Good Law Project

The Good Law Project is a United Kingdom-based political^[1] non-profit company.^[2][3] Founded by Jolyon Maugham,^[4] the Good Law Project states that its mission is to achieve change and government accountability through the law.^[5]

Good Law Project

Formation	January 2017; 8 years ago (2017-01)
Founder	Jolyon Maugham
Type	Nonprofit
Purpose	Activism
Official language	English
Website	goodlawproject.org

History

The Good Law Project was founded in January 2017 as a company limited by guarantee under English law^[6] headed by Maugham. It is a non-profit but not a registered charity. In 2019 it launched a crowdfunded challenge to the prorogation of Parliament by Boris Johnson's Conservative government, which was ultimately successful. The prorogation was ruled unlawful by the Supreme Court,^[7] but by this time Johnson's government had pushed through their Brexit deal so the issue was moot. However, the £200,000 raised enabled Good Law Project to hire more staff and launch other fundraisers to take on more cases.

In the 2022 case of Good Law Project & Anor, R (On the Application Of) v The Prime Minister & Anor [2022] EWHC 298 (Admin), the High Court was critical of the Good Law Project "drafting its objects clause so widely that just about any conceivable public law error by any public authority falls within its remit" and was not convinced that "such a general statement of objects" could confer legal standing upon the company; the Court added that it could not be supposed that the company had "carte blanche to bring any claim for judicial review no matter what the issues and no matter what the circumstances." The Good Law Project's lack of standing was not fatal to the case, however, since its Runnymede Trust co-plaintiff was deemed to have standing.^[8][9]

The Good Law Project was criticised in The Critic magazine for exaggerating its success rate.^[10]

Cases

Abingdon Health

The Good Law Project challenged the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, claiming that the COVID testing contracts with Abingdon Health were unlawful because they were not advertised nor open to competition, and the correct procurement process was bypassed. On 7 October 2022 the High Court ruled that the contracts were lawful, so Good Law Project lost the case.^[11]

LGB Alliance

In September 2022, the charity Mermaids went to court to appeal the Charity Commission's decision to grant the LGB Alliance charitable status. This action was supported by the Good Law Project.^[12] The appeal was dismissed in July 2023 on the grounds that "the law does not permit Mermaids to challenge the decision made by the Charity Commission to register LGB Alliance as a charity".^[13][14][15]