The US First Amendment protects freedom of speech and the press, but are the laws keeping up with the new media? The ‘marketplace of ideas’ concept, for example, goes back to the 1600s, and is an important idea behind the First Amendment. These days, some legal scholars fear it is being overwhelmed by the digital media marketplace. Similarly, freedom of speech is guaranteed by the UN Declaration of Human Rights, but in some countries, new digital surveillance helps punish dissenters.
We’ll survey disinformation, censorship, libel, invasion of privacy and other legal issues through the lens of traditional media law and consider challenges presented by new digital media technologies. We’ll also compare the approaches taken in US law with European legal systems, especially with digital privacy and political advertising regulations.
The “hands-on” part of this workshop will be a “moot court,” in which students will write a short brief and argue a case using legal tests and precedents.
Schedule SUMMER 2023
STRUCTURE: LECTURE 1 — July 10 — Traditions of free speech and press; balancing rights and responsibilities.
Reading & pptx files GS1Law.Intro (pdf). Additional reading From Section 1.1 to 1.8
CENSORSHIP: LECTURE 2 — July 11 — Censorship and censorious cancel culture; fires in a crowded theater district; imminent action, true threats and intent to intimidate; school censorship and the new voices movement.
Reading & pptx files GS2.1. (pdf) and GS2.2 (pdf)
Additional reading from Section 4.1 to 4.8 Also Rights of Students (1A Encyclopedia); Student Rights poster ncac.org (pdf); Fighting words in the era of texts..., Clay Calvert, DePaul University.
LIBEL: LECTURE 3 — July 12 — Talk is cheap, especially online; fathoming complex libel, privacy and dignitary torts; why can’t the president sue his critics? Also Privacy law and public interest; the right of reply; the right to be forgotten online. Digital challenges.
Reading & pptx files: GS3.Libel (pdf) “The case for preserving an essential precedent,” Media Law Resource Center, March 2022; “Counterman v Colorado: Good news for Sullivan fans,” MLRC July 2023; “What cheap speech has done,” Eugene Volokh, UC Davis Law Review, Oct. 2022 ; Additional reading Section 5.1 to 5.6 and 6.1 to 6.3.
PRIVACY: LECTURE 4 — July 13 — GS4Law.Privacy (pdf); Privacy law; Legal reasoning and debate
Reading & pptx files: (pdf) Electronic Frontier Foundation Privacy issues; Also Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act — Atty Gen’s Office (pdf);
DEBATE — July 14
- Resolved: Governor’s School prohibition of protest is unconstitutional. (See ACLU information, Rights of Students in 1st Amendment Encyclopedia).
- Resolved: Federal government communications with social media for the purpose of establishing truthful messages about elections and public health is not constitutional. (See Missouri v Biden, 2023)
- Resolved: That government bans on peaceful public assembly during public health emergencies are unconstitutional. (See First Amendment & Covid; )
- Resolved: That speech codes baring profanity in person or in social media, on or off campus, are unconstitutional. (See FIRE’s “Speech Codes“; )
The course is led by Prof. Bill Kovarik, who has taught communications law at Radford University for over 25 years. Prof. Kovarik has studied international comparative media law at Oxford University and has written a web-based textbook: Communications Law and Ethics