Flag-waving in Denmark (and all the Nordic states) is crazily obsessive 🇩🇰 🇫🇮 🇮🇸 🇳🇴 🇸🇪 🇫🇴 🇬🇱 🇦🇽. So much so that the raising of flags in Denmark has long been regulated since the 19th century. Over time, exceptions have been made so that along with the Danish flag 🇩🇰, it is also possible to raise the European flag 🇪🇺, a Faroese flag 🇫🇴, a Greenlandic flag 🇬🇱, and the flags of other Nordic states 🇫🇮 🇮🇸 🇳🇴 🇸🇪, without issue.
But what about raising an American flag? 🇺🇸
In a recent judgment of the Supreme Court of Denmark (Højesteret, Danmarks Domstole) in Case 3/2023 delivered on 22 June 2023, it found that people in Denmark flying flags of state’s other than Denmark cannot, in modern terms, be considered a violation of the state’s aim to defending itself.
The Supreme Court held that the banning of the flying of such flags is an interference with a person’s right to the freedom of expression under Article 10 ECHR, and that the state, given the present legal instruments at its disposal, could not prosecute the individual.
In reaching this decision, it was overturning the prior judgment of the Western High Court (Vestre Landsret, S-2452-21), and confirmed the initial acquittal of the person by the Kolding District Court (Retten i Kolding, 3-1967/2021).
A copy of the Supreme Court’s judgment, as as well as those of the two lower instance national courts, can be read at the following link: https://lnkd.in/eAWEdZdq (på dansk).
Graham Butler