R (McClure & Moos) v Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis

On 14 April 2011 the Administrative Court handed down judgment in R (McClure & Moos) v Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis, a high-profile judicial review challenge to the policing of the Climate Camp demonstration held during the G20 summit in April 2009.

The Court (Sir Anthony May PQBD and Mr Justice Sweeney) held that the police containment (or “kettling”) of the Climate Camp for a period of over four hours was unlawful, there being no reasonably apprehended breach of the peace sufficient to justify such action. The Court further held that the concerted use of force by officers wearing riot gear, who pushed the crowd 20-30 metres back when putting the containment in place, was also unlawful. Unusually for a judicial review, the Court had heard live evidence from the senior police officer responsible for the decisions under challenge.

This is only the second case to consider the lawfulness of containment at common law and under the Human Rights Act 1998, following Austin v Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis [2009] UKHL 5 [2009] 1 AC 564, and the first in which a finding against the police has been made by the courts. The case is significant in re-emphasising the truly extreme and exceptional circumstances that must be present before police action of this kind can be justified.

Michael Fordham QC and Iain Steele represented the Claimants; Monica Carss-Frisk QC and David Pievsky represented the Defendant.