Basic principles of Communications Law
1.1 Communications law overview
- Why do we study communications law?
- How do we study communications law?
- What is the paradox of tolerance?
- What are the six parts of the First Amendment to the US Constitution?
- What declarations or documents also guarantee human rights world wide?
- What does it mean to take a critical approach to study of the law?
1.2 Human rights worldwide
- What are human rights and who protects them worldwide? What institutions and non-governmental organizations are at work in the field?
- What rights are upheld by free countries and denied by those that are not free?
- What’s the difference between the US approach to freedom of religion, speech and press and the approach taken by Russia, China or Saudi Arabia?
1.3 – 1.4 Structure of the judicial system
- Which countries have common law systems and which have a civil law systems?
- What’s an example of a “tort” in communications law?
- State court systems have three levels. What are they?
- The US system has both federal and state courts. Which branch has the final say on a case?
- How do civil plaintiffs end up in federal court, as opposed to state court?
- Which type of court holds civil trials in Virginia? District; circuit; inferior; superior; diversity?
- How do the courts decide where to try free speech and constitutional cases involving more than one state? What kind of jurisdiction would be appropriate in a case involving a libel suit against a California publisher by a Lynchburg minister?
- In non-criminal (civil) law, what are the two main kinds of legal action?
- Why does communications law focus on court cases?
- What are the five sources of law in the US system?
- The two general categories of law are civil and criminal. What are the two categories of civil law?
- What circuit of the federal court of appeals do you happen to live in?
- Which court has the final say in a constitutional issue: A state supreme court or the US supreme court?
- What do you call a decision of a court ? What do you call a decision of a jury ?
- What is the usual standard of proof in a criminal case, and what is the usual standard of proof in a civil case?
- If a lawsuit starts as Smith v Johnson, and then Smith wins and Johnson files an appeal, what is the name of the appeals case? Is it still Smith v Johnson or Johnson v Smith?
- Terms to know: Complaint, venue, motion for summary judgement, demurrer, voir dire, appeal, opinion, dissenting opinion, certiorari, diversity jurisdiction, standing, scienter, dismissed with prejudice.
1.5 Democratic principles
- What is popular sovereignty?
- What are natural rights? Why are they natural?
- One basic principle of law is so important that it is engraved on the entranceway to the US Supreme Court. What is it?
- What is due process?
- Why do we have a separation of powers?
- Define: constitutionality, stare decisis, federal supremacy, marketplace of ideas.
1.6 Basics of media law
- Is media law civil or criminal in the US and other free countries?
- What are some of the content issues?
- What are some of the structural issues?
- What agencies regulate broadcasting? Advertising? Copyright?
1.7 First Amendment tests and principles
- What is the state action doctrine?
- What is prior restraint?
- What is compelled speech?
- What is counter-speech doctrine?
- What is viewpoint discrimination?
- What is forum analysis?
- What is the clear and present danger test?
- What is imminent action?
- What are the common carrier and public accommodations doctrines?
- Why is the burden of proof important?
- In cases testing content specific laws curtailing speech, the courts should apply what level of scrutiny?
- In cases testing content neutral laws curtailing speech, the courts should apply what level of scrutiny?
- The process of bringing state law under federal law, using the Fourteenth Amendment, is called what?
1.8 Jurisprudence
- What good is the First Amendment? What is the function of freedom of religion, speech and press?
- What are some external issues in jurisprudence? What are some of the internal principles?
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Why didn’t Zechariah Chafee like the “clear and present danger” test for censorship?
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Describe traditional First Amendment scholars and their theories:
- What is absolutism and who was its advocate?
- What is balancing, libertarianism, and context, and who were the advocates for those theories?
- What are code, social justice, and human dignity theories in media law?
1.9 International communications law
- What are some of the sources of international communications law? What were some of the first organizations and treaties?
- What were some of the media NGOs established in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries?
- What was the Lieber Code?
- Why did Eleanor Roosevelt first propose a new League of Nations? Who first called it the United Nations?
- What was the Sankey Declaration and who was its main author?
- Complete this sentence from the founding of UNESCO: Since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that ______
- What conditions and developments led to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights?
- What were Francis Bacon’s three inventions that changed the world, and how did US president John F. Kennedy think that one of them should be used?
Essay questions
- Compare the “human dignity” approach to First Amendment jurisprudence with the libertarian and absolutist approaches.
- Can the marketplace of ideas correct false, harmful and hateful speech in the digital age?
- How does Robert W. MacChesney see the concern for social justice as influencing First Amendment protections?
- How would general rules for Human Dignity law work, according to advocates like Mary Anne Frank?