How to find out the law where you are

This guide deliberately does not tell you what the law is. It tells you how to find out, because the answer depends entirely on where you are standing, and a confidently wrong summary is worse than no summary.

Start with the rate of change, because it is worse than most organisers assume. The International Center for Not-for-Profit Law has tracked 385 bills restricting peaceful assembly across 45 American states since January 2017, 60 of which are now law. That is one country in nine years. Protest law also varies between states and provinces, and sometimes between cities in the same country. A page that told you “you need six days’ notice” without saying where would be actively dangerous.

The six questions

Almost everything an organiser needs comes down to these. Take them to whoever advises you, and get answers in writing if you can.

Does my kind of event need advance notice or permission, and are those different things? Many places distinguish between a march that moves along a route and a static gathering in one place, with different rules for each. Some require notice, which you give. Some require permission, which can be refused. Those are not the same, and organisers conflate them constantly.

Who do I notify, how, and by when? A named office, a form, a deadline. Ask for the events team rather than the switchboard, and ask whether the notice period counts in working days or calendar days, because a bank holiday weekend is the difference between the two. Get the deadline wrong and the rest does not matter.

What conditions can be imposed on me, and by whom? Route, timing, numbers, location, amplification, duration. Find out who has the power to impose them, at what notice, and what happens if you do not comply.

Can I challenge a condition, and how quickly? There is usually a route. It is usually short. Knowing it in advance is the difference between using it and reading about it afterwards.

Which specific things are offences here? This is where jurisdictions differ most sharply. Obstruction, noise, face coverings, attaching yourself to objects, being equipped to do so, and the boundaries of private and public land are all treated very differently in different places. Some of these catch people who did not think they were taking any risk at all.

What powers do police have to stop, search, disperse or detain in the context of a protest? And what are you required to do, or not required to do, when approached.

Asking, word for word

These are how you ask them without sounding like somebody who has read a form and nothing else.

“Is this a notice or a permission? They’re not the same thing and I’d rather know which one I’m dealing with.”

“Who exactly do I notify, by what date, and could you put that in an email?”

“If a condition gets imposed on us, what’s the route to challenge it and how long have I got?”

“You’ve done public order work. Can I pay for half an hour and ask you six questions?”

Where to look

Start with the primary source. Most countries publish their own legislation free and in full. The United Kingdom does it on legislation.gov.uk, run by The National Archives, which states which amendments it has applied and which it has not. France does it on Légifrance, which carries the consolidated codes and the Journal officiel. Germany does it on gesetze-im-internet.de, run by the Federal Ministry of Justice and the Federal Office of Justice, which describes it as nearly all current federal law, free. Find yours by searching your country’s name with the words official legislation or official gazette. Then copy three things into a note: the title, the section number, and the date it was last amended.

Then find the organisation that follows this in your jurisdiction, and find it by name. In England and Wales, Liberty, which is the trading name of the National Council for Civil Liberties and gives free human rights legal advice, and Netpol, the Network for Police Monitoring, which publishes explainers on new police powers as they arrive; Green and Black Cross runs a protest support line on 07946 541 511. In Ireland, the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, which runs the Irish Network of Legal Observers. In the United States, your state ACLU affiliate rather than the national office, one of the 54 local offices it lists. In Australia, the state bodies: the NSW Council for Civil Liberties, Liberty Victoria. In Canada, the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, which publishes a protest rights guide. In France, the Ligue des droits de l’Homme, whose observatories monitor police practice at demonstrations. In Germany, the Gesellschaft für Freiheitsrechte, which litigates on assembly. In Israel, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel.

Anywhere else, start with the Civic Freedom Monitor, which the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law keeps for 58 countries and which covers peaceful assembly alongside association and expression. A local group will be more current. The Monitor will tell you which local group to look for.

Then, if the stakes are real, ask a lawyer. A single conversation with a solicitor or attorney who does public order work is worth more than a week of your own reading, and is far cheaper than the alternative. Ask what half an hour costs before you book it, and ask for the answer in an email rather than on the phone. If you are affiliated with a union, a student body or a community organisation, one may already have legal support you can use.

Two things that will catch you out

Check whether the thing you found has started yet. England and Wales got the Crime and Policing Act 2026, and a second instrument, the Crime and Policing Act 2026 (Commencement No.1 and Saving Provision) Regulations 2026, governs which parts of it begin when. Reaching the statute book and being in force on the day of your event are two questions with two documents. Check the date on everything else you read as well, including guidance from a police force or a council, which is usually the last thing updated after a change.

Know which rule binds on the day. Freedom of peaceful assembly is protected by article 21 of the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and General Comment 37 says what that means in practice: having to apply for permission is contrary to the idea that peaceful assembly is a basic right, while a notification system is allowed where it is not unduly burdensome. That is a yardstick for whether what you are being asked for is normal, and it is usable in a letter. It will do nothing for you at the moment a local officer imposes a condition. Know both, and know which is which.

Write down what you were told

Four fields: the name, the organisation, the date, and whether you have it in writing or only on the phone. Organisers change, memories drift, and in six months somebody will ask why you did it this way. A note takes a minute.

Two emails, and the evening you send them

Do not let the legal question be the thing that stops you organising. For most ordinary events in most democratic countries, this is a form and a deadline rather than a battle.

Two questions from memory. Which of the six do you already know the answer to for your own town, and which have you been assuming? And what is the difference between notice and permission where you live?

“When I know a bit more” is not a cue. It is “when I feel ready” with a reading list attached, and neither of them has a day in it. Write these three down now, with your own evening in them.

Action. If it is Sunday evening and the plates are cleared, then I will open my country’s official legislation site and copy the title, the section number and the last amendment date of the text that governs assemblies into a note file. Twenty minutes, and I stop when they are up whether or not I have understood it.

The email, which is the half that gets you the answer. If that note file has a statute in it, then before I mention a date to anybody I will send the six questions above to one rights organisation and ask for the reply in writing.

Coping, because this is exactly where it stops. If three documents look current and I cannot tell which one is, then I will send the six questions anyway and say so, because a question from somebody who has already tried gets answered faster than a tidy one. And if nobody has replied within a fortnight, I will ring instead and pay a public order solicitor for half an hour.