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Keck paper on assessing judicial empowerment published in Laws journal

Apr 17, 2018

Assessing Judicial Empowerment

Thomas M. Keck

Laws, April 2018

Thomas M. Keck

Thomas M. Keck


Abstract

Drawing on an ongoing international data collection effort, this paper examines the free expression jurisprudence of the Supreme Court of Canada and the European Court of Human Rights in an effort to assess the political beneficiaries of judicial empowerment.

Free expression is a universally recognized fundamental right, and it is a right that is regularly invoked in court by a rich diversity of political actors. As such, free speech law provides an illuminating window onto how constitutional courts respond to similar claims from differently situated claimants.

This paper compares the response by two influential courts to free expression claims filed by for-profit businesses and by labor advocates.


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