Legal Prohibition on charitable political activities: content, procedure and reform

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

This project provides a rigorous jurisprudential analysis of current regulation in charity law of the prohibition against substantial political activities, the rule's development, the controversial questions raised for government and legislators, and of the crucial jural, social and moral concerns which reform may dictate. In questioning whether there should be reform and in framing reform proposals, this project also examines how other areas of English law have dealt with the issue of regulating political activities and also how different jurisdictions have regulated the political activities of their charities. This area of law raises interesting questions: can charities lobby Parliament, write to MPs or campaign to change the law? Should charities be able to discuss the voting records of MPs on controversial issues or support political parties for election? Would it be appropriate for charities to launch broadcasting campaigns putting forward a particular political philosophy, or arguing for a change in government policy in this country or in another country? Although charities have been at the heart of social change since 1601, at the beginning of the 20th century their contribution to pushing for legal or policy change was restricted by a regulatory prohibition on political purposes. Under current charity regulation charities may not pursue political activities as their main purpose (e.g. an organisation seeking legislation to prohibit the public from using fireworks would be pursuing a political purpose). Charities may only pursue political activities that are ancillary to their main legally acceptable charitable purpose and which are in furtherance of their main charitable purpose (eg an organisation seeking to protect animals or to provide guidedogs would be pursuing a charitable purpose and such organisation could lobby as an ancillary activity to seek legislation to prohibit the public from using fireworks on the basis that fireworks distressed animals). Although in effect for almost 100 years, this aspect of charity regulation is controversial and the rules have often proved to be difficult to apply in practice. The rules are applied by the Charity Commission with appeal to the High Court but, due lack of financial resources, the appeal process is rarely undetaken. For this reason, this area of law has escaped any meaningful analysis by the courts or policy makers. The latter is surprising since the concerns raised by the area go to the heart of current charity regulation. This project addresses these concerns.