UEA academic helps shape major report on protest rights
By: Communications
Prof David Mead from UEA Law School has contributed to a major report that warns recent reforms to protest law and the expansion of police powers risk undermining fundamental democratic rights.
An expert in protest law, public order, and policing, Prof Mead has long been at the forefront of research into how legal frameworks govern public demonstrations.
His work examines the tensions between maintaining public order and safeguarding the right to protest - a right he describes as “pivotal and fundamental in a democracy.”
The report, published by JUSTICE, draws directly on Prof Mead’s extensive research into protest legislation and its impact on those who take to the streets to make their voices heard.
He was also formally consulted during its development, offering insight into the legal “pinch‑points” that emerge when protesters engage in disruptive but peaceful tactics such as sit‑ins, lock‑ons and slow marches.
According to Prof Mead, legislative changes introduced across 2022 and 2023 have significantly shifted the landscape.
Prof Mead said: "New offences and expanded police powers have created a framework that risks granting authorities excessive discretion over where, when and how protest can occur.
“The right to protest - even to take part in disruptive protests - is pivotal and fundamental in a democracy. But recent changes in legislation in 2022 and 2023 have risked giving the police too much power to control what, where and when we can protest about."
“I was pleased to be able to contribute my specialist knowledge to the writing of this report," he said. "The state of protest law in the UK is very different now to what it was even as recently as 2021, with far more offences on the statute book and greater powers in the hands of the police to exercise their discretion to manage and control political dissent.
"This important report helps highlight some of the many problems which we now face and which concern us all.”