law.
In the Extinction Rebellion case, for example, the defendant ‘argued that the criminal damage alleged could amount in law to something done to protect another’s property by pressuring the public authority to take protective action’.
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