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The Myth And The Reality Of American Constitutional Exceptionalism, Stephen Gardbaum Dec 2008

The Myth And The Reality Of American Constitutional Exceptionalism, Stephen Gardbaum

Michigan Law Review

This Article critically evaluates the widely held view inside and outside the United States that American constitutional rights jurisprudence is exceptional. There are two dimensions to this perceived American exceptionalism: the content and the structure of constitutional rights. On content, the claim focuses mainly on the age, brevity, and terseness of the text and on the unusually high value attributed to free speech. On structure, the claim is primarily threefold. First, the United States has a more categorical conception of constitutional rights than other countries. Second, the United States has an exceptionally sharp public/private division in the scope of constitutional …


Confronting The Limits Of The First Amendment: A Proactive Approach For Media Defendants Facing Liability Abroad, Michelle A. Wyant May 2008

Confronting The Limits Of The First Amendment: A Proactive Approach For Media Defendants Facing Liability Abroad, Michelle A. Wyant

San Diego International Law Journal

This Article confronts the limits this issue imposes on the First Amendment in four parts. Part I described the potential for conflicting defamation laws and forum shopping to undermine the American media's speech protections in the context of the Internet and global publications and outlines the Article's overall method of analysis. Part II first orients these conflicting defamation laws with respect to their development from the common law. It then frames them in terms of the underlying structural and policy differences that have produced their substantive divergence. This frame provides the analytical perspective through which this Article examines the varying …


Free Speech And The Case For Constitutional Exceptionalism, Roger P. Alford Apr 2008

Free Speech And The Case For Constitutional Exceptionalism, Roger P. Alford

Michigan Law Review

Embodied in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is the evocative proposition that "[e]veryone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression." Beneath that abstraction there is anything but universal agreement. Modern democratic societies disagree on the text, content, theory, and practice of this liberty. They disagree on whether it is a privileged right or a subordinate value. They disagree on what constitutes speech and what speech is worthy of protection. They disagree on theoretical foundations, uncertain if the right is grounded in libertarian impulses, the promotion of a marketplace of ideas, or the advancement of participatory democracy. They …


Where's The Harm?: Free Speech And The Regulation Of Lies, Lyrissa Barnett Lidsky Jan 2008

Where's The Harm?: Free Speech And The Regulation Of Lies, Lyrissa Barnett Lidsky

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.


Privacy And Funeral Protests, Christina E. Wells Jan 2008

Privacy And Funeral Protests, Christina E. Wells

Christina E. Wells

This article examines the free speech implications of funeral protest statutes. Enacted in response to protests by the Westboro Baptist Church, such statutes restrict a broad array of expressive activity, including peaceful protests. This article focuses on the states’ interest underlying such statutes – protecting mourners’ right to be free of unwanted intrusions while at funeral services. While few would argue against protecting funeral services from intrusive protests, these statutes go far beyond that notion. A careful examination reveals that the statutes are designed to protect mourners from offensive rather than intrusive protests. As such, they do not conceive of …


Do Churches Matter - Towards An Institutional Understanding Of The Religion Clauses, Richard W. Garnett Jan 2008

Do Churches Matter - Towards An Institutional Understanding Of The Religion Clauses, Richard W. Garnett

Villanova Law Review

No abstract provided.