Northampton Electronic Collection of Theses and Research

Speech as "self-evident story": when not to listen

Ressel, J. (2014) Speech as "self-evident story": when not to listen. Paper presented to: Socio-Legal Studies Association (SLSA) Conference, Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen Business School, 09-11 April 2014. (Unpublished)

Item Type: Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
Abstract: The paper considered the possibility that Scheppele’s realist argument of exclusion of those whose stories are not accepted in the adjudication process as not only amounting to a type of negative legal-fact creation and by implication generative of some sort of alternative legal-subjectivity, but in accepting the generation of legal-fact based on procedural rules/laws of the judicial system, the transformative possibility of law is minimised. Accordingly, it seems that such an argument percolates the injustice of existing power structures into the subject. Perhaps Scheppele intended quite an opposite effect. On the other hand we may agree with Eric Heinze “that law must express fundamental moral values”. It could be suggested that in the context of the laws relating to free speech, and in a sense freedom of speech is perhaps the ultimate ‘self-believed story’, that Scheppele’s argument in melting the distinction between ‘fact’ and ‘opinion’, which is a key distinction in the judicial consideration of the limits on free speech, weakens the transformative and liberating possibilities of law and leads to an internalisation of unjust power distribution.
Uncontrolled Keywords: Legal construction, hate speech, freedom of speech, interpretation
Subjects: K Law > K Law (General) > K3154 Constitutional law > K3224 Individual and state > K3254 Freedom of speech
Creators: Ressel, James
Faculties, Divisions and Institutes: University Faculties, Divisions and Research Centres - OLD > School of Social Sciences (to 2016)
University Faculties, Divisions and Research Centres - OLD > Faculty of Business & Law > Law
Faculties > Faculty of Business & Law > Law
Date: 10 April 2014
Date Type: Presentation
Event Title: Socio-Legal Studies Association (SLSA) Conference
Event Dates: 09-11 April 2014
Event Location: Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen Business School
Event Type: Conference
Language: English
Status: Unpublished
URI: http://nectar.northampton.ac.uk/id/eprint/6590

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