Law Commons^™

Disclosure’S Effects: Wikileaks And Transparency, Mark Fenster

UF Law Faculty Publications

Constitutional, criminal, and administrative laws regulating government transparency, and the theories that support them, rest on the assumption that the disclosure of information has transformative effects: disclosure can inform, enlighten, and energize the public, or it can create great harm and stymie government operations. To resolve disputes over difficult cases, transparency laws and theories typically balance disclosure’s beneficial effects against its harmful ones—what I have described as transparency’s balance. WikiLeaks and its vigilante approach to massive document leaks challenge the underlying assumption about disclosure’s effects in two ways. First, WikiLeaks’ ability to receive and distribute leaked information cheaply, quickly, and …