Alexander Larry. Is There a Right of Freedom of Expression? Cambridge University Press,2005. — 217 p.. 2005

In this provocative book, Larry Alexander offers a skeptical appraisal of the claim that freedom of expression is a human right. He examines the various contexts in which a right of freedom of expression might be asserted and concludes that such a right cannot be supported in any of these contexts. He argues that some legal protection of freedom of expression is surely valuable, though the form such protection will take will vary with historical and cultural circumstances and is not a matter of human right. Written in a clear and accessible style, this book will appeal to students and professionals in political philosophy, law, political science, and human rights.

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Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

part one DEFINING HUMAN RIGHTS AND DELIMITING THE SCOPE OF FREEDOM OF EXPRESSIO

1 Preliminaries

What Is a Human Right, and What Activities Implicate Freedom of Expression?

What Are Human Rights?

What Activities Implicate Freedom of Expression?

Freedom of Expression and Regulations that Affect Messages But are Not Enacted for That Reason

In this chapter I am going to show why any right of freedom of expression must have as its central concern government’s purposes for regulating activities rather than the effects of regulations on messages intended to be conveyed by speakers or on messages received by audiences.

The Ubiquity of Track Two

Weighing the Value of Messages Against the Value of Content-Neutral Regulations

3 The Puzzles of Governmental Purpose

In the previous chapter I established that freedom of expression is not implicated by governmental regulations and acts that affect what messages are received, for all regulations and acts have message effects.

The Various Venues of Governmental Purpose

But Still, Why Do We Care About Purpose?

Moral Permissibility as a Product of Effects Over Time, Not Momentary Effects

Rules and Optionality

Optionality and Switching

Optionality and Legislative Motivation

Rules and Time

Conclusion

part two THE CORE OF FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION government regulations and acts taken to affect message

4 The Core of Freedom of Expression

Regulations of Conduct for the Purpose of Affecting Messages Received

Having shown in Chapter Two, primarily through an excursion into American First Amendment jurisprudence and its Track Two component,

Content Regulations Where the Message Directly Causes Harm

Content Regulations Where the Message Causes Harm in Two Steps

Principle (5) and Message-Driven Governmental Regulation: A Tentative Conclusion

Track Three: Government Speech and Subsidies of Speech

Laurence Tribe labeled the judicial treatment of laws that restrict liberty in order to affect messages - the content-based regulations that were the subject of the previous chapter - Track One free speech jurisprudence.1

The Variety of Track Three Laws

Pairwise Comparisons

Some Unsuccessful Approaches to Track Three

Conclusion: Does All, None, or Only Part of Track Three Implicate Freedom of Expression?

6 Miscellaneous Regulations of Expression

In this chapter I take up some areas of regulation that are thought to implicate freedom of expression but that are not usually placed within Tracks One, Two, or Three.

In fact, however, I shall attempt to show that each one of this disparate group of regulations falls squarely within one of these tracks and raises considerations quite similar to those already discussed.

The Speech, Beliefs, and Affiliations of Government Employees

The Protection of the Exercise of Freedom of Expression

The Regulation of Broadcasting

Freedom OfExpressive Association

Anonymous Speech and the Privacy of Speakers

Private Regulation of Speech

part three THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES ON FREEDOM OF EXPRESSIO

General Justifying Theories of Freedom of Expression

In the previous chapters we have taken a look at the variety of circumstances in which claims of freedom of expression might be invoked and at the variety of interests that government might be pursuing through the allegedly infringing law or governmental action.

I. Consequentialist Theories of Freedom of Expression

Deontological Theories

Freedom of Expression as Concomitant to Democratic Decisionmaking