Abstract
Year 2011 has been a “freedom of assembly year” as we have not only watched the events of “Arab spring” and “Occupy Wall Street”, but UN appointed the first-ever Special Rapporteur on the rights of freedom of assembly and of association. However, the interest of legal scholars to research the right to freedom of assembly has been tepid. The aim of the paper is to fill that gap by investigating how the domestic regulations of the selected countries (Estonia, Georgia, Germany, Russia and Sweden) are able to address recent developments and problems of the right in the light of the international standard. The paper offers a model definition for the right to freedom of assembly in the form of a graph alongside with a structured analysis of the elements of the model; critically analyses the international standard for the right that stems from the ICCPR, ECHR, UDHR and OSCE/ODIHR Guidelines (2010); elaborates on possible new forms of assembly – planking and flash mob – , and provides that there are short-comings in the domestic assembly regulations of the selected countries.