Freedom of Assembly and Association in UK Law

In our view, those factors include (but are not limited to) the extent to which the continuation of the protest would breach domestic law, the importance of the precise location to the protesters, the duration of the protest, the degree to which the protesters occupy the land, and the extent of the actual interference the protest causes to the rights of others, including the property rights of the owners of the land, and the rights of any members of the public.

Lord Hewart CJ reflected the then current orthodoxy when he observed in Duncan v Jones [1936] 1 KB 218, 222, that "English law does not recognize any special right of public meeting for political or other purposes". The Human Rights Act 1998, giving domestic effect to articles 10 and 11 of the European Convention, represented what Sedley LJ in Redmond-Bate v Director of Public Prosecutions (1999) 163 JP 789, 795, aptly called a "constitutional shift".

Article 10 confers a right to freedom of expression and article 11 to freedom of peaceful assembly. Neither right is absolute. The exercise of these rights may be restricted if the restriction is prescribed by law, necessary in a democratic society and directed to any one of a number of specified ends.

By contrast, a peaceful protester does not cease to enjoy the right to peaceful assembly as a result of sporadic violence or other punishable acts committed by others in the course of a demonstration: Ziliberberg v Moldova and Ezelin v France (1991) 14 EHRR 362, 375, para 34 of the Commission's decision.

But the European Court has at all times also stressed the importance of the rights of freedom of assembly and expression and that states have positive obligations to take steps to facilitate their exercise (cf paragraph 136 above). So, wherever possible, the focus of preventive action should, on any view, be on those about to act disruptively, not on innocent third parties.

The submission in simple terms is that the State, in its various public authority guises (police, CPS, courts) must be able to justify the necessity to act on the individual facts of each case. Thus, it is submitted that the questions that arise in each case are – was the arrest, detention, prosecution and conviction of the appellant strictly necessary? Was each necessary and proportionate for the achievement of legitimate aims, or was it heavy-handed and unnecessary?

It is self-evident that any right to be recognised conferred by domestic law will have to be defined by rules which identify which unions should be recognised by which employers in respect of which workers and for what purposes.