speech and respect - College of Social Sciences and International ...

Speech and Respect
By
Richard Abel
Professor of Law, University of California, Los Angeles
In Speech and Respect, based on the forty-fourth series of Hamlyn
Lectures, Professor Abel explores the fundamental contradiction
that speech, which makes us human and constructs society, also
can cause serious injury.
Speech is essential for effective democracy, economic productivity,
artistic creativity, scientific discovery and individual self-expression.
Yet women, people of colour and gays and lesbians have recently
protested against the harms it inflicts. Speech and Respect explores
this tension through examples of racism, pornography and "The
Satanic Verses". The author analyses the inevitable constraints
imposed on speech by both the State and private actors and
examines the arguments against State regulation. Speech and Respect
concludes with a plea for communal regulation of harmful speech
in the continuing struggle for a more humane society.
Extensive footnotes and a lengthy bibliography will be particularly
helpful in guiding readers to the American literature.
Speech and Respect will appeal not only to students of law, sociology
and politics but also to anyone with an interest in the contemporary
debate about the harms of speech.
Published under the auspices of
THE HAMLYN TRUST
1994
ISBN D-M21-5D2ZD-7
9 780421 502208 >