"This is a scholarly and comprehensive account of the freedom to demonstrate.  This should be regarded as a universal right – a point impressively made by Paul Harris with all the authority that one expects of someone who founded a widely respected human rights organisation."

Chris Patten

"Paul Harris has written an excellent - and also the first - history of the right to demonstrate. Briskly and readably written this book ranges from Magna Carta to the twenty first century, over most of the world, from the United Kingdom to America and to Tian An Men Square in China.   An impressive achievement."

 Lord Gilmour

"Few authors can write with the depth of experience and record of commitment which barrister and human rights campaigner Paul Harris brings to this work. The very idea to catalogue the development of the peaceful demonstration is a peaceful demonstration in itself - against arbitrary abuse of power, absence of free speech or free assembly, denial of democracy. This book serves notice on the world's remaining autocrats: you are on what President Clinton calls "the wrong side of history" The power of the human spirit - people power - will bring you down."

Graham Watson MEP 

"This is the first comprehensive exploration of the right to demonstrate: it combines detailed history and legal analysis, and is exceptionally well-researched. Most important, it is written with passion by a leading practitioner in the field, who as a barrister has himself taken cases defending the right in Hong Kong. Freedom of assembly, and especially the right to demonstrate, are crucial preconditions for a functioning democracy. Paul Harris has triumphantly accomplished the huge task he set himself." Professor Bill Bowring, Professor of Law, Birkbeck College, University of London

"This comparative study of the right to demonstrate provides a wealth of information about and insights into the history and the political significance of the right to demonstrate. Inspired by the author’s reflections on developments in Hong Kong and China in the aftermath of the Beijing Massacre of 1989, Paul Harris draws on the experience of many countries to explore the legal and political dimensions of organised political and social protest, and its importance to the emergence of free and democratic societies. For anyone interested in the history of human rights and political protest generally, or the future of political freedom in China and Hong Kong, this is an excellent resource."  Professor Andrew Byrnes, Professor of International Law, Australian Human Rights Centre and Faculty of Law, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia

"... Paul Harris makes an important contribution to understanding the voice of the people and the significance of past, present and future attitudes to peaceful protest ... Harris looks at how protest has shaped history.  Over 33 chapters he skillfully guides the reader from Hong Kong's impressive demonstration against Article 23 on July 1, 2003 back to Magna Carta, which first recognised people had rights and through the amplification of those rights in England, the US, Australia, Russia, India and South Africa.  From "People Power" in Thailand, the Philippines and South Korea , he examines the Tiananmen Square protest of June 1989 and the current recourse to protest in China by 10,000, 20,000 and 30,000 people at a time for whom 'corrupt courts and officialdom offer no alternative.' " 

Tim Cribb, The South China Morning Post, 1 July 2007