Picketing and the Conspiracy and Protection of Property Act 1875
| DOI | 10.1177/002201838504900114 |
| Author | Richard Kidner |
| Published date | 01 February 1985 |
| Date | 01 February 1985 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
PICKETING
AND
THE
CONSPIRACY
AND
PROTECTION
OF
PROPERTY
ACT
1875
Richard Kidner"
Until a few years ago it was
thought
that
section 7 of
the
Conspiracy
and
Protection of
Property
Act 1875 was of little practical utility
and
could have
been
repealed without loss.
There
had
been
no
reported cases on it since 19221and it seems to have
been
first
revived in 1974 in the case of
the
Shrewsbury pickets" where it
formed the basis of a conspiracy charge.
That
was, however, a
special kind of case
and
it was not until 1983 in Scotland
that
the
statute was used directly
,3
again in
odd
circumstances. However,
the
Lord Advocate seems to have found
the
section useful
and
other
cases followed. Recently its use has
spread
to England
and
Wales,
for it
appears
that
during
the
miners' strike it
had
been
charged in 76
cases up to July 1984.4
There
is
therefore
increasing awareness of this strange section
and its use is becoming more
frequent
despite the substantive
and
procedural difficulties in a successful prosecution.
The
statute
began life as a liberal reform to
remedy
some
very
strict
interpretations
by
the
judges of
the
common law
and
of the
Criminal Law
Amendment
Act
1871,
and
it set
out
to lay down,
with some degree of certainty,
the
limits of crimes relating to
obstruction
and
molestation.
Although
it was clearly designed as a
statute which related to industrial disputes, it is in fact of general
application.
Section 7states:
"Every
person
who, with a view to compel any
other
person to abstain from doing or to do any act which such
other
person has a legal right to do or abstain from doing, wrongfully and
without legal
authority,-l.
Uses violence to or intimidates such
•Senior
Lecturer
in Law, University College of Wales, Aberystwyth.
1. Fowler v. Kibble 11922J 1 Ch. 487.
2. R.
v.Jones
[19741 I.C.R. 310.
3. Smith v. Elsey 119831
I.R.L.R.
292.
4. H.C. Debs. Vol. 64, col. 21 (July 16, 1984).
77
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