The law is not fit to stop Extinction Rebellion’s street protests

Extinction Rebellion (XR) are once again blocking London’s streets, reportedly emboldened by the Supreme Court’s recent Ziegler decision – which found that deliberately blocking roads can be lawful protest. The police maintain that the judgment does not substantially change the law and that XR, like everyone else, has a right to assemble and protest but not to cause serious disruption to the community or to hold the streets to ransom.

But while the judgment is not a sea change in the law – whatever some protestors may now say – it does reveal that the law as it stands is failing to adequately protect the public’s right to use the highways.

Section 137 of the Highways Act 1980 says that it is an offence ‘if a person, without lawful authority or excuse, in any way wilfully obstructs the free passage along a highway’. In Ziegler, the Supreme Court held that deliberate physical obstruction of the highway could be lawful.