The Freedom Law Clinic ran ‘The Civil Liberties in the Lockdown’ project in partnership with the Manifesto Club, during the UK COVID 19 lockdown.

Students recruited from eight Universities across the UK attempted to monitor how the Coronavirus Act 2020 and the Healthcare Protection Regulations applied in lockdown.  The students were undergraduates  from Birmingham University, Essex University, Hertfordshire University, Liverpool John Moores University, London Metropolitan University, The Open University, Queen Mary London University, and Wolverhampton University.

The project had two goals:

1. Publish a report detailing the law’s developments since lockdown in the UK and information on how it was applied. 

2. To offer pro-bono assistance to anyone adversely affected by the lockdown laws and arrange suitable representation for them where appropriate. 

After the project, the clinic aims to use its students’ network to continue to run projects focused on civil liberties.

You can now download and read the report here.

Founder and Director of the Freedom Law Clinic, Luke Gittos, coordinated the students’ project work. The project commenced on the 30th of April 2020 with the first expert speaker seminar. The project ran on Zoom Video Conferencing software, and student and clinic communication took place via the communication platform Slack. 

You can now review the recordings of these debates below.