News & Views

New Resource: Legal Handbook for the Coal and Gas Movement

19 May 2015 less than 1 minute read

A new resource for climate activists was launched in May 2015 by Melbourne Activist Legal Support (MALS) member, Nicola Paris, who runs CounterAct.

The launch was attended by environmentalists, farmers and people involved in the progressive legal community, as well as members of MALS.

CounterAct collaborated with Environmental Justice Australia and the document was intended to strike a chord between accurate legal information, and a real sense of how interactions with police can sometimes play out – whilst giving a realistic perspective of the overstated, but often relatively minor consequences for participating in peaceful civil disobedience protest. It was designed to be approachable for new activists, trying to minimise cliquey activist language.

The resource can be found here, and hard copies are available by donation at Friends of the Earth and Environmental Justice Australia.

We also took a register of interest at the launch for MALS’ lawyer network – a project will be working on in coming months to coordinate and collate a list of lawyers willing to act for activists and civil disobedience protest. If you are keen, get in touch.

Melbourne Activist Legal Support (MALS)

is an independent volunteer group of lawyers, human rights advocates, law students and para-legals. MALS trains and fields Legal Observer Teams at protest events, provides training and advice to activist groups on legal support structures, and develops and distributes legal resources for social movements. MALS works in conjunction with law firms, community legal centres, and a range of local, national, and international human rights agencies. We stand up for civil and political rights.

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