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Item Russian Federation: Mapping the legal landscape of freedom of association(School of Law, University College Cork, 2024-03-01) Kavanagh, Elena; Cahill, Maria; Ó Conaill, Seán; Newman, Dwight; McIntyre, Ruairí; Irish Research CouncilRussia has experienced various phases of development of its civil society over the course of its history. Two main trends can be identified in the evolution of legislation governing civic associations in Russia. Firstly, there have been periods of state policy that have alternated between tightening and liberalising citizen associations. Secondly, the regulatory framework has become increasingly complex and specific over time. This paper aims to map the legal landscape of freedom of association in Russia while demonstrating Soviet influence on the current legal framework. The history of freedom of association in Russia is quite extensive. Throughout history, various types of unions, associations, and charities have existed in Russia. During critical periods of Russian history, the freedom of association had a stronger focus. This occurred in the context of transforming national values and exacerbating social relations, particularly when the geopolitical situation was unstable and threatened federal stability. Following the chronology developed by Gavrilova, the development of freedom of association in Russia can be divided into four historical periods: from the tenth until the first half of the 19th century, from the second half of the 19th until the beginning of the 20th century; from 1917 until 1991; and from 1992 until 2012. Currently, Russia is experiencing a fifth historical period of the development of freedom of association, which started with legislative amendments and continued with strict control measures regarding freedom of association. These changes reflect the evolving political and legal landscape and have resulted in certain limitations for associations and their members.Item The legal landscape of freedom of association in Canada: The complex path to half of a constitutional freedom(School of Law, University College Cork, 2024-03-01) Newman, Dwight; Cahill, Maria; Ó Conaill, Seán; Newman, Dwight; McIntyre, Ruairí; Irish Research CouncilThis paper examines freedom of association in Canada. In particular, it traces why Canada’s constitutional protection of freedom of association has developed only slowly and principally in the union context so far, reaching in a struggling way toward what I call “half a constitutional freedom”. Freedom of association appears in section 2(d) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, with that section protecting simply ‘freedom of association’. That Charter was adopted as part of major constitutional amendments in 1982. Canada did not previously have a written bill of rights within its Constitution, but the Charter became a constitutional bill of rights, with constitutional supremacy pursuant to section 52(1) of the Constitution Act, 1982, which states that ‘[t]he Constitution of Canada is the supreme law of Canada, and any law that is inconsistent with the provisions of the Constitution is, to the extent of the inconsistency, of no force or effect’. Judicial interpretation of the clauses in the Charter thus matters immensely, and this paper principally traces the judicial interpretation of the freedom of association clause, considering why it has developed in the usual way that it has, which is as what I call a “forgotten freedom”. This is a concept pertinent to a number of freedoms of Canada’s Charter that have not received extensive scholarly or jurisprudential development.Item An approach to the basis of the right to freedom of association according to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights(School of Law, University College Cork, 2024-03-01) Jerez Moreno, Rafael; Cahill, Maria; Ó Conaill, Seán; Newman, Dwight; McIntyre, Ruairí; Irish Research CouncilThis paper aims to set the basis of how the right to freedom of association is protected in its normative and jurisprudential precedents between 2001 and 2022 within the Inter-American System of Human Rights. For this purpose, Section 2 lays out a historical vision of the international conventions enacted within the Inter-American System of Human Rights that include regulations on the right to freedom of association, emphasising the American Convention on Human Rights (ACHR). Section 3 presents the institutional framework of the Inter-American System of Human Rights through which individual petitions are lodged concerning human rights violations. The latter section addresses the conventionality control doctrine as a means for the enforceability of the decisions of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR). Section 4 dives into the decisions published by the IACHR concerning the right to freedom of association, classified into four major categories: syndical freedom, the defense of human rights, the condition of indigenous communities, and the exercise of political rights. Section 5 analyses vital criteria identified in the four classifications of jurisprudence published by the IACHR on the right to freedom of association. The analysis centers on the consolidation of syndical freedom in the jurisprudential line of the IACHR as a species of the right to freedom of association, an emerging discussion on the protection of syndical freedom within the right to Progressive Development of Article 26 of the ACHR, the intimidating effect of the affectations of the violation of the right to freedom of association, and the conjunct analysis of violation of human rights whose relation enable what the IACHR calls the ‘democratic game’.Item Freedom of association: The case in Poland(School of Law, University College Cork, 2024-03-01) Cyuńczyk, Filip; Cahill, Maria; Ó Conaill, Seán; Newman, Dwight; McIntyre, Ruairí; Irish Research CouncilThe concept of freedom of association appeared in the Polish legal system together with the regaining of its independence in 1918 and the enactment of its first modern constitution two and a half years later. However, due to the historical perturbations suffered by Poland between the establishment of the Second Republic and its accession to the supranational structures of the European Union in 2004, the ‘long duration’ of the concrete provisions of the law was not possible. From the creeping change of the regime before the Second World War, embodied in the 1935 constitution, through the periods of war and occupation, Stalinist totalitarianism and the successive authoritarian governments under Moscow's curatorship, the freedom (or right) of association was influenced by subsequent ideologies and the systems of value brought by them. Nevertheless, the adoption of the liberal-democratic Constitution in 1997 provided its contemporary character typical of that system of government. This does not mean, however, that historical experience has not resulted in the formation of local peculiarities related to freedom of association. It appears, among other things, with a pervasive system of statutory provisions and profound constitutional regulation. I would like to discuss these specificities in this paper by presenting, in part two, a historical outline (2.1). Further, the current legal status shall be addressed. Both the constitutional layer (part 2.2) and the specific laws operationalising this freedom will be analysed. More specifically, I will present selected provisions of the Law on Associations (part 2.2.1), the Act on Political Parties (2.2.2) and the Act on Trade Unions (2.2.3). The third part will deal with the role of the judicial system. Both in terms of its impact on legal reality (3.1) and given the specific responsibilities imposed by the legislature in the laws already mentioned (3.2). In the fourth part of this text, I will discuss the prospects and challenges that reality creates for freedom of association in Poland. The main aim of this text is to familiarise the reader with the key institutions that guarantee and operationalise freedom of association in Poland and the local specifics of understanding this freedom.Item Freedom of association in France: A freedom in danger?(School of Law, University College Cork, 2024-03-01) Barbé, Vanessa; Cahill, Maria; Ó Conaill, Seán; Newman, Dwight; McIntyre, Ruairí; Irish Research CouncilIn France, freedom of association is protected since a law of 1901 (section 2) and has a constitutional and international value (section 3). However, there are many justifications for the dissolution of associations (section 4), the number of which has increased since 2017 (subsection 4.1). This paper analyses a recent modification of the law of associations in 2021, through the case of the dissolution of an undeclared association which is accused to ‘provoke violent acts against persons or property’ (subsection 4.2). Another modification in 2021 deals with the public funding of associations, with the establishment of the ‘republican commitment contract’ that associations must sign before applying for a public subsidy (section 5). Freedom of association seems to be in danger in France because of the multiplication of legal restrictions on this freedom, justified by its ambiguous nature (section 6).