When people gather to march, protest or demonstrate, the law has to balance their freedom of expression against the public's need for order and safety. Solicitors advising organisers, protesters or the police need to know exactly what the rules require: when notice must be given, what the police can and cannot do, and where preventive powers like breach of the peace come in. Getting these lines right is the difference between lawful action and liability.
This lesson builds that picture step by step:
- Foundations — the statutory framework and the key distinction between processions and assemblies.
- Notice of Processions — when organisers must notify the police in advance, what the notice must contain, and the exemptions.
- Conditions on and Prohibition of Processions — how the police can shape a march with conditions, and when they can ban one outright.
- Public and Trespassory Assemblies — the more limited powers over static gatherings, including the special rules for trespassory assemblies.
- Breach of the Peace and Binding Over — the common law powers of arrest and the preventive binding over orders that sit alongside the statute.
By the end, you will be able to take any public order scenario and identify which powers apply and how far they reach.