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9 - Free Expression

from Part II - Critical Legal Moralism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 November 2023

Steven Wall
Affiliation:
University of Arizona
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Summary

The right to free expression is of special importance for any discussion of the legal and social enforcement of morality. This is true for two main sets of reasons. First, the free expression and communication of ideas in a political society profoundly affects its ethical environment. The right to free expression, or more precisely the social condition that is brought about by the adequate recognition and protection of the right, is itself a public good. Second, the free expression and communication of ideas, especially ideas relevant to politics, is widely considered to be a condition of government legitimacy. Governments that wrongly deny their subjects the right to freely express their ideas forfeit a claim to rule over them. This chapter engages with both sets of reasons, which are referred to as the public good consideration and the legitimacy consideration, respectively, with an eye toward clarifying the grounds of the right to free expression and the limits to its scope. The chapter pays special attention to the issue of whether the right to free expression extends to so-called dangerous speech; that is, speech that advocates for violence against the government and/or certain targeted groups.

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Enforcing Morality , pp. 168 - 198
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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  • Free Expression
  • Steven Wall, University of Arizona
  • Book: Enforcing Morality
  • Online publication: 03 November 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009363808.009
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  • Free Expression
  • Steven Wall, University of Arizona
  • Book: Enforcing Morality
  • Online publication: 03 November 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009363808.009
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Free Expression
  • Steven Wall, University of Arizona
  • Book: Enforcing Morality
  • Online publication: 03 November 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009363808.009
Available formats
×