Abu El-Haj, Tabatha, and others (eds), The Oxford Handbook of Peaceful Assembly, Oxford Handbooks(2025; online edn, Oxford Academic, 23 Jan. 2024), https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780197674871.001.000
Abstract
Why assembly? With a tide of protest worldwide since the 2010s, focusing on peaceful assembly seems easily justified. From Occupy and the Arab Spring to #MeToo, Extinction Rebellion, and BLM, ours is a protest age. While assembly is central to the politics of our time, both the right of peaceful assembly and assembly as an independent object of study remain rather neglected. This Handbook reclaims the significance of assembly from under the shadow of other rights and from a narrow focus on public protest, breaking new ground by offering critically needed analysis on assembly qua assembly. Examining assembly as a distinct political and social practice that lies uneasily at the heart of the modern state reveals insights into the nature of society, politics, and power and deepens our understanding of both popular sovereignty and institutionalized government. Global in scope and richly grounded in history, the Handbook serves as an authoritative resource on the right of peaceful assembly. Contributions from lawyers, political theorists, sociologists, anthropologists, and historians interrogate the importance of peaceful assembly, its value, its status as a legal right, and the boundaries of its legitimate regulation. Readers are offered a comprehensive understanding of the history, politics, and law of assembly, deepened by examples of assemblies analysed as events.