Occupy Law: the Role of Law in Time of Protest

In keeping with its tradition of hosting eminent speakers in their field, Tent City University hosted panellists Professor Conor Gearty, David Wolfe, Sarah Sackman, David Allen Green and Occupy LSX Defendant George Barda as part of Occupy Law on Monday 20 February.

I co-organised this event with Max.  Our motivation was to highlight the role of law in addressing the issues raised by occupy. The injustices Occupy opposes are many – including  – the massive transfer of wealth from ordinary taxpayers to the banks and bankers, the corporatisation of the very ground we stand on, and the destruction of our planet.  The legal system legitimises and facilitates these injustices.  We say that is wrong.  It’s high time to rediscover the spirit of justice in the law. Justice is the essence of law, and as St Augustine said  “an unjust law is no law at all.”

Introductions highlighted that law can and has been a major force for good in society. Laws to abolish slavery and to give women the vote were brought about through the dedicated efforts of good men and women, including lawyers. The panel plunged into a lively debate on the role of civil disobedience in securing fundamental change and justice. This is pertinent to Occupy, as the very fact of our occupation at St Paul’s is civil disobedience – a politically subversive act and a challenge to the status quo.

Speakers offered broad support for Martin Luther King’s position on civil disobedience: “An individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust and who willing accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law”. Professor Conor Gearty, supporter of Occupy LSX, drew massive applause for his assertion that occupiers are articulating what the future is and “nobody who has ever articulated what the future is has ever been regarded as anything other than absurd in the present”.

Sarah Sackman, who recently wrote for the Guardian on the pernicious effect of privatisation of public spaces, told the audience that the civil rights movement was a valuable historical precedent for what occupiers are trying to do, and reminded the audience that law can be a tool for progressive reform.

David Allen Green, New Statesman blogger and city lawyer, roused the audience with his comment that it was ‘bleedingly obvious’ that the occupy camp was not causing an obstruction to the highway.  He used this example to highlight that there’s a difference between what the law is and what people in power ‘try and make out that law to be’. He also told occupiers ‘guys well done… you are forcing progress by being genuine radical’.

The question of whether we live in a corporatocracy or democracy further enlivened the proceedings. Professor Conor Gearty explained what a weak instrument the Human Rights Act is when laid on our unjust society. Corporations have human rights, which they use both as a shield and sword against the State, communities, and individuals.  Corporations use their ‘rights’ to defeat legitimate attempts to regulate them in the public interest. When the law is reduced to this, direct action becomes a moral imperative.

David Wolfe told an inspiring tale about a case he took on against RBS, where the legal process helped to expose the extent to which RBS was bankrolling the most environmentally destructive projects – including the tar sands. He lost the case, but left the door ajar for possible further claims against RBS based on all the new information that came to light during the original legal process.

We also heard George Barda, passionately state that ‘democracy has to be a dream that we create globally’.  TCU was packed with standing room only, being a great contrast to the near-empty Starbucks across the road – and a successful start to the conversation of Occupy law.

By Melanie Strickland