Fighting Words

Kent Greenawalt is University Professor at Columbia University and a member of the faculty of the School of Law. He is the author of numerous works including Speech, Crime, and the Uses of Language and Religious Convictions and Political Choice.

• PrefaceCh. 1Introduction: Free Speech Themes3Ch. 2General Principles of Free Speech Adjudication in the United States and Canada11Ch. 3Flag Burning28Ch. 4Insults, Epithets, and "Hate Speech"47Ch. 5Campus Speech Codes and Workplace Harassment71Ch. 6Obscenity99Ch. 7Individuals and Communities124Ch. 8Conclusion: General Lessons150Notes155Index183

"Greenawalt's ... even-handed treatment of the relevant opinions and his reasoned support for a powerful free speech principle is a welcome change from the hectoring tone that often creeps into First Amendment debates... Fighting Words is a wonderful book. With its publication, the era of serious comparative constitutional jurisprudence has begun."--Burt Neuborne, New York Law Journal "Everyone interested in contemporary debates about law, free speech, or democratic society should read ... Fighting Words... [It] is an important book because it breaks a popular American conception that the First Amendment is an absolute... Greenawalt opens the reader's mind to various legal alternatives regarding free expression."--Archon Fung, The Boston Book Review "[A] thought-provoking, well-reasoned, and well-balanced analysis of the similarities and contrasts on issues of free speech between the U.S. Supreme Court's interpretation of the Bill of Rights and the Supreme Court of Canada's construction of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms... Required reading for scholars and laypeople alike."--Choice