Silence and Climate Disobedience in the English Courts

In this paper, we discuss the criminal trials of environmental (and other) activists, prosecuted in England for their participation in non-violent direct action and disobedience. Drawing on recent cases, interviews, and observations of trials, we outline how the British government and the higher courts have responded to the ongoing protest wave of direct action by systematically removing the defences available to these activists in court. As a result, these activists typically accept that they have committed the actions they are accused of, but plead not guilty (to charges of criminal damage or public nuisance), without now having recourse to any defence in law. We discuss how judges then seek to manage activists in the courtroom, by surveiling and curtailing their capacity to explain their motives and their actions, and imposing various forms of silencing. We argue that this process is designed to create an artificial and arbitrary separation of politics from the law. But it also creates opportunities that can be seized by defendants to develop resistant voice and agency.