Amnesty for Street Protesters

Abstract

In the summer of 2019, protesters took to the streets of Hong Kong. After thousands of arrests for protest-related offences, amnesty for street protesters was proposed but not adopted, primarily on the ground that amnesty would undermine the rule of law. Drawing on comparative experiences and theoretical analysis, this article sets out four value-based rationales for protest amnesty — rule of law, democratic responsiveness, virtue and political trust — and considers the relevance of each in the current context of Hong Kong. In doing so, this article focuses on the distinctive and overlooked context of street protest in the literature on amnesties.