Libertad para protestar

Como anticipáramos por ahí, Andras Sajo acaba de editar un libro, "Free to Protest. Constituent Power and Street Demonstration," que se concentra sobre las manifestaciones callejeras, y al cual contribuyo con un texto. Dejo la tabla de contenidos, el link a la página de la editorial anunciando la publicación (acá), y la presentación del libro (en inglés, abajo del índice). Mi artículo favorito en el texto es el de Helen Fenwick y Gavin Phillipson. A Helen hay que seguirla, es la persona que maneja el tema de la protesta en Europa, muy bien parada jurisprudencialmente. También tiene una serie de libros muy buenos analizando la Human Rights Act en Europa, o la situación de las libertades civiles y los derechos humanos en Inglaterra (acá). Sería bueno traducir el texto que saca en este volumen, si a alguien le interesara hacerlo

Va el índice y la presentación

The Importance of Freedom of Assembly: Three Models of Justification
Tamás Győrfi

Balancing Emotionalism: Contemporary Implications of the Impact of Street Demonstrations on Third-Party Interests
Bogdan Iancu

We, the People: Freedom of Assembly, the Rights of Others, and Inclusive Constitutionalism
Michael Hamilton

A Dialogue on Law and Social Protest
Roberto Gargarella

The Power of Assembled People: The Right to Assembly and Political Representation
Daniel Smilov

New Trends in the Assembly and Protest Jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights
Orsolya Salát

Limiting Freedom of Assembly Based on Harms to Third Parties: The Balancing of Economic Freedoms and Fundamental Rights in the European Union and MERCOSUR
Lucas Lixinski

Ethical and Political Considerations of Exercising Freedom of Assembly in Poland
Anna Śledzińska-Simon

Shaping the Freedom of Assembly: Counter-Productive Effects of the Polish Road towards Illiberal Democracy
Adam Bodnar

The Human Rights Act, Public Protest and Judicial Activism
Helen Fenwick and Gavin Phillipson

Demonstration Democracy in Hungary: the Aspect of Policing Protestfrom the Catacomb of Unofficial Activities to the Rioting
Máté Szabó

A Comparative Study of Laws of Assembly in China: Historical Continuity and Transition
Kam C. Wong


This book addresses the issue of public demonstrations, looking at the experiences of established democracies (EU member states and USA) and countries in transition. The approach of the book is to cover the problem not as a strictly legal one, but to combine the constitutional and human rights aspects with the historical, political and philosophical dimensions.

The recent history of mass protests in democracies and semi-democracies raises a number of concerns. Some of these concerns are related to the proper balance between the right to demonstrate and its impacts on third parties. When it comes to striking the proper balance one cannot avoid the specific problems associated with crowd phenomena. Recent demonstrations concerning election results or regime legitimacy in a growing number of post-communist regimes raise a fundamental practical question: are mass demonstrations a (the) genuine expression of popular will? Are spontaneous forms of mass discontent genuinely supreme and legitimate expressions of popular sovereignty? What is the place of the expression of popular discontent in constitutional (indirect) democracy? A key question is whether the freedom of assembly should be placed into a different normative context, that is perceiving it not as an individual right of expression of ideas but as a collective right to directly shape politics.