ELSC Applies to Intervene in Trinity College Legal Action Targeting Palestine Solidarity Encampment
London, UK- 5th June 2025, The European Legal Support Centre (ELSC) has applied for permission to intervene in High Court proceedings brought by Trinity College, Cambridge, which seeks a sweeping injunction to prevent a peaceful student encampment on Newton’s Lawn. The ELSC is intervening in the public interest to raise critical human rights concerns, particularly the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly under the European Convention on Human Rights. We are not representing any individuals in this case, which is brought against ‘Persons Unknown’ but are acting to prevent a legal overreach that could chill legitimate protest across the UK.
The encampment was established after student organisers exposed Trinity College’s multimillion-pound investments in Israeli arms manufacturers and companies complicit in the occupation of Palestine. This is part of a wider student-led movement demanding divestment and accountability, in the face of mounting international recognition including from the International Court of Justice that Israel’s actions in Gaza may amount to genocide. Rather than engage with these urgent demands, Trinity is attempting to silence its students by seeking an open-ended injunction that extends across its entire campus, the breadth of which is without evidential basis, and potentially criminalises all protest activity on campus. The proposed order lacks vital judicial safeguards and risks being used to punish peaceful protestors through contempt proceedings.
This comes on the heels of a failed attempt by the University of Cambridge to ban all Palestine solidarity protest across four major university sites until 2030. In February, the High Court rejected that application, affirming students’ right to protest and removing all references to Palestine from the limited order eventually granted. The current effort by Trinity College is part of a growing pattern of institutional repression aimed at students and staff who speak out against the UK’s complicity in Israel’s war crimes. The ELSC is committed to resisting these dangerous precedents and upholding the right to protest against the genocide and in support of Palestinian liberation.
