Assembly As Political Practice

The Oxford Handbook of Peaceful Assembly (Tabatha Abu El-Haj, Michael Hamilton, Thomas Probert & Sharath Srinivasan, eds.)

17 Pages Posted: 22 Apr 2024

See all articles by Tabatha Abu El-Haj

Tabatha Abu El-Haj

Drexel University Thomas R. Kline School of Law; Thomas R. Kline School of Law, Drexel University

Date Written: April 19, 2024

Abstract

The right of peaceful assembly is often touted as preserving the promise of fundamental political or social change. It ensures the people’s power to secure the franchise or social inclusion and to overthrow oppressive regimes, whether colonial, apartheid, or dictatorial. But assemblies come in a range of other forms, including annual parades, smaller political protests, and weekly gatherings of social groups. All these forms of assembly sustain and reinforce the capacity for democratic politics, and their value does not turn on their expressive ends alone. Both the possibility of effective democratic politics, and a proper construction of the right of peaceful assembly, demand that we recognize the value of assembly, as assembly, and its latent and constitutive political functions. This chapter thus explores assembly as a form of social and political action, demonstrating that the act of assembly has independent, intrinsic value, apart from and often prior to, either its expressive or instrumental political functions.

Keywords: right of assembly, freedom of assembly, popular sovereignty, expression, social ties, self-government, political theory, social practice

JEL Classification: K10

Suggested Citation

Abu El-Haj, Tabatha, Assembly As Political Practice (April 19, 2024). The Oxford Handbook of Peaceful Assembly (Tabatha Abu El-Haj, Michael Hamilton, Thomas Probert & Sharath Srinivasan, eds.), Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4800810 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4800810

Tabatha Abu El-Haj (Contact Author)

Drexel University Thomas R. Kline School of Law ( email )

3320 Market Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104
United States

HOME PAGE: http://drexel.edu/law/faculty/fulltime_fac/Tabatha%20Abu%20El-Haj/

Thomas R. Kline School of Law, Drexel University ( email )

3141 Chestnut St
Philadelphia, PA 19104
United States

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