From 1789 to 1935: how the freedom to demonstrate was recognised, then regulated

In August 1789, the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen protects the expression of opinions (articles 10 and 11). The 1791 Constitution guarantees the freedom to assemble peaceably and unarmed. But the street remains a place of mistrust: the martial law of 21 October 1789 authorises the police to disperse unlawful assemblies after warnings, an ancestor of today’s orders to disperse.

In June 1791 the Le Chapelier law bans workers’ combinations and strikes: individual freedom is proclaimed, collective action is repressed.

The revolutions of 1830 and 1848 reopen public space, each time followed by a tightening. The law of 7 June 1848 regulates unlawful assemblies in the name of order. In 1864 the Ollivier law abolishes the offence of combination: workers may strike, though their gatherings are not thereby free.

The law of 30 June 1881 proclaims that public meetings are free and need no prior permission, but they may not be held on the public road. In law, the street remains a place apart.

The law of 21 March 1884 recognises trade unions, that of 1 July 1901 freedom of association. These rights give mobilisations a legal footing: one can organise in order to demonstrate, even if marching remains uncertain.

At Fourmies, in northern France, workers march on 1 May 1891 to demand the eight-hour day. Troops fire on the crowd, killing nine, several of them very young. The event durably marks the memory of 1 May and illustrates what going into the street could then cost.

In February 1934, violent demonstrations in front of the National Assembly (6 February) and a large counter-mobilisation (12 February) upend political life. The government wants to regulate the street.

The decree-law of 23 October 1935 subjects to prior notification all processions, parades and gatherings on the public road and gives the authority the power to ban them. This text, taken up today in the Internal Security Code (since 2012), is still the foundation of the French notification regime.