Thread by @AdamWagner1

As predicted, the Met's ban on Extinction Rebellion protests ruled unlawful by High Court and quashed (though the order expired on 19 Oct)

Judgment judiciary.uk/wp-content/upl…
Summary judiciary.uk/wp-content/upl…

Well done to Philippa Kaufman QC and my brilliant colleague @judebunting

@judebunting The judgment is actually based a fairly narrow point of statutory construction - that the XR protests were not a 'public assembly' as they were not at one 'scene' where a senior officer was. So there was no power to prevent them happening across London

@judebunting The importance of the judgment will come in the next iteration of the XR protests as the police will not have a power to ban them unless they are occurring at one or more place and there is a senior officer making an independent decision to restrict them at each scene

@judebunting Congrats also to @ExtinctionR and Bindmans' @Jules_Carey

@judebunting @ExtinctionR @Jules_Carey The judgment demonstrates a pet peeve of mine which is in a case which obviously engages the Human Rights Act there is literally no mention of the rights to free speech and protest under Articles 10 and 11. I am sure that judges think they are being 'orthodox' but it is odd

@judebunting @ExtinctionR @Jules_Carey There is a little offhand mention by quotation of common law rights but that makes it worse somehow

@judebunting @ExtinctionR @Jules_Carey One more thing to say.

The Met got what what it needed because enough people would have been put off by the (obviously unlawful) order to stop them joining the protests for its final days.

People should demand to see the legal advice the Met received before imposing the order