Brian Doherty b.j.a.doherty@keele.ac.uk
Necessity, Non-Violent Direct Activism, and the Stansted 15: Reasserting ‘Hoffmann's Bargain’
Doherty
Authors
Abstract
In Thacker and ors the Court of Appeal overturned the convictions of the ‘Stansted 15’ due to a misdirection on the substantive offence. However, the court rejected their necessity defence, following Jones, as their actions were political, outweighing a desire to avoid a risk of death or serious injury; in a ‘functioning democratic state’ their claims should have been pursued through conventional means. This is a reaffirmation of what we call ‘Hoffmann's Bargain’; in Jones, Lord Hoffmann noted that non-violent protestors who act proportionately can expect the state to act with restraint, but a necessity defence is unavailable. We argue that this rejection of the defence is mistaken and overly broad for direct action cases. It also fails to acknowledge Valderamma-Vega, where the Court of Appeal held that defendants who claim duress may act for different motives as long as one is the avoidance of death or serious injury.
Acceptance Date | Nov 24, 2021 |
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Publication Date | Dec 23, 2021 |
Publicly Available Date | Mar 28, 2024 |
Journal | The Modern Law Review |
Print ISSN | 0026-7961 |
Publisher | Wiley |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2230.12715 |
Publisher URL | https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1468-2230.12715 |
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'Necessity, Non-Violent Direct Activism, and the Stansted 15- Reasserting ‘Hoffmann's Bargain’ Modern Law Review 2021 (pre-publication version).docx
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https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
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