The Global Influence of the United States on Freedom of Information

• In Event: Global Perspectives in the Governance of Freedom of Expression

Abstract

To date, few FOI studies have systematically focused on the actual or perceived foreign (i.e., at the national level) and international influence of the US Freedom of Information Act, although numerous comparative and country-specific analyses with little reference to the foreign laws’ interaction with the American law—or lack thereof—have been published. Our paper aims to rely on empirical evidence to assess the extent to which the US FOIA has been influential abroad as a specific legal model. Our paper thus centers on the extent to which the US FOIA has or has not in fact been copied in substantive legal terms abroad rather than on how or why it spread.

Authors

• Kyu Ho Youm, U of Oregon

• Toby Mendel, Center for Law and Democracy