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http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2008/oct/14/internationaleducationnews-highereducation

The University and College Union (UCU) is facing a court threat if it doesn’t retract its decision to encourage members to question the ethics of contacts with universities in Israel.

A group of as yet anonymous litigants, who are UCU members, are demanding repayment of any union funds spent on carrying out a national conference resolution which asked academics to consider the moral and political implications of their links with Israeli institutions.

Via their solicitors, Mishcon de Reya, the litigants warn UCU that they will sue its four trustees individually for recovery of the money.

A year ago UCU accepted legal advice that its 2007 national conference motion for an academic boycott of Israel was unlawful and could not be implemented.

At this year’s conference in May, lecturers voted overwhelmingly to call on colleagues to “consider the moral and political implications of educational links with Israeli institutions, and to discuss the occupation with individuals and institutions concerned, including Israeli colleagues with whom they are collaborating”.

Their general secretary, Sally Hunt, had warned delegates before the debate that UCU would need to take legal advice on what steps it could take to carry out the motion. The motion sparked off a heated debate and a succession of resignations from UCU members.

In a House of Lords debate, the former independent adjudicator for higher education, Baroness Deech, called on universities to derecognise the union.

“These efforts to boycott, or to come as close as possible to a boycott, are contrary to race relations legislation and ultra vires the powers of the union,” Deech said.

“The UCU has created an atmosphere hostile to Jewish academics and to quality academic research and freedom in this country,” Deech added.

On September 26, Mishcon de Reya wrote to Hunt warning her that unless UCU accepted within 14 days that the latest conference resolution was “ultra vires” – beyond its powers – a group of unnamed members would take it to court.

As UCU members, its clients were entitled to sue the union and its trustees – Professor Neil Macfarlane, Fawzi Ibrahim, Dr Dennis Wright and Paul Russell – to force it to declare the resolution null and void, the letter said.

And they would sue the trustees for the repayment of any money spent on implementing the resolution.

If legal action is taken, the union members taking it will be identified, their solicitors say. The 14-day deadline for UCU to reply passed on Friday.