Political Freedom: Association, Political Purposes and the Law

"Political Freedom" describes the liberties and rights of persons to take action which is deliberately designed to influence and affect public purposes: in particular government policy, the law and public opinion. Howard Davis looks at how the presence of political motives, when balanced against other motives, affects the legal character of the action, and asks why common law and statute should differentiate the political from the non-political. The book makes a contribution to the debate on the effectiveness of democracy in the United Kingdom in relation to the right to act politically and to participate in the political process of the nation, a human right as defined by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the European Convention on Human Rights.