Helga Law Journal - 01.01.2021, Page 101

Helga Law Journal Vol. 1, 2021
104 105
International Legal Research Group
Research Group. After the research questions were answered and evaluated by the
supervisors, each group’s submission was sent to Professor Björg Thorarensen for
her input. We regret that one of the answers is missing from ELSA Nanterre’s
report due to unavoidable circumstances.
Finally, the research report was collated and published in the present format.
We hope that this report will help students build their interest on the right to
protest and human rights generally. Furthermore, we anticipate that this report will
be a helpful resource in informing students across different ELSA Groups of the
current protections of the right to protest in three different jurisdictions.

In 2013, ELSA was involved in Council of Europe's ‘No Hate Speech Movement’.
The final report resulted in a concluding conference in Oslo that same year and
has received a lot of interest from academics and activists in the field of
discrimination and freedom of speech. The results of the LRG conference, a
guideline, have even been translated into Japanese and were presented in the
Council of Europe and UNESCO!
3 What is the Legal Research Group on the Right to
Protest?
The Legal Research Group on the right to protest is a cooperation between ELSA
LSE, ELSA Iceland and ELSA Nanterre. The LRG serves as a significant step
towards increasing knowledge about the right to protest and providing additional
learning opportunities to law students everywhere.
The right to protest is one of the most important rights because the ability to
demonstrate is one of the hallmarks of democracy. Demonstration of public
opinion has led to some of the most important changes around the world. In the
UK, the introduction of “poll tax” by the Thatcher government led to large scale
protests across the UK. The national opposition to tax contributed to the
diminishing popularity of the Conservative Government and led to the eventual
establishment of Council Tax. In the United States, the March on Washington for
Jobs and Freedom was a huge influence for the development and legislative
initiative of civil and economic rights for African Americans in the 1960s. Thus,
protesting has been a key method used to display public will. As a result, protection
of the right to protest is vital in democratic countries.
Legally, all three jurisdictions involved in the project (Iceland, UK and France)
are subscribed to the European Convention on Human Rights. Although the right
to protest is not an explicit right in the Convention, a combination of Article 10
(the freedom to expression) and Article 11 (the freedom of assembly and
association) have been interpreted by the courts to cover the right to protest. The
academic framework of this Legal Research Group aimed to cover the most
important aspects regarding the right to protest. The questions included
discussions about constitutional protection, effective remedies, impact of the
ECHR, state obligations in times of emergency, restrictions on the right to protest
with reference to prevention of order or crime, positive obligations required by
the state, digital protests, and freedom of speech and the right to protest in
academic institutions. The Legal Research Group on the right to protest formally
began last year in March. Each ELSA Group was tasked with recruiting
researchers, supervisors and linguistic editors to assist with the project.
The project covers the legal framework of the right of protest under each
jurisdiction and how these may be applied in different contexts. We are very
grateful to Professor Björg Thorarensen for establishing the questions within the
Academic Framework. In addition, we are very grateful for all researchers, national
supervisors and linguistic editors for their time and effort dedicated to this Legal