Maria Cahill, 'Why Should Associations have Freedom?'

Professor Maria Cahill will present her paper: 'Why Should Associations have Freedom?'.

Abstract: The right to freedom of association is protected in almost every constitution in the world. It is generally expressed using a formulation that refers to the individual as right holder: “everyone has the right to freedom of association”. Nonetheless, courts in multiple civil law, common law, and international jurisdictions commonly take the position that to protect the right of individual to form associations, they must also protect the freedom of the association that is formed. If the autonomy of that association were not protected throughout the lifetime of the association, they say, then the right to form an association would not really be protected either. Part I of this paper tracks how freedom of association has been interpreted in comparative perspective not only as the right to form or join associations, but as the freedom of those associations to establish themselves, to freedom of action and to freedom of membership. It highlights the ways in which various courts root that associational autonomy in the individual right to form associations. Part II critically reflects on those articulations – which at times seem to be instinctive rather than fully developed – unpacking the assumptions that are implicit therein and the logical extensions that follow therefrom. Part III then offers an account of freedom of association which can both accommodate these legal articulations and also offer a richer framework within which they can be understood. In essence, the theory is that freedom of association is fundamentally oriented towards protecting interpersonal cooperation. This account of freedom of association recognises the significance of both the functional and the interpersonal dimensions of freedom of association as a right that fundamentally seeks to protect, in principle, the “doing of things together” across a whole range of activities and contexts. Understanding freedom of association in this way allows us to appreciate more fully why associational autonomy matters, why the rights of individuals to form and join associations matter, and why none of those rights can be absolute. It also allows us to appreciate not only the unique contribution that freedom of association offers within human rights law and constitutional theory, but the broader potential it offers in the context some of the deepest challenges of our times.

Professor Cahill is Professor of Law at University College Cork and project lead for "Societās: Exploring the Value of Freedom of Association", a four-year Laureate project funded by Research Ireland (www.associationalfreedom.org). This project has produced a double special issue in the European Journal of Comparative Law and Governance, an interdisciplinary edited collection entitled "Associational Life and Freedom: Insights from Philosophy and Law" as well as a collection of essays from various fields within law entitled "The Sociable Person and the Law". She is a graduate of Trinity College, Dublin (LLB) and the European University Institute (LLM, PhD). She lectured at the National University of Ireland, Galway, before joining the Faculty of Law at University College Cork in August 2008.