Freedom of Speech

by Barendt, Eric

• ISBN13: 9780199225811
• ISBN10: 0199225818
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-05-17
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Social and cultural changes have led to free speech claims being made in novel contexts: to challenge the validity of bans on tobacco advertising, to publish 'kiss and tell' stories about celebrities, and to resist attempts to regulate the Internet. In this fully revised and updated new edition of his classic work, Barendt considers the meaning and scope of freedom of speech. How far should free speech and expression clauses go to protect pornography, commercial advertising, and public meetings on the streets? Does this freedom cover desecration of a national flag? Does it include nude dancing? Eric Barendt discusses the legal protection of free speech in countries including England, the United States (including recent decisions of the United States Supreme Court), Canada, and Germany. He examines the varied approaches of different legal systems and constitutional traditions to balancing free speech and freedom of the press against rights to reputation, privacy, and copyright, and explores case law in light of the philosophical and political arguments for free speech guarantees.

Author Biography

Eric Barendt is Goodman Professor of Media Law at University College London.

Table of Contents

A Note on Abbreviations	p. xxi
Table of United Kingdom Cases	p. xxiii
Table of United States Cases	p. xxviii
Table of German Cases	p. xxxv
Table of Decisions of the European Commission and Court of Human Rights	p. xxxvii
Cases from Other Jurisdictions	p. xl
Why Protect Free Speech?	p. 1
Introduction	p. 1
Four Arguments for a Free Speech Principle	p. 6
Arguments concerned with the importance of discovering truth	p. 7
Free speech as an aspect of self-fulfilment	p. 13
The argument from citizen participation in a democracy	p. 18
Suspicion of government	p. 21
Free Speech Interests	p. 23
The speaker's interest in communicating ideas and information	p. 23
The audience interest in receiving ideas and information	p. 25
The bystanders' (or public) interest in speech	p. 27
Freedom of Speech and Other Values	p. 30
Hate speech, dignity, and equality	p. 31
Pluralism and freedom of speech	p. 34
The Constitutional Protection of Free Speech	p. 36
Free Speech in Liberal Legal Systems	p. 39
England	p. 39
Common law	p. 40
The Human Rights Act 1998	p. 42
Free speech cases after the Human Rights Act 1998	p. 45
United States of America	p. 48
Canada	p. 55
Germany	p. 59
The European Human Rights Convention	p. 64
Other Jurisdictions	p. 67
France	p. 67
Italy	p. 70
Australia	p. 71
The Scope of Freedom of Speech	p. 74
Introduction	p. 74
Speech and Conduct	p. 78
General issues	p. 78
Flag desecration	p. 84
Nude dancing and sexually explicit conduct	p. 86
Conclusions	p. 87
Speech and Money	p. 88
General issues	p. 88
Corporate speech	p. 91
Rights Not to Speak	p. 93
Language Rights	p. 98
What Type of Freedom?	p. 100
Preliminary issues	p. 100
Only a narrow liberty?	p. 104
Access to Information	p. 108
Freedom of Speech and Government Subsidies	p. 112
Prior Restraints	p. 117
The Varieties and Vices of Prior Restraints	p. 118
The distinction between prior restraints and penal sanctions	p. 118
The principal features of classic prior restraints	p. 122
Judicial prior restraints	p. 124
Conclusions	p. 128
Theatre, Film, and Video Censorship	p. 129
Official Secrets and Confidential Information	p. 136
Contempt of Court and Permits for Meetings	p. 145
Contempt of court	p. 145
Permits for meetings	p. 148
Private Censorship	p. 151
Political Speech	p. 154
Introduction	p. 154
The Preferred Position of Political Speech	p. 155
Sedition and Related Offences	p. 162
Racist Hate Speech	p. 170
Arguments of principle	p. 170
Hate speech laws	p. 177
Blasphemy and Incitement to Religious Hatred	p. 186
The common law of blasphemy	p. 186
Religious hatred laws and freedom of speech	p. 189
Disclosure of Official Secrets	p. 192
General principles	p. 192
Official secrets laws	p. 195
Libel and Invasion of Privacy	p. 198
Introduction	p. 198
Is Defamation 'Speech'?	p. 199
Balancing Free Speech and Reputation	p. 205
The United States	p. 206
Australia and New Zealand	p. 211
Germany	p. 213
England	p. 219
The European Convention on Human Rights	p. 222
Conclusions on balancing in libel cases	p. 225
Insults and Satire	p. 227
Privacy and Free Speech	p. 230
Introduction	p. 230
Publication of confidential information	p. 232
Revealing personal identity	p. 235
Publication of photographs	p. 237
Presenting the claimant in a false light	p. 240
The privacy of politicians and other public figures	p. 241
Conclusions on balancing in privacy cases	p. 244
Copyright and Other Property Rights	p. 247
Introduction	p. 247
Why is Copyright Immune from Free Speech Scrutiny?	p. 248
Doctrinal arguments	p. 248
Historical arguments	p. 251
Copyright is a property right	p. 253
Free Speech Coverage of Copyright Infringement	p. 254
General arguments for coverage	p. 254
The free speech interests of infringers	p. 256
Deference to copyright legislation	p. 259
Balancing Copyright and Freedom of Speech	p. 260
Trade Mark and Publicity Rights	p. 263
Trade marks and the Gay Olympics case	p. 263
Publicity rights	p. 265
Meetings, Protest, and Public Order	p. 268
Introduction	p. 268
The Right to Assemble and Freedom of Speech	p. 270
Access to Streets and Other Public Fora	p. 273
Theoretical issues	p. 273
Traditional public fora: streets, open spaces, and public halls	p. 276
New public fora for speech and assembly	p. 281
Freedom of speech on private property	p. 286
Conclusions	p. 289
Public Order	p. 290
General principles	p. 290
Inflammatory and offensive speech	p. 295
The problem of the hostile audience	p. 302
Notice and Buffer-Zone Requirements	p. 306
Notice requirements	p. 306
Buffer zones to regulate anti-abortion protest	p. 308
Free Speech and the Judicial Process	p. 312
Introduction	p. 312
Attacks on the Judiciary	p. 316
Prejudice to Legal Proceedings	p. 322
Arguments of principle	p. 323
Legal restrictions on prejudicial publicity	p. 328
Alternatives to contempt of court proceedings	p. 331
The law in the United States	p. 334
Balancing free speech and the administration of justice	p. 336
Open Justice	p. 338
Arguments of principle	p. 338
Access to the courts	p. 342
Televising court proceedings	p. 346
Reporting restrictions	p. 349
Pornography	p. 352
Introduction	p. 352
Is Pornography 'Speech'?	p. 355
Arguments of principle	p. 355
Pornography which falls outside 'speech'	p. 361
Obscenity and the Moral Tone of Society	p. 363
Specific Harms	p. 370
Introduction	p. 370
The character of the harm	p. 371
Sexual crimes	p. 373
Harm to children	p. 374
Harm to women	p. 378
Conclusions	p. 381
Pornography, the Arts, and Learning	p. 381
Pornography and Offensiveness	p. 385
Commercial Speech	p. 392
Introduction	p. 392
What is Commercial Speech?	p. 395
Should Commercial Speech be Covered by Free Speech Clauses?	p. 399
Introduction	p. 399
The interest of consumers in commercial information	p. 401
The public interest in the free flow of commercial information	p. 402
Paternalism	p. 403
Conclusions	p. 404
The Regulation of Advertising	p. 406
General principles	p. 406
Restrictions on professional advertising	p. 409
Disclosure requirements	p. 412
Tobacco Advertising	p. 413
Freedom of Speech in the Media	p. 417
Introduction	p. 417
Press Freedom and Free Speech	p. 419
Three perspectives on press freedom	p. 419
Editorial freedom	p. 425
The Implications of a Distinct Press and Media Freedom	p. 427
Taxation and the media	p. 427
Competition law and the media	p. 429
Press rights of access to information	p. 434
Privilege not to disclose sources of information	p. 435
Whose Right to Press and Media Freedom?	p. 441
Freedom of Speech and Broadcasting	p. 444
Conclusions	p. 449
Freedom of Speech and the Internet	p. 451
Introduction	p. 451
How Should the Internet be Treated?	p. 455
Rejection of the analogy with broadcasting	p. 455
Similar, but not identical, to the press	p. 455
The Internet is not a public forum	p. 456
Pornography on the Internet	p. 458
The application of obscenity laws	p. 458
The protection of children	p. 459
Indecent images of children on the Internet	p. 461
Defamation and the Internet	p. 463
General principles	p. 463
The immunity of Internet service providers	p. 464
Wider defences for individuals?	p. 466
The Problems of Global Communication	p. 468
Introduction	p. 468
The appropriate forum for the regulation of Internet communications	p. 469
Enforcement of judgments	p. 471
Legal and technical solutions to the regulation of global communications	p. 472
Freedom of Speech in Special Contexts	p. 475
Introduction	p. 475
Election Campaigns	p. 476
Limits on expenditure and contributions	p. 476
Other issues	p. 484
Free Speech in Employment	p. 486
Preliminary issues	p. 486
Balancing the interests of employees and employers	p. 489
Speech by members of the armed forces	p. 494
Free Speech in Education	p. 496
Introduction	p. 496
The free speech rights of students and teachers	p. 497
Free speech in universities	p. 500
Free Speech and Prisoners	p. 502
Select Bibliography	p. 507
Index	p. 513
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