Free Speech in an Age of Democratic Backsliding (Virtual Session)

Session Submission Type: Virtual Roundtable

Session Description

This panel will consider the role of free expression in our age of democratic backsliding. On the one hand, restrictions on free speech and press have been a key mechanism by which authoritarian minded leaders have dismantled democracies from within. On the other hand, the unrestricted spread of false and hateful speech has appeared to exacerbate pressures toward democratic breakdown. Can democracies survive an onslaught of online election disinformation, COVID conspiracy theories, and racist vitriol? Would regulation of such harmful speech be a cure worse than the disease? Are either twentieth century First Amendment exceptionalism or European-style militant democracy useful paths for answering these questions, or is there a third alternative?

Sub Unit

• Division 27: Constitutional Law and Jurisprudence

Chair

• Thomas M. Keck Syracuse University

Presenters

• Jennifer Forestal Loyola University, Chicago

• Jamal Greene Columbia Law School

• Richard L. Hasen UCLA School of Law

• Jacob Mchangama Justitia

• Ioanna Tourkochoriti National University of Ireland, Galway