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7 Cambridge L. Rev. 28 (2022)
'Legitimate' Protest in European Human Rights Law: A Critical Reconstruction

handle is hein.journals/cambrilv7 and id is 222 raw text is: 28 Cambridge Law Review (2022) Vol VII, Issue 2 Cambridge Law Review (2022) Vol VII, Issue 2, 28-55 'Legitimate' Protest in European Human Rights Law: A Critical Reconstruction MYTHILI MISHRA* ABSTRACT This article studies the construction of 'legitimate' protest in European human rights law. It uses the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights to understand and evaluate what kinds of protest the Court legitimises, and what kinds it does not. The conceptual map consists of three ideas: responsibility, disruption, and offence. It is argued that these three fundamental strands come together to construct the Court's account of 'legitimate' protest. This account is also reconstructed through a critical evaluation of the Court's justifications, enabling us to interrogate the Court's judgments and criticise them for inadequately protecting the right to protest. It concludes with observations about what the findings mean for the protection of human rights and democracy, positing that the Court offers only limited or no protection to protestors who do not fit a certain model, which is a threat to democracy. Keywords: Right to protest, ECHR, freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, democracy I. INTRODUCTION We have been living through an age of pandemic, but also of protest. From the global Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests to women's rights demonstrations in Poland challenging the tightening of anti-abortion laws, people took to the streets. All of this occurred in the middle of an unprecedented global pandemic which posed new threats to the health and safety of protestors and gave new Advocate (India), LLB (London School of Economics and Political Science), BA (Lady Shri Ram College, Delhi University). The author is grateful to Dr Sarah Trotter and Professor Kai Moller for their feedback and guidance.