01/02/2019
https://www.facebook.com/sushkresearchhub/photos/a.1846226755592846/2219405928274925/?type=3&theater
Freedom of political association has been a hot topic in Hong Kong and Spain in the recent decade. Mark your diary to attend this POL seminar moderated by our Centre Director Prof Linda Li to get to know more about it!
Date: 21 February 2019 (Thursday)
Time: 4:00 - 5:30pm
Venue: B7516 POL Multi-purpose Room, Yeung Kin Man Academic Building, CityU
Title:
The limits of freedom of political association in Hong Kong and Spain.
Panelists:
LIN Feng (School of Law, City University of Hong Kong) & SERRANO MORENO Juan (Universidad Autónoma de Chile)
Moderator: LI Linda Chelan (Department of Public Policy, City University of Hong Kong)
Abstract:
The recent ban on pro-independence claims in Hong Kong and in Spain needs to be introduced in the discussion of the current evolution democracy and rule of law. Even if these interdictions are highly controversial and may seem undemocratic, they are not exceptional. The protection of public institutions, national unity or national security had been considered legitimate motives to restrain the freedom of political association and participation in the past in different democratic countries. This seminar will analyze how and why the freedom of political association are concretely limited in China and Spain combining comparative constitutional law and political science approaches. In both countries the disqualification of election candidates and the prohibition of political parties are a result of nationalistic tensions between the central government and political actors from autonomous regions. However, the two cases differ substantially in form and substance.
In Hong Kong, the claims of self-determination or independence are considered a threat to the national unity that justifies the disqualification of candidates to run for election as stated by the Standing Committee of the National People´s Congress interpretation of the Basic Law in 2016. In Spain, the limitations are far more permissive. The pro-independence political parties based on Catalonia and Basque Country are active since the transition to democracy in late the 1970s. Nonetheless, in the early 2000s a new legal anti-terrorist strategy implemented by the central government led to the prohibition of radical Basque political parties. More recently, in 2018, a self-determination referendum organized by the Autonomous Region of Catalonia was declared illegal and by the Spanish causing an unprecedented political crisis. The comparison of the two cases will allow us to cool down the analysis of these highly controversial issues and explore the border between democracy and authoritarianism