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This article examines the statutory provisions which prohibit unauthorised demonstrations in the vicinity of Parliament Square. The legal position of the pre-existing demonstrator (Mr Brian Haw) is traced back to the decision of Gray J in Westminster City Council v Haw (2002). This case held that Mr Haw had made his home on part of the pavement in Parliament Square and Gray J rejected, one by one, every legal argument which Westminster City Council had used against Haw (such as that he was ‘obstructing’ the highway, or ‘sleeping rough’, or displaying unauthorised advertisements). The decision of the Court of Appeal in R (Haw) v Home Secretary (2006) (which considered the subsequent statutory ban on unauthorised demonstrations) is analysed in the light of the question whether or not that legislation took away Mr Haw’s propert...

This biographical article is based on research in the Scottish Record Office and in the volumes of the Notable British Trials series. Oscar Slater liked to describe himself as “the Scottish Dreyfus”, but Leslie Blake points out that it is more accurate to describe Detective Lieutenant Trench, who ruined his career by his determination to see Slater’s conviction for murder re-investigated, as the “Scottish Colonel Picquart”. Unfortunately, Trench (who died in 1919) did not live to see the quashing of Slater’s conviction by the newly-established appeal court in 1929.

This biographical article is based on research in the Scottish Record Office and in the volumes of the Notable British Trials series. Oscar Slater liked to describe himself as “the Scottish Dreyfus”, but Leslie Blake points out that it is more accurate to describe Detective Lieutenant Trench, who ruined his career by his determination to see Slater’s conviction for murder re-investigated, as the “Scottish Colonel Picquart”. Unfortunately, Trench (who died in 1919) did not live to see the quashing of Slater’s conviction by the newly-established appeal court in 1929.