@PriyamvadaGopal:
Good morning. A very good morning, in fact. Except for the BBC which has astoundingly, if unsurprisingly, spun this as a victory for Cambridge’s management who have failed spectacularly.
This is a hugely consequential judgement, a real warning to UK university administrations to not overreach in their eagerness to repress campus solidarity with Palestine. The judgement is deeply unimpressed with the University’s case.
Please do amplify: people need to take heart that not all is lost all of the time, that sometimes justice does prevail.
Top university loses court battle to stop Israel-Palestine protests on campus, The order was ‘urgently’ needed ahead of a Saturday graduation ceremony, lawyers said by Pol Allingham, 28 February 2025, The Independent
The University of Cambridge has failed in an attempt to secure a five-year High Court injunction against Israel and Palestine-related protests on some of its sites.
The university had applied for the injunction to prevent direct action linked to the conflict without its approval at four locations until February 2030.
Lawyers for the university argued at a High Court hearing on Thursday that the injunction was “urgently” required ahead of a graduation ceremony this Saturday.
Mr Justice Fordham dismissed the longer-term application but stated he would grant a “very narrow and limited court order”.
This order will prohibit direct action at Senate House in Cambridge and the lawn in front of it, known as Senate House Yard, where the ceremony is scheduled to take place.
Further details regarding the interim injunction are expected to be clarified in the coming days.
The High Court in London was told that the injunction application came after encampments, organised by the group Cambridge for Palestine, were set up on Senate House Yard in May and November 2024.
Another protest at its Greenwich House site in November 2024 was also presented as evidence.
The hearing was held at the High Court in London (PA Archive)
Mr Justice Fordham rejected the bid for a five-year injunction, adding it was “a matter of significant concern” that the university’s application offered little time for potential interested parties to properly respond.
He later added there had been “sufficient notification” to grant an interim injunction to protect Saturday’s ceremony and that social media posts showed “the identifiable purpose of the action is to disrupt by making it be moved, the graduation ceremony, or as it is put, ‘forcing it’ to be moved”.
Mr Justice Fordham also said the court had not been told about 10 graduation ceremonies that went ahead unimpeded by protests during the relevant May to December 2024 time period.
The university provided evidence of two disrupted ceremonies and three prospective ones.
The judge said: “It was important that the court was given a full factual picture and not simply told about the graduation events that had been disrupted.”
The European Legal Support Centre, whose lawyers challenged the university’s bid, said: “This is a significant victory – one that sends a strong message to other universities attempting to impose such draconian restrictions on freedom of assembly and protest.
“The University of Cambridge’s efforts to undermine its students’ civil liberties – by seeking an injunction to effectively ban expressions of Palestine solidarity both on and off campus until 2030 – represented the broadest restriction on university protests to date.”
A university spokesperson said Cambridge welcomed the decision, which “protects the right of students” to graduate at Senate House over the weekend.
“The court agreed that this injunction does not undermine freedom of speech. The university is fully committed to supporting the right to protest and to freedom of speech within the law.
“There are many places that protests within the law can take place.”
A further hearing is expected at a later date.
Refer also to:
2024: Bravo McGill U Encampment! Lying Israel lobby aiming to kill freedom of expression (Canada)/freedom of speech (USA) hits major judicial block. Justice Chantal Massé: “The court is of the opinion that the balance of inconveniences leans more toward the protesters, whose freedom of expression and to gather peacefully would be affected significantly” Fail by lawyer Neil G. Oberman (running for Pierre Picklehead’s racist bigoted pro genocide CPC) to kill student’s freedom of expression and right to protest.
