Ours is an age of protest. Around the world, activists and movements believe in the potential of assembly to bring about important social and political change. The right of peaceful assembly has attracted growing policy and legal attention nationally and internationally as political actors are reminded of its power. Yet, this core civic freedom has received less scholarly exploration than the analogous rights of freedom of speech and association. In this context, The Oxford Handbook of Peaceful Assembly examines assembly as a distinct political and social practice that lies uneasily at the heart of the modern state, at times posing as a threat to the political status quo. The Handbook brings together a diverse and multidisciplinary range of experts to provide a critical, international overview of the topic. It breaks new ground by interrogating key dilemmas relating to the value, scope, and legal protection of assembly, offering critically needed analysis on assembly qua assembly. Contributions from lawyers, political theorists, sociologists, anthropologists, and historians interrogate the importance of assembly, its value, its status as a legal right, and the boundaries of its legitimate regulation. Global in scope and richly grounded in history, this Handbook serves as an authoritative, comprehensive resource on the right of peaceful assembly.
Edited by:
Oxford Handbooks
Imprint: Oxford University Press Inc
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions:
Height: 250mm,
Width: 182mm,
Spine: 54mm
Weight: 1.207kg
ISBN: 9780197674871
ISBN 10: 0197674879
Series: Oxford Handbooks
Pages: 672
Publication Date: 25 October 2025
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
College/higher education
,
Undergraduate
,
Further / Higher Education
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
1) On Assembly-Tabatha Abu El-Haj, Thomas Probert & Sharath Srinivasan Part I - Assembly 2) 'Riotous Assemblies': Protest in 18th Century England-Adrian Randall 3) In Search of a Political Theory of Assembly-Sharath Srinivasan 4) The Overregulation of the Democratic Politics of Freedom of Assembly-Stu Woolman 5) Assembly as Political Practice-Tabatha Abu El-Haj 6) Assembly, Pluralism, and Identity-John Inazu 7) Strategic Assemblies: Trade-offs and Dilemmas for Social Movements-Anna Zhelnina & James M. Jasper 8) Beyond Regime Types: Assemblies, Repression, and Political Impacts-Yao Li 9) A Feminist Critique of Peaceful Assembly-Shan-Jan Sarah Liu 10) History and Assembly in the Postcolony - Sarah J. Lockwood 11) Refugees, Freedom of Assembly, and the Right to Have a Place in the World-Asl? ?kizo?lu Erensü Part II - Peaceful Assembly as a Right 12) The Definition of Peaceful Assembly-Yuval Shany 13) Peaceful Intentions, Peaceful Conduct-Orsolya Salàt 14) Disruptively Assembling-David Mead 15) Assembly Within 'Sight and Sound' - Timothy Zick 16) Rights to Participate? Rights to Exclude? Gregory P. Magarian 17) The Digitally Mediated Freedom of Assembly- Ella McPherson Part III - Assemblies as Events 18) The October Days: The Women's March on Versailles-Micah Alpaugh 19) Peterloo-Iain Channing 20) From Natal to the Transvaal: Women in the Front Lines of the Satyagraha March of 1913-Louise du Toit 21) The Twelfth of July in Northern Ireland-Dominic Bryan 22) Looking Back at the Skokie Case: A Personal Reflection-David Goldberger 23) Escraches: Assemblies and Political Memory in Post-Dictatorial Argentina-Susana Kaiser 24) Reinventing a Public Assembly: Pink Dot, Singapore-Lynette J. Chua 25) Anonymous as Assembly, Association, and Assemblage-Davide Beraldo 26) Tahrir Square: The Complexity of An Assembly-Rabab El-Mahdi 27) Movement Lessons at Standing Rock: Protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline-Tara Houska 28) O-Platz in Berlin: An 'Eventful' Migrant Protest Camp-Marco Perolini 29) ""I Can't Breathe""-Karen J. Pita Loor Part IV - The Regulation of Assembly 30) Legal Threats to the Right to Protest-Elly Page and Nick Robinson 31) (Un)Governing Assembly: A Manifesto for Voluntary Notification-Michael Hamilton 32) Online Assemblies and Artificial Intelligence-Cameran Ashraf 33) The Right to Assemble in Times of Emergency and the Encroachment of Counter-Terrorism-Megan L. Manion 34) Understanding Collective Violence in Assemblies and Crowds-Otto Adang 35) The Role of the Police Around Public Assemblies-Thomas Probert 36) Assemblies and Technologies of Surveillance-Val Aston 37) Policing Assemblies and the Use of Force-Stuart Casey-Maslen 38) Assemblies and the courts-Steven Cammiss, Brian Doherty and Graeme Hayes
Tabatha Abu El-Haj is a Professor of Law at Drexel University's Thomas R. Kline School of Law. A scholar of U.S. constitutional law, she is an expert on the First Amendment's rights of peaceable assembly and association. Shaped by her background in the sociology of law, her work takes an interdisciplinary approach. Her prior publications include ""The Neglected Right of Assembly"" in the UCLA Law Review and ""Defining Nonviolence as a Matter of Law and Politics"" in Nomos: Protest and Dissent. She has taught as a Visiting Professor at the University of Michigan Law School and the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School. Michael Hamilton is a Legal Adviser at the International Secretariat of Amnesty International, working on civic space and the right to protest. Previously he was Associate Professor of Public Protest Law at the University of East Anglia (where he remains a Visiting Associate Professor), and he has taught at the Department of Legal Studies at Central European University and the Transitional Justice Institute at the University of Ulster. His research focuses on the legal protection of the right of peaceful assembly, and he is a founding member of the OSCE/ODIHR Panel of Experts on Freedom of Assembly and Association. Thomas Probert has worked as a Research Consultant and a Special Adviser within the UN human rights system, both to the Special Rapporteur on summary executions and to the Human Rights Committee. He has also advised the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights. In addition to being a Senior Researcher at the Centre for Human Rights (University of Pretoria), he is a Research Associate at the Centre of Governance and Human Rights (University of Cambridge). He has also taught at the University of Oxford and the Geneva Academy for International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights. Sharath Srinivasan is the David and Elaine Potter Professor of International Politics at the University of Cambridge. With expertise in African politics, he researches contentious politics and civic action from a global perspective. His work spans technology and democracy, civil politics in armed conflict, and assemblies and publics. His publications include When Peace Kills Politics: International Intervention and Unending Wars in the Sudans (Hurst/OUP, 2021) and Publics in Africa in a Digital Age (co-ed., Routledge, 2021). At Cambridge, he co-directs the Centre of Governance and Human Rights (CGHR), and is a Fellow of King's College.
