‘Injunctivitis’

This article considers the current use of injunctions obtained under the ‘Protection from Harassment Act 1997’ in the 21st century and their use by private organizations to control protest, predominantly animal rights and environmental issues, in the UK. The continuing and evolving use of such injunctions has led some political commentators to comment that ‘the High Court injunction has become the weapon of choice to slap down protests’ (Lewis P and Evans R (2009) High court injunctions – the weapon of choice to slap down protests. The Guardian, 27 October). Supporters of injunctions have claimed that they add clarity to what protestors are allowed to do, or more importantly not allowed to do, in protest situations. Moreover, the existence and terms of an injunction have the potential to have a major impact on the policing of protests. There is evidence that Section 3 of the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 has been instrumental in controlling the excesses of protest and reducing the levels of intimidation, alarm and distress once witnessed in this country, however, some now stress that its continued broad application is anti-democratic – that the concept of ‘mixing’ the civil and criminal law is seen by some academics as a dangerous development in controlling an individual’s freedom of assembly and expression as enshrined within the European Convention of Human Rights.