‘Deal with me, here I stand!’: Presence, participation and the equal protection of online assemblies

Abstract

‘Deal with me, here I stand!’ were words that Christof Heyns used to convey the drama inherent in many forms of assembly and protest. Central to so much of Christof’s work – including his doctoral research on civil disobedience in South Africa and his captivation with the example of Mahatma Gandhi in struggles against injustice and colonialism – was the sense of urgency, even of crisis, that such principled action can usher forth against the seeming unassailability of state power in all its forms.