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Austin v Commissioner of Police for the Metropolis [2009] UKHL 5

The question arose as to whether crowd control measures, in which the applicant was detained for seven hours within a police cordon, constituted a 'deprivation of liberty'. The court acknowledged that the question of whether the police action constituted a deprivation of liberty contrary to the ECHR, art 5 or simply a restriction of liberty had to be determined taking into account all the circumstances of the situation; the determination of such cases would be highly fact-sensitive and would require a balance between the individual interest and that of the community. In this case, the crowd control exercised by the police in Oxford Circus, London in response to May Day demonstrations in 2001 was not seen to have resulted in a deprivation of the applicant's liberty, as the overall police operation was considered to have been carried out in difficult circumstances and in a reasonable and proportionate manner.