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The law of crowds
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Wall, Illan Rua (2016) The law of crowds. Legal Studies, 36 (3). pp. 395-414. doi:10.1111/lest.12111 ISSN 0261-3875.
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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/lest.12111
Abstract
From the Arab Spring and Occupy to the London riots and student tuition fee protests, the disordered crowd has re-emerged as a focal point of anxiety for law makers. The paper examines two recent cases where the UK courts have thought about crowds. In Austin, the House of Lords connected the crowd to an idea of human nature. This essentialist rendering placed the crowd within an old analytical register where it is understood to release a primordial violence. In Bauer, the Administrative Court utilised a very different sense of the ‘crowdness’ of the crowd to uphold the conviction of UK Uncut activists for aggravated trespass. In their novelty and difference, these two mutually exclusive senses of the crowd open an essential question of the relation between law and society. This paper introduces the ‘Law of Crowds’ as a distinctive way to understand the questions of protest, revolt and democracy.
Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||||
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Divisions: | Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Law | ||||||||
Journal or Publication Title: | Legal Studies | ||||||||
Publisher: | Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd. | ||||||||
ISSN: | 0261-3875 | ||||||||
Official Date: | September 2016 | ||||||||
Dates: |
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Volume: | 36 | ||||||||
Number: | 3 | ||||||||
Page Range: | pp. 395-414 | ||||||||
DOI: | 10.1111/lest.12111 | ||||||||
Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||||
Publication Status: | Published | ||||||||
Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access | ||||||||
Date of first compliant deposit: | 17 March 2016 |
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