4th to 8th of November 2026 – near Bremen, Germany
📅 save the date! Next Legal in Action conference: November 4-8, 2026 🔥
we are looking forward to inviting you to the beautiful “Tagungshaus DrĂĽbberholz” located in Northern Germany, between Bremen and Hannover and reachable by public transport from Bremen main station.
Save the date, because we would love to see many of you there. More information will follow in the next few weeks, but the time and place are already set.
In November 2025 representatives from the legal support systems of environmental defenders across different countries came together.
Vision Pitch
Activist movements around the world are met with increasing oppressive resistance through legal and other measures. People are criminalized, freedoms restricted and protests met by oppression. This shows a shift and weaponisation of legal systems and state force towards repression and authoritarianism.
We must fight for our rights and democracy, and support those who do so aswell.
Human Rights should not be taken for granted, but actively enforced, expanded and defended.
Since this repression is being organised internationally, the resistance to it needs to also be international. There is an urgent need to build the capacity within our legal networks to support effective exchange of information, tactics and strategy.
Last year we met in Amsterdam to begin this work. We shared stories of our various situations, compared organising methods, met with lawyers and NGOs, and created a valuable international mutual aid network. Since then the repression has only intensified, but so has our ability to resist it. The legal teams of groups involved in direct action and civil disobedience are invited to join us at Legal in Action 2025. We need each other, now more than ever.
If you would consider your and other groups participation valuable it would be really helpful for us, if there are capacities in your group to support the organization of the conference. To make the conference inclusive and valuable across topics, it would be necessary to have people from different groups involved in the organization. If you don’t have capacity to co-organise we are happy to have a call with you to be able to include your needs and ideas.
Write us at legalinaction@proton.me
Draft Time Table
Here, you find the broad structure of the five conference days. Specific slots and workshops are still being planned. If you would like to host a certain workshop, skillshare, or input, please let us know and we can find a suitable time!
TBA
Sign Up
- Legal in Action as an international legal strategy conference lives through the participation of all of us!Â
- So if you feel addressed by the aims of our conference as activist, legal supporter, advocat, lawyer, NGO, UN-representative, or as something inbetween, we would be happy for you to join us in October.
- To sign-up, you can simply send us an email with your background (do you belong to a specific movement?), contact information, and if you would like to host a workshop (and if so, which topic you are proposing).
- Sign ups via legalinaction@proton.me
About us
“Legal in Action” is organised by different legal support teams in Europe, such as “RĂĽckendeckung fĂĽr eine Aktive Zivilgesellschaft (RAZ) e.V.” from Germany, the legal team of Extinction Rebellion Netherlands, and “Defend our Juries” from Great Britain and many more. We are all volunteers with different backgrounds.Â
Some of us are activists who now find themselves defending other activists in court, some of us are lawyers, organizers, or networkers. But we are united by our common struggle of supporting those who are fighting against the crack-down of democracy in the face of climate crisis.
Donations & other support
You would like to support our work, but cannot make it to the conference?
We are happy about donations to finance the conference location, food and housing for the participants.
Donate here: TBA
If you would like to get involved with legal support in general, you can also contact us via legalinaction@proton.me and we will find a place for you!
Report on last years conferences
2025
coming soon
2024
We came together in Amsterdam from 18th to 22nd October 2024 as activist organised legal teams from 15 countries (mostly Europe) to get an overview on the state of repression, exchange experiences on structure and strategy and think of shared approaches.
All groups are working with civil disobedience in the climate justice movement.
In Europe, we are seeing a clear pattern of escalating repression against peaceful yet defiant protests. As many countries shift toward more authoritarian systems in response to crises, fundamental human and democratic rights are increasingly overlooked.
In the UK, over 40 political prisoners are currently held, some serving long prison sentences. In Germany, parts of the climate movement are being prosecuted as a “criminal organization,” and similar repressive actions are happening across the continent. This has created a significant “chilling effect,” with both governments and private companies working to suppress dissent.
Investigations after provisions to combat organised crime are copied by authorities throughout Europe. In other countries like Denmark and Finland, authorities implement less violent forms of repression, but discourage protest by methods of “smart repression”. For example, in Finland the police control fundraising licences, thus XR wasn’t allowed to fundraise for years of legal struggle against the arbitrary restriction.
However, we observed parallels in state’s tactics throughout Europe. Spraying paint on government buildings made repression escalate in Germany and Finland in a very similar way, showing how valuable regular exchange and knowledge transfer is for our work.
In addition to government-driven repression in Europe, activists in Congo face state repression and violence by organised gangs and militias that puts the activists at great risk, while their activism and the violence they experience are oftentimes less visible as it happens outside of Europe.
We compared our group’s structures and exchanged thoughts on how to best organise a stable support for activists.
In focus groups on smart repression, networking, strategies in courts, strategic litigation on a European level and combined media and press strategy, we discussed advantages of a network approach and different ideas that have worked in our respective countries.
There was also space for reflecting on the emotional challenge of supporting activists faced with violence and repression and exchange on how to stay strong and connected as a support structure. In the presence of many other groups working in the same area, we found comfort in not being alone, but strong together in the face of rising authoritarianism and the climate catastrophe.
Human rights defenders worldwide are losing the fight over the narrative against “law and order” authoritarians. Together, we discussed counter narratives and tactics on joining forces to protect human rights and protest against globally connected authoritarian stories, composed by think tanks and the fossil fuel industry.
On the third day, we were joined by NGO representatives from Amnesty International, Greenpeace International Legal, Green Legal Impact, Stay Grounded, Amnesty International, Global Climate Legal Defense (CliDef) and the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights to discuss how activist support structures and NGO structures can best shape these narratives and protect human rights together.
At the “Legal In Action” conference, we laid the groundwork for a network that creates room for regular exchange of thoughts and material, campaigns and shared strategies, and quick international media and press reaction to severe events of repression in national contexts.
This new network will be closely connected to the existing “Legally Green” network that consists mostly of lawyers and NGOs.
Looking forward to find strength and inspiration in each other,
The participants of “Legal In Action 2024”:
UK (Climate Action Support Pathway (CASP), Defend our Juries, Animal Rising)
Netherlands (XR legal)
Germany (RĂĽckendeckung fĂĽr eine Aktive Zivilgesellschaft (RAZ e.V.), Letzte Generation)
Finland (XR)
Chechia (Movement Hub/Legally Green Network, Climate litigation Czech Republic/legal team Limity jsme my)
Scotland (XR, This Is Rigged, Scottish Community & Activist Legal Project (SCALP))
Congo (XR Rutshuru DRC)
Poland (Ostatnie Pokolenie)
Denmark (Nødbremsen, Ulydig Retshjælp, NOAH, Friends of the Earth Denmark)
Norway (Folk Mot Fossilmakta, Beskytt Demokratiet)
Sweden (Ă…terställ VĂĄtmarker, RosamĂĄlet – The Rosa Case, Ta tillbaka framtiden (Reclaim the Future), XR)
Portugal (Climáximo)
France (Dernier Renovation, Soulevement de la terre, Riposte Alimentaire, XR France, Mouvement de soutien aux dĂ©fenseur:es de l’environnement (msde))
Belgium (Legal Team Collective)
Spain (Future Vegetal, XR)