The Memo: Universities allowed to remove student protest camps following High Court decision

Since Israel’s invasion of Gaza, students at various UK universities have set up encampments, largely in protest of their universities’ ties to arms firms. Many of these encampments have closed, either due to threats of legal action or voluntarily over the summer, when students typically go back home. The initial encampment at the University of Warwick has also closed, and those at the University of Oxford and the University of Manchester closed as well.

On 9 July, the High Court granted possession orders to the University of Nottingham and the University of Birmingham. This means that the universities have been permitted to clear any student encampments from their campuses. There were objections from students, who suggested that their rights to free speech and assembly would be infringed by the removal of their encampments. However, Mr. Justice Johnson said that the protesters had “no prospect” of showing that their human rights would be affected, as there were “many other ways” in which they could exercise their right to protest without occupying the campus in such a way. This means that they are effectively trespassing, so the university can remove them from the property.  

The orders from the High Court cover the University of Nottingham’s Jubilee Campus, and the University of Birmingham’s 'Green Heart' outdoor area on its Edgbaston Campus, its Exchange building in the city centre, and its Selly Oak campus, too. The London School of Economics won a separate court order in May that barred encampments in one of its buildings, where students had been sleeping for more than a month in support of Palestinians in Gaza. So, even though some students have been considering appealing these rulings, this is certainly not the first example of legal tension between universities and students and may not be the last.