Britain improperly expanded police powers to put restrictions on peaceful protests that cause “more than minor” inconvenience to the public, the London High Court found on Tuesday.
Liberty, a civil rights organisation, sued the government over amendments to public order rules enacted last year, which it claims granted police nearly limitless ability to suppress protests.
The case was tried in February, during a broader crackdown on protest movements in Britain and around Europe, as environmental activists utilised direct action marches to demand immediate government action on climate change.
On Tuesday, Judges David Bean and Timothy Kerr decided in favour of the organisation, ruling that the laws providing the expanded powers were illegal.
The High Court granted the government permission to appeal and suspended its decision that the new powers should be quashed pending the outcome of the appeal.
Liberty’s legal action focused on the Public Order Act, under which the police can impose conditions on a protest if it could cause “serious disruption to the life of the community”.
The law was amended last year, so police could impose conditions in cases where a protest could cause “more than minor” disruption, which Liberty said was unlawful.
Government lawyers argued that ministers were given express powers to amend the law on what amounted to serious disruption.
But the High Court ruled that the government exceeded its powers, which “did not extend to lowering the threshold for police intervention”.
