Legal Research

Breaking the law for good reason?

By Shaunna Mireau

A jury in the UK has decided that the threat of global warming justifies breaking the law.

Jurors accepted defence arguments that the six had a “lawful excuse” to damage property at Kingsnorth power station in Kent to prevent even greater damage caused by climate change. The defence of “lawful excuse” under the Criminal Damage Act 1971 allows damage to be caused to property to prevent even greater damage ? such as breaking down the door of a burning house to tackle a fire.

This interesting tibit came across my screen from Russ Brown’s post on the University of Alberta Faculty of Law Blog.

Full post as published by Slaw.ca on September 11, 2008 (boomark / email).