The Masterplot of ‘Hoffmann’s Bargain’ in Protest Trials

Abstract

In the House of Lords ruling in Jones, Lord Hoffmann set out what we term ‘Hoffmann’s Bargain’. Asserting ‘a long and honourable history’ of civil disobedience in England and Wales, and explicitly referencing the Suffragettes, Lord Hoffmann stated that if protesters act with a sense of proportion, they can expect the police and magistrates to act with restraint. However, protesters must accept punishment, as necessity-based defences will not be available. In this chapter we show how Hoffmann’s Bargain can be understood as a masterplot; an abstracted fiction which operates from a starting point of misremembering to produce a particular shared cultural identity which functions to create a collective and imagined community. Hoffmann’s Bargain, as masterplot, is central to shared myth-making which constructs the ideal protester within the protest trial, a trial that seeks to evacuate politics from civil disobedience.