《中华人民共和国集会游行示威法》于1979年初开始酝酿，历时十年之久，因1989年政治风波的发生加速出台，立法的倾向性随之由酝酿之初的积极保障转变为消极防范。现行《集会游行示威法》采用许可制，多方面设置条款对宪法确立的公民集会、游行、示威自由进行限制。从法律实施的角度来看，自该法颁布以来，依法提出申请并经主管机关许可而举行的集会游行示威并不多见，同时，因为非法集会游行示威而被追究法律责任的案件也极为少见。与此相反，游离于法律边缘的“群体性事件”层出不穷，愈演愈烈，上访与截访造成的冲突时有发生。从二者的关系来看，合法的表达渠道不畅通是造成“群体性事件”频发的一个非常重要的外因。 根据宪法第三十五条、第五十一条的精神，政府无权对公民“能否”行使集会、游行、示威自由说“不”，但是政府有权对公民“怎样”行使集会、游行、示威自由进行必要的限制。对集会、游行、示威采取许可制限制方式不仅有违宪之嫌，而且在实践中存在逻辑困境，对《集会游行示威法》的全面实施造成极大障碍。基于此，应当修改《集会游行示威法》，把许可制改为登记制，并对相关法律规范进行重构和再造。通过修改《集会游行示威法》，为表达自由铺设法律轨道，把“群体性事件”的解决纳入法律轨道，维护社会良性稳定，保证国家的长治久安，增进公民与国家的沟通与互信，为政治体制改革注入公民依法参与的理性因素，促进民主在法治轨道上良性运行，最终实现政治文明。

The legislative process of Law of the People’s Republic of China on Assemblies, Processions and Demonstrations was initiated in early 1979, which lasted for ten years, and suddenly accelerated due to the occurrence of the 1989 Political Turmoil. Finally, the law was adopted shortly after the Turmoil. Therefore, there was a fundamental shift in legislative tendency- from actively safeguarding citizens’ exercise of their Constitutional rights to assembly, procession and demonstration in the beginning to negatively restricting those rights by Permission System. After the enactment of the law, we noticed an abnormal phenomenon that assemblies, processions or demonstrations obtained the permission of the competent authority in accordance with the law are rare, and those who committed acts in violation of the law and consequently were punished according to the law were also very rare. On the contrary, the so-called "mass incidents" emerged in endlessly, especially in recent years. How to account for this phenomenon? One of the most important reasons why "mass incidents" erupted much frequently is that the legitimate channel of freedom of expression was blocked. According to the spirit of Article 35 and 51 of the Constitution, the government does not have the power to judge "whether or not" citizens can exercise assemblies, processions and demonstrations, while it has the power to regulate "how" citizens exercise those rights. The Permission System is not only suspected unconstitutional, but in practice there is a logical predicament caused huge obstacles to the implementation of the Law on Assemblies, Processions and Demonstrations itself. As such, it is emergent to amend the law, transforming the Permission System into Registration System, reforming related systems and rewriting related articles, with the aim to pave a smooth legal way for the freedom of expression, to tackle "mass incidents" in accordance with the law, to enhance communication and mutual trust between the state and citizens, to raise citizens’ rational awareness of participating in political system reform, to promote democracy on the way of rule of law, and to realize political civilization in the end.