The Legal Team

We approached renowned human rights QC Michael Mansfield (we have a philosophy that if you don’t ask you don’t get) and were delighted when he said he would take the case. Michael is best known for cases like Hillsborough and Grenfell Towers and will be supported by barristers Philip Rule and Lorna Hackett. It’s a powerful team and we could not be better represented.

Notable cases: As well as representing those wrongly convicted of the IRA’s Guildford and Birmingham pub bombings, Mansfield has represented: the Angry Brigade; Dolours and Marian Price; Brian Keenan; the Orgreave miners; Mahmood Hussein Mattan, Ruth Ellis and James Hanratty (in posthumous appeals); those involved in the Israeli Embassy bombing; Stephen Lawrence‘s family; Michael Barrymore at the Stuart Lubbock inquest; Barry George at the inquest into the death of Jill Dando; the gangster Kenneth Noye;[7] the Bloody Sunday families; Arthur Scargill; Angela Cannings;[8]Fatmir Limaj, a Kosovo-Albanian leader prosecuted in the Hague; Mohamed al-Fayed in the inquest into the deaths of his son Dodi al-Fayed and Diana, Princess of Wales; and the families of Jean Charles de Menezes and Mark Duggan. (taken from Wikipedia)

Most recently, Michael has been working on the Grenfell Towers case and Dominic Cummings cases.

Michael is also a patron of the animal welfare organisation Viva!

Lorna Hackett is a barrister called in 2003, who has conducted numerous high profile cases in recent years.

She has extensive litigation experience, particularly in the areas of judicial review and human rights. Lorna has considerable expertise advising in cases of a sensitive nature and in which there is potential for media interest.

Philip undertakes a variety of areas of work, but a particular public law and criminal law specialist. Specialist in judicial review, human rights and civil liberties, criminal appeals and criminal trials concerning fatalities.

Legal Aid Barrister of the Year 2017 (awarded by the Legal Aid Practitioners Group).Called 2001 Lincolns Inn; Direct Access qualified 2011; Pupil supervisor 2010; admitted to International Criminal Court’s list of assistants to counsel at the Hague; CPS specialist fraud panel; CPS specialist serious crime group panel; CPS prosecution advocates list for London, South East and Western Circuits; appointed to Attorney-General’s Unified List of Prosecution Advocates.Called to the Bar of the Cayman Islands 2017.

The Background to the case

After months of planning and researching we launched with a letter from our barristers to George Eustice, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (EFRA). We built on the horrors of Covid, the recent Avian flu outbreaks and the irrefutable science. We aimed to show that pandemic risk is here and now and the Government must Scrap Factory Farming to protect us all. The response from EFRA was poor and we filed for a judicial review. We are now submitting the arguments to the European Court of Human Rights and making the case that the UK Government have failed in their responsibilities. We raised £60,000 to cover legal fees. We want to help animals, protect people and the planet and leave a legacy that shifts perspectives. This is that chance.

The legal case

We believe that - in failing to (i) properly assess, (ii) inform the public about, and/or (iii) act against these clear risks to human health, the Defendant is in breach of his positive obligations under Articles 2, 3 and 8 of the European Convention of Human Rights (“ECHR”) to protect the right to life, freedom from inhumane treatment, and respect for private life and acts unlawfully in violation of section 6 of the Human Rights Act 1998 (“HRA”).

To summarise, the grounds for review include irrationality (failure to rationally act) and Violation of the positive obligations in Articles 2, 3 and 8 of the ECHR.

Article 2 (Right to Life)

Article 2 requires the state to take positive measures to prevent, or to avert, a risk (which it knows or ought to know) of the violation of the right to life e.g. deaths causes due to a future pandemic.

Article 3 (Prohibition of Torture)

Article 3, obliges the state to take reasonable measures to prevent ill-treatment of which the authorities knew or ought to have known e.g. the state’s readiness to investigate systemic issues such as the impact of factory farming on climate change, which could consequently impact on the physical and psychological health of individuals

Article 8 (Right to respect for private and family life)

Article 8 (Right to respect for private and family life) which affirms that the states is under obligation to ensure, for persons within their jurisdiction, effective respect for private life which includes the physical and psychological integrity of a person e.g. to prevent polluting emissions or other environmental impacts of factory farming which could impact on the health of the population.