Review of 'Freedom of speech', by E.Barendt (Oxford, 2005)

It has been over 20 years since the publication of the first edition of Professor Barendt's masterful study of comparative free speech law.In the two decades between the publication of the first and this second edition there have been changes of orogenic proportions in the legal landscape inhabited by the free speech right.Most obviously perhaps, for United Kingdom lawyers anyway, has been the passage of the Human Rights Act 1998 (HRA) which incorporates the right to freedom of expression under article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).Thus, for the first time, those within the UK who, hitherto, merely had the freedom of speech, as long as that speech was not restricted by statute or common law, are now able to claim a positive right to freedom of expression.In a similar vein the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms 1982 was virtually brand new at the time of the first edition.Since then there have been a series of important decisions developing the jurisprudence on freedom of speech, emanating from the Canadian Supreme Court.Further there has been a steady and increasing stream of cases coming before the courts in different jurisdictions dealing with issues that might never have arisen 20 or 30 years ago.Examples include hate speech; holocaust denial; issues concerning copyright and the growth of the cult of celebrity with the concomitant conflict between freedom of expression and privacy.Indeed privacy itself is now afforded greater legal protection in the UK due to the boost given to breach of confidence by the incorporation of article 8 ECHR. 1 Another huge change impacting upon freedom of speech has been not a legal but a technological one: the inception and meteoric rise of the world wide web, the internet and email, making possible, for huge numbers of people, instantaneous global communication.Given the complexity of these constitutional, legal, technological and cultural shifts, even to produce a work covering the law of free speech in England and Wales would be a major achievement.But this is a comparative work dealing in addition and in detail with the varying approaches to free speech in the United States, Germany, Canada and by the European Court and Commission of Human Rights at Strasbourg, as well as in, to a lesser extent, a range of other jurisdictions.As a consequence of the changes outlined above the second edition of Freedom of Speech is a much longer book than its predecessor (the number of pages has expanded from 344 to 526) and there are several completely new chapters.However, the core approach of the book, which, to this reviewer's mind is its greatest strength, has remained.This is the linking thread that begins with the question posed in Chapter I: "Why Protect Free Speech?"Expression rights are less obviously worthy of protection than some other human rights (life; freedom from torture; physical liberty).There are many important interests that will, in particular situations, come into conflict with freedom of speech {eg, privacy, reputation, dignity, freedom from being caused offence, upholding morals, national security, fair trial).Indeed it is only when there is a conflict with some such interest that the free speech right becomes important, for when speech is innocuous, when no other interests are challenged, there is no reason to restrict it.It is therefore essential to establish, at the outset, why free speech is valued at all.To this end Chapter I explains and analyses the classic arguments justifying the free speech

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