4 ms·
Because making membership of an organization illegal is a violation of freedom of association, as guaranteed by Article 21 of the Constitution of Japan?
by taejo 11y ago
Because making membership of an organization illegal is a violation of freedom of association, as guaranteed by Article 21 of the Constitution of Japan?
- vinceguidry 11y agoFreedom of association does not typically disallow the government from designating certain organizations to be illegal and barring membership in them. Happens here in the US all the time. No freedom is absolute. What keeps them from abusing it here is checks and balances. For example, trade unions were considered an illegal restraint on trade until the Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914. Also, certain forms of corporation have been made legal and illegal over the course of history.
- taejo 11y agoUnlike Japan, the USA doesn't have an explicit constitutional guarantee of freedom of association (though the Supreme Court - reasonably - starts to read such a right into the first amendment in the 50s). If I understand what I'm reading correctly, the pre-1914 trade union ban was not a ban on association (workers could still form professional associations, working-men's clubs, etc.) but on "cartel-like" behaviour: collective bargaining, strike action, etc.
- vinceguidry 11y agoI wouldn't read too much into it, Japan has a Western style constitution, and the idea of a universal right to free association didn't really start to coalesce until the mid-20th century. Japan's constitution happened to get ratified in 1947. If we had to do the US Constitution over, there would probably be freedom to associate codified.