The pursuer challenged the rights of the Magistrates to issue a proclamation ordering that ‘persons shall not assemble or congregate or hold meetings’ in certain streets of the city unless they had been licensed to do so.
Held: They indeed had no power to do so either under the Act of 1606, cap.17, for staying unlawful conventions, or at common law. They had power by means of the police to move people on if they were causing an obstruction or their conduct was such as to be likely to amount to a breach of the peace. What they could not do without statutory authority was to create an offence and impose penalties. ‘As regards the common law, I wish most distinctly to state it as my opinion that the primary and overruling object for which the streets exist is passage. The streets are public, but they are public for passage, and there is no such thing as a right in the public to hold meetings as such in the streets.’ and ‘the right of free speech is a perfectly separate thing from the question of the place where that right is to be exercised.’
Citations:
1913 SC 1059
Jurisdiction:
Scotland
Cited by:
Cited – Director of Public Prosecutions v Jones and Lloyd HL 4-Mar-1999
21 people protested peacefully on the verge of the A344, next to the perimeter fence at Stonehenge. Some carried banners saying ‘Never Again,’ ‘Stonehenge Campaign 10 years of Criminal Injustice’ and ‘Free Stonehenge.’ The officer in charge . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Torts – Other
Updated: 13 May 2022; Ref: scu.192203