When authoritarian populists take power, they use the law to roll back our rights. They can do it through existing structures, as Donald Trump did when he stacked the US Supreme Court with right-wingers who are now trying to outlaw abortion. Or they can undermine the law itself, as Viktor Orbán has done in Hungary with his muzzling of the judiciary.
Britain is no stranger to these methods. Our government has passed legislation to criminalise protest and punish refugees, among other things – while also bragging about its willingness to ignore international law when it wants to.
No wonder, then, that so much of the fightback is taking place through the courts. Campaigners are resisting these attacks on our basic rights through high-profile legal challenges, backed by crowdfunding campaigns and awareness-raising drives. Slogans like “save the Human Rights Act” and “defend judicial review” have become rallying cries for some.
