Judges’ Understanding of Protests and the Cultural Underpinnings of Legal Repression

Examining Hong Kong Court Verdicts

Dados Bibliográficos

ID12282913
AutoresFrancis Lee (0000-0003-1587-4950, Chinese University of Hong Kong, autor correspondente)
Ano2022
Volume32
Fascículo3
Páginas464-484
Data de publicação2022-08-29
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoSocial & Legal Studies (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0964-6639 • E-ISSN: 1461-7390
EditoraSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/09646639221122443
OpenAlexW4293425831
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas4
Referências citadas36

Given a concern with legal repression of protests and based on the premise that judges inevitably draw upon common sense ideas in judicial decision-making, this article examines how understandings of protests, protesters and protest policing are embedded in verdicts in protest-related court cases. A textual analysis was conducted on judgements in 21 cases about rioting and incitement associated with three prominent protest events in Hong Kong between 2014 and 2019. The analysis shows that the assumptions of risk aversion and perceptiveness were applied to the protesters and onlookers, whereas the assumption of professionalism was applied to the police. How police actions might influence protesters was ignored. The emergence of protest violence was typically understood in terms of emotional contagion within the crowd. Overall, such ideas and assumptions substantially constrain protests, though they sometimes benefitted the defendants in individual cases. The findings illustrate the cultural underpinnings of legal repression of protests

Criminology · Epistemology · Incitement · Political science · Premise · Psychological repression · Sociology · China's Socioeconomic Reforms and Governance · Hong Kong and Taiwan Politics · Law · Psychology · Social Psychology · Southeast Asian Sociopolitical Studies