Two universities in the UK have been permitted to clear student encampments from their campuses, after a judge said protesters had “no prospect” of showing that their human rights would be affected.
Nottingham and Birmingham universities had sought to remove the student encampments – set up in May to protest Israel’s invasion of Gaza – but faced objections from students that their rights to free speech and assembly would be infringed.
On Wednesday the high court granted possession orders to the two universities, allowing them to evict protesters.
Mr Justice Johnson said there were “many other ways” activists could exercise their right to protest without occupying the campuses, and concluded that the protesters were trespassing.
The high court decision is a blow to the network of protest encampments that sprang up at universities across the UK to protest against Israel’s actions in Gaza.
The decision follows an earlier case involving the London School of Economics, with similar legal challenges taking place over encampments at Queen Mary University of London and the University of Bristol.
Many encampments have closed in the face of legal action or have voluntarily shut down for the summer, including the initial encampment at the University of Warwick. On Monday, students at the University of Oxford also decided to end their occupation outside the Radcliffe Camera library.
In several cases, the protest groups, such as those at the University of Manchester, have vowed to revive the encampments if the conflict is still raging when the new academic year begins in autumn.
Lawyers for Joel Butterworth, also known as River Butterworth, the only named protester at Nottingham, argued that by evicting the protesters the university was failing to follow its own policies and was curtailing their rights to expression and assembly.
But the judge said there was “no evidence” of the university breaching its own policies, and that the protesters had “fundamentally” breached the university’s codes by occupying the university’s land without permission.
A spokesperson for the University of Nottingham said: “The order from the court will allow us to ensure that we can take action should the need arise to protect the health and safety of our university community on campus and to minimise disruption to students and staff accessing the teaching, learning and research spaces they require.”
Mr Justice Johnson also rejected a claim by a Birmingham protester that the possession order amounted to discrimination on the basis of her beliefs, ruling: “There is no evidence to support such a suggestion.”
In another ruling, at the Royal Courts of Justice, 5,000 students suing University College London (UCL) for learning lost due to strikes and Covid closures have been denied a group litigation order.
Lawyers representing the students had argued for the case to be heard as a single action. But the judge ruled that the complexity and timing of the individual cases made that too difficult, due to the potential involvement of 440 undergraduate and 675 postgraduate courses, as well as 6,000 modules scheduled between 2017 and 2022.
Instead, 10 test cases will be selected for individual trials, scheduled for early 2026.
Claimants will also be required to submit details of disruption suffered during the 43 days of strike action taken by the University and College Union over the period, as well as during the Covid pandemic. Claimants will also need to show their country of residence between 2020 and 2022.
Jeremy Cook, a senior master of the king’s bench division, expressed concern at the mounting legal expenses, noting that “the overall costs of this litigation will be substantial”. The statements of costs for a previous one-day hearing were £329,000 for UCL and £227,000 for the claimants.
Lawyers representing Student Group Claim say that the UCL case is a test of the claims of more than 150,000 current and former students at UK universities who are seeking compensation for Covid and strike-related disruption, such as the loss of in-person campus teaching.
