Mobilising the law: reflections on feminist legal activism and the undercover policing scandal

Harriet Samuels

Chapter 21 in Research Handbook on Gender, Violence and Law, 2026, pp 345-359 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: The undercover policing scandal involved police officers adopting fake identities and deceiving women activists in political groups into intimate relationships. It raises profound questions about the misogynist nature of policing and its ability to respond to gender-based violence. Determined to hold the state accountable for the deception and violence perpetrated against them, the women survivors used a wide number of legal tools and instruments, including actions in tort, a judicial review against the Crown Prosecution Service, an action under the Human Rights Act 1998 in the Investigatory Appeals Tribunal, and a petition to the UN CEDAW Committee. The subsequent public inquiry has also been the subject of feminist litigation. This chapter analyzes the legal activism of the women who were the survivors of the scandal and the strategic decisions they, their supporters and lawyers made to choose the law as a tool to pursue justice.

Keywords: Undercover Policing; Feminist Strategic Litigation; Human Rights; Spycops (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781035319398
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