Freedom of Expression

Ioanna Tourkochoriti teaches at the National University of Ireland, Galway. She has previously held a lectureship at the Committee on Degrees in Social Studies at Harvard University, a Wertheim Fellowship at Harvard Law School, and fellowships with other universities in North America and the London School of Economics.

• 1. Introduction: speech, privacy and dignity in France and the United States; 2. Antiquity, modernity, and historical imaginaries on the role of the government; 3. The underlying ex ante understanding of liberty; 4. The moralizing rational republic versus the state arbitrator of the free play of interests; 5. Foundation of the rights of man on the rights of the citizen versus foundation of the rights of the citizen on the rights of man; 6. Conclusion.

'Should all democracies maintain the same freedoms of expression simply because they are democracies? Or should the extent of free speech depend on each society's culture and history? By the end of the eighteenth century it was clear that France and the United States had created different conceptions of democracy, which, as this study masterfully demonstrates, continue to provide illuminating yet complex responses to those enduring questions.' Eric Heinze, Professor of Law and Humanities, Queen Mary University of London