ABSTRACT
Anti-riot laws have long been regarded by the powers-that-be as critical to the maintenance of the established order, and particularly the suppression of threatening political disturbances. The origins of riot law date back at least to the Norman conquest of England in 1066 and the development of the conception of the ‘king’s peace’. Any threat to the ‘king’s peace’ was regarded as inimical to the power of the monarch, as well as to life and property.
