Free Speech and Human Dignity

[Heyman, Steve]

I hope that my colleagues on this list will forgive a shameless plug for my new book, Free Speech and Human Dignity (Yale Univ. Press 2008).  The book seeks to overcome the tragic conflict between free speech and other social values by developing a liberal humanist theory of the First Amendment.  This view recognizes a strong, liberal right to free expression at the same time that it protects against the most serious forms of assaultive speech. In this way I try to find some common ground between civil libertarianism and its critics.  In developing this view, I draw not only on American constitutional history and jurisprudence, but also on the law of other liberal democratic nations, the international law of human rights, and the tradition of liberal political philosophy that runs from Locke, Kant, and Mill through Rawls and Habermas.  The final part of the book applies the theory to a wide range of contemporary controversies, from hate speech and pornography to antiabortion protests and picketing at military funerals.

A fuller description of the book can be found at 

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1107254

You can use the following link to request an examination copy for classroom adoption or to buy the book at an academic discount of 20 percent (by using the promotion code FSAHD):

http://yalepress.yale.edu/yupbooks/book.asp?isbn=9780300114867

Of course, I'd be very interested in any thoughts that you have on the book.

Steve


Steven J. Heyman
Professor of Law
Chicago-Kent College of Law
565 W. Adams Street
Chicago, IL 60661
(312) 906-5228
sheyman at kentlaw.edu




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