Tim Crosland

Tim Crosland  (lawyer, activist)
Born	Timothy John Edward Crosland
Alma mater	Oxford University/Pembroke College, Utrecht University
Interests	Plan B Earth
Director of Plan B Earth In office December 2015 - Present  Network Lead In office March 2015 - December 2015 Employer COP21 Support Network  Head of Cyber,  Prevention and Information Law In office October 2013 - March 2015 Employer National Crime Agency  Chair of CCI In office June 2012 - July 2014 Employer Commonwealth Cybercrime Initiative

Tim Crosland is a British lawyer and climate activist who is director of the charity Plan B Earth, which advances strategic legal action to tackle climate change. He has previously worked as a barrister in private practice and also as a lawyer for various governmental organisations including the National Crime Agency.

Declaration of Conscience

In March 2023, Tim Crosland was reported to be organising a "Declaration of Conscience", which around 120 lawyers are planning to sign and commit to refusing their services in prosecuting protesters from eco-activist groups such as Just Stop Oil and Extinction Rebellion.

Lawyers Are Responsible

Calling themselves "Lawyers Are Responsible", the group's stance has prompted accusations that they are undermining the 'cab rank' convention under which everyone is entitled to a defence, and compromising the independence of the legal profession.

Among those involved in "Lawyers Are Responsible" are Jolyon Maugham KC, founder of the Good Law Project, which is currently seeking to protect child asylum seekers' rights and challenging the Met Police's handling of the Downing Street 'partygate' scandal, and Sir Geoffrey Bindman KC, former chairman of the British Institute of Human Rights.

In an opinion piece in The Guardian, Maugham wrote:

"The 'cab rank' rule has always been relatively easy to dodge – barristers can and do hike their fees or make themselves unavailable.

"The 'cab rank' rule doesn’t apply to the larger branch of the profession: solicitors. It is often used, by those whose professional lives demonstrate no interest in access to justice, to shield barristers from criticism for self-interested decisions to act for wealthy rogues.

"In the real world it is money, not character, that divides those who do and don’t get to use the law. And the rule does little to help the millions who are denied the power of the law because they are poor.

"We should not be forced to work for the law’s wrongful ends by helping deliver new fossil fuel projects.

"We should not be forced to prosecute our brave friends whose conduct, protesting against the destruction of the planet, the law wrongly criminalises."

Official launch

Paul Powlesland protests that the 'cab rank' rule does little to help the poor

On 29 March 2023, barrister Paul Powlesland retweeted a "Lawyers Are Responsible" tweet:

"Incredible action & video officially launching the ‘Lawyers Are Responsible’ campaign; please watch & share.

“Behind every new oil and gas deal sits a lawyer, and behind that lawyer sits a law firm getting rich on those profits while other people die.”

"Lawyers Are Responsible. What will you do?

"Royal Courts of Justice, London"

Contempt of Court

In May 2021, Tim Crosland was facing prison following an unprecedented hearing by three justices of the UK/Supreme Court, sitting at the Royal Courts of Justice in London.

Tim Crosland was accused by the Attorney General Suella Braverman of deliberately disclosing the outcome of a ruling by the Supreme Court a day before it was delivered:

After careful consideration, I have concluded that in order that the rule of law be upheld, contempt of court proceedings should be brought against Tim Crosland. Irrespective of any personal views on any issue, there is no excuse for knowingly undermining court processes and proceedings.

Explanation

A statement from the law officers explained:

On 9 December 2020, in accordance with its usual practice, the Supreme Court circulated its draft judgment on the future of Heathrow Airport to various parties involved in the case including Mr Crosland, an outspoken opponent of Heathrow’s plans. The draft judgment was circulated on a confidential basis and an embargo setting out the need for confidentiality was clearly stated. It was also made clear that breaching the embargo might be treated as a contempt of court.

On 15 December 2020, Tim Crosland issued a statement to the Press Association disclosing the Supreme Court’s decision. In his statement, Mr Crosland confirmed that he had deliberately “breached the embargo as an act of civil disobedience”.

Following a referral from the Supreme Court, the solicitor general instigated contempt of court proceedings against Mr Crosland. In doing so, the solicitor general was said to be acting independently of government and in the public interest.

Fined, not imprisoned

A panel of three Supreme Court justices accepted the attorney’s arguments and fined Crosland £5,000 for contempt. He was later ordered to pay a further £15,000 towards the attorney’s costs.

Crosland lodged an appeal. But at a hearing on 18 October 2021, counsel for the Attorney General argued that the Supreme Court had no power to hear an appeal against one of its own decisions.

Supreme Court Judges Lords Briggs, Kitchin, Burrows and Lady Rose explained that this was not an appeal from the Supreme Court to the Supreme Court. It was an appeal from a panel of three justices (who had not sat on the original case) to a panel of five justices (who had not sat on the original case or on the first contempt hearing).

This was not a free-for-all, the court stressed. It didn’t open the floodgates to appeals from one panel of Judges to another at the same level. It was simply a way of considering an appeal in a contempt case.

Having decided by a majority that it could hear Crosland’s appeal, the panel considered its merits and unanimously dismissed it in the Supreme Court's Judgment given on 20 December 2021.

Newsflash

On 21 December 2021, Plan B Earth's website announced:

**Newsflash - Supreme Court decides to side with itself and the carbon economy** https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/dec/20/climate-lawyer-loses-supreme-court-appeal-over-heathrow-leak

Disbarment

In December 2022, Tim Crosland “formally renounced” his status as a barrister “as an act of protest and conscience”. He said: “A barrister has the professional duty to respect the authority of the courts. But I cannot respect these courts any longer.”

Speaking in January 2023 after being disbarred, Crosland said:

“Preserving the confidentiality of draft judgments is important, but conserving the conditions which make the planet habitable is more important still.

“Sadly the British legal system has made a Faustian pact with the carbon economy, and City barristers, with the backing of the courts, make vast profits from supporting fossil fuel transactions, knowing full well they are leading directly to mass loss of life and collapse of the rule of law.

“The same legal system that legitimised the slave trade and the plunder of the Global South now veils the destruction of our own country in a cloak of legality.

“Maybe the Bar Standards Board should be more concerned with the integrity (or otherwise) of people like that.”

 

Related Document

Title	Type	Publication date	Author(s)	Description
Document:The Mind Numbing Hypocrisy of the Supreme Court	blog post	21 December 2021	Craig Murray	So the Supreme Court has ruled that there must be a right to appeal against imprisonment, unless your name is Craig Murray, you are connected to Julian Assange or you are a "war on terror" whistleblower.

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