-
Chapter VII: The Right of Public Meeting
- Liberty Fund
- Chapter
- Additional Information
Law_151-200.indd 169 1/27/12 1:23 PM Right of public meeting. Rules of Belgian constitution. Principles of English law as to right of public meeting. Chapter VII lliE RIGHTOF PUBLIC MEETING1 The law of Belgium2 with regard to public meetings is contained in the nineteenth article of the constitution, which is probably intended in the main to reproduce the law of England, and runs as follows: Art. 19. Les Belges ont le droit de s'assembler paisiblement et sans armes, en se conformant aux lois, qui peuvent regler l'exercice de ce droit, sans neanmoins le soumettre aune autorisation prealable. Cette disposition ne s'applique point aux rassemblements en plein air, qui restent entierement soumis aux lois de police.3 The restrictions on the practice of public meeting appear to be more stringent in Belgium than in England, for the police have with us no special authority to control open-air assemblies. Yet justas it cannot with strict accuracy be asserted that English law recognises the liberty of the press, so it can hardly be said that our constitution knows of such a thing as any specific right of public meeting. No better in1 See generally as to the right of public meeting, Stephen, Commentaries, iv. (14th ed.), pp. 174-178, and Kenny, Outlines ofCriminal Law (3rd ed.), pp. 280-286. See Appendix, Note V., Questions connected with the Right of Public Meeting. 2 See Law Quarterly Review, iv. p. 159. See also as to right of public meeting in Italy, ibid. p. 78; in France, ibid. p. 165; in Switzerland, ibid. p. 169; in United States, ibid. p. 257· See as to history of law of public meeting in France, Duguit, Manuel de Droit Constitutionnel, pp. 554-559· 3 Constitution de Ia Belgique, art. 19. CHAPTER V/1 Law_151-200.indd 170 1/27/12 1:23 PM LAW OF THE CONSTITUTION stance can indeed be found of the way in which in England the constitution is built up upon individual rights than our rules as to public assemblies. The right of assembling is nothing more than a result of the view taken by the Courts as to individual liberty of person and individual liberty of speech. There is no special law allowingA , B, and C to meet together either in the open air or elsewhere for a lawful purpose, but the right ofA to go where he pleases so that he does not commit a trespass, and to say what he likes to B so thathis talk is not libellous or seditious, the right of B to do the like, and the existence of the same rights of C, D, E, and F, and so onad infinitum, lead to the consequence thatA, B, C, D, and a thousand or ten thousand other persons, may (as a general rule)4 meet together in any place where otherwise they each have a right to be for a lawful purpose and in a lawful manner. A has a right to walk down the High Street or to go on to a common. B has the same right. C, D, and all their friends have the same right to go there also. In other words, A, B, C, and D, and ten thousand such, have a right to hold a public meeting; and as A may say to B that he thinks an Act ought to be passed abolishing the House of Lords, or that the House of Lords are bound to reject any bill modifying the constitution of their House, and as B may make the same remark to any of his friends, the result ensues that A and ten thousand more may hold a public meeting either to support the government or to encourage the resistance of the Peers. Here then you have in substance that right of public meeting for political and other purposes which is constantly treated in foreign countries as a special privilege, to be exercised only subject to careful restrictions. The assertion, however, that A, B, C, and D, and a hundred thousand more persons, justbecause they may each go where they like, and each say what they please, have a right to hold meetings for the discussion of political and other topics, does not of course mean that it is impossible for persons so to exercise the right of meeting as to break the law. The object of a meeting may be to commit a crime by open force, or in some...