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Cook & Heilmann on Self-Censorship

By Larry Solum

Philip Cook and Conrad Heilmann (University of Leicester and London School of Economics) have posted <a href="http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1575662">Two Types of Self-Censorship: Public and Private</a> on SSRN. Here is the abstract:<ul> We propose and defend a distinction between two types of self-censorship: public and private. In public self-censorship, individuals restrain their expressive attitudes in response to public censors. In private self-censorship, individuals do so in the absence of public censorship. We argue for this distinction by introducing a general model which allows us to identify, describe, and compare a wide range of censorship regimes. The model explicates the interaction between censors and censees and yields the distinction between two types of self-censorship. In public self-censorship, the censee aligns her expression of attitudes according to the public censor. In private self-censorship, the roles of censor and censee are fulfilled by the same agent. The distinction has repercussions for normative analysis: principles of free speech can only be invoked in cases of public self-censorship.</ul>

Full post as published by Legal Theory Blog on March 31, 2010 (boomark / email).