Protection from certain tort liabilitiesN.I.
97.—(1) An act done by a person in contemplation or furtherance of a trade dispute is not actionable in tort on the ground only—
(a)that it induces another person to break a contract or interferes or induces another person to interfere with its performance; or
(b)that it consists in his threatening that a contract (whether one to which he is a party or not) will be broken or its performance interfered with, or that he will induce another person to break a contract or interfere with its performance.
(2) An agreement or combination by two or more persons to do or procure the doing of an act in contemplation or furtherance of a trade dispute is not actionable in tort if the act is one which if done without any such agreement or combination would not be actionable in tort.
(3) Nothing in paragraphs (1) and (2) prevents an act done in the course of picketing from being actionable in tort unless it is done in the course of attendance declared lawful by Article 98 (peaceful picketing).
(4) Paragraphs (1) and (2) have effect subject to Articles 100 to 103 (action excluded from protection) and to Articles 104 (requirement of ballot before action by trade union) and 118 (requirement of notice to employer of industrial action); and in those Articles “not protected” means excluded from the protection afforded by this Article or, where the expression is used with reference to a particular person, excluded from that protection as respects that person.