DPP v Ziegler
Director of Public Prosecutions v Ziegler and others [2021] UKSC 23 is a judgment of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom. Facts In 2017, the Defence and Security International Arms Fair was held at the ExCeL Centre in London, England. Four protestors opposed the arms trade and staged a protest to disrupt the fair and deliveries to the fair. The protest involved the appellants lying down in the middle of the road that approached the ExCeL Centre and locking themselves to lock boxes. The police at the scene attempted to persuade the appellants to remove themselves from the road. When that failed, the police arrested the appellants, which took 90 minutes because the lock boxes were constructed in a manner that made them difficult to disassemble. The appellants were charged with wilful obstruction of a highway without lawful authority or excuse, contrary to section 137(1) of the Highways Act 1980 (1980 Act), and were acquitted at trial. The district judge at trial took into consideration the appellant's Article 10 and 11 rights under the ECHR and the proportionality of the police's interference with those rights, and found that the prosecution had failed to prove that the obstruction of the