We won’t go after climate protesters, say top lawyers

Leading barristers have defied bar rules by signing a declaration saying they will not prosecute peaceful climate protesters or act for companies pursuing fossil fuel projects.

They are among more than 120 mostly English lawyers to sign a declaration vowing to “withhold [their] services in respect of supporting new fossil fuel projects and action against climate protesters exercising their right of peaceful protest”.

Noting that climate breakdown represents “a serious risk to the rule of law”, the so-called “declaration of conscience” calls on legal professionals “to act urgently to do whatever they can to address the causes and consequences of the climate and ecological crises and to advance a just transition”.

Writing in the Guardian, Jolyon Maugham KC, the head of the Good Law Project and a key signatory of the declaration, says: “Like big tobacco, the fossil fuel industry has known for decades what its activities mean. They mean the loss of human life and property – which the civil law should prevent but does not.

“The scientific evidence is that global heating, the natural and inevitable consequence of its actions, will cause the deaths of huge numbers of people. The criminal law should punish this but it does not. Nor does the law recognise a crime of ecocide to deter the destruction of the planet. The law works for the fossil fuel industry – but it does not work for us.”

Eighteen barristers, including six king’s counsel, have signed the declaration. They will now self-refer to the Bar Standards Board for breaking the profession’s “cab rank” rule, which specifies that a barrister must take a case for which they are qualified, provided they are available to do so.

Yesterday they were accused of undermining a key principle of the legal system: that everyone is entitled to fair and impartial legal representation. Nick Vineall KC, the chair of the Bar Council of England and Wales, said: “The cab rank rule prevents discrimination and improves access to justice. It means that barristers sometimes have to represent people they disapprove of or disagree with.”

Barristers found to be in violation of the rules can receive fines. However, the consequences can be worse for junior members of the profession, who might find themselves blocked from receiving the “silk” awarded to king’s counsel, or from promotion to the judiciary.