Legal Commentary

Karin Calvo-Goller

By Stewart Baker

Speaking as the author of a book (have I mentioned that here?), I understand how personally authors take bad reviews.  And I find the idea of suing the reviewers for their many obvious errors mildly entertaining.  But I am gobsmacked by the imagination ? not to mention the chutzpah ? it takes for an author who doesn?t like a review to demand that it be taken off line, to refuse a proffered right of reply, and then to sue ? not the reviewer but the publisher of the review. And for criminal libel no less.  But that?s what Karin Calvo-Goller is said to have done, in a stunning post by the victim of her ire. It begins:

My entire professional life has been in the law, but nothing had prepared me for this. I have been a tenured faculty member  at the finest institutions, most recently Harvard and NYU.  I have held visiting appointments from Florence to Singapore, from Melbourne to Jerusalem. I have acted as legal counsel to governments on four continents, handled cases before the highest jurisdictions and arbitrated the most complex disputes among economic ?super powers.?

Last week, for the first  time I found myself  in the dock, as a criminal defendant.

And it just gets better.  Or worse.  As the defendant points out, Calvo-Goller won?t get big damages from bringing a criminal action against him, but the French state in its majesty can fine him to vindicate her honor; and the richer he is, the more her honor will cost him.  Here?s the longer version, which quotes the professor demonstrating her command of first amendment law as follows:

I am aware of the extent of freedom of expression under the First Amendment to the
Constitution of the United States (freedom which, as you know, is less extensive in
EU countries). However, the extent of that freedom ends where its exercise damages
the reputation of an individual.

I?m tempted to remark on the wisdom in general of taking human rights lessons from professors steeped in European and United Nations law, but I?m more interesting in a shorter question:  What can Karin Calvo-Goller possibly be thinking?  Already, a search of her name on Google yields in third place an entry linking ?Calvo-Goller? to the phrase ?an idiot and a fascist jerk?, thusly:

Given that Calvo-Goller?s actions threaten to injure her reputation by making her look like an idiot and a fascistic jerk, I am hereby charging her with criminal libel against herself.

Really.  Someone probably should let Karin Calvo-Goller know how the Internet works and about, you know, Google and stuff.  Because if she?s worried about her reputation, suppressing book reviews in the European Journal of International Law is just the beginning of the job she?s cut out for herself.

PS In 2008, Peter King (R-NY) and an odd-bedfellows coalition persuaded a Democratic House to pass a bill refusing to honor libel tourism judgments; Senators Specter, Schumer and Lieberman introduced a companion in the Senate but it looks as though Sen. Leahy didn?t let it out of committee.  King is in an even better position than in 2008 to get a bill passed again this year, and it looks as though the need hasn?t gone away.  So, maybe, in addition to ?idiot and fascist jerk,? Karin Calvo-Goller?s name will some day be linked in Google to ?bipartisan bridge builder.?

Full post as published by The Volokh Conspiracy on February 21, 2011 (boomark / email).