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Positive free speech and public access to courts

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posted on 2023-06-09, 12:49 authored by Judith TownendJudith Townend
Even the most casual observer of courts in the UK, whether through crime dramas or news reports, will likely have some awareness of the guiding principle that for justice to be done, it must be seen to be done. But if one digs beneath that popular and well - cemented phrase, understood as critical to the rule of law, it becomes clear that open justice takes many different forms and is in practice a complex principle to administer and enforce. Clearly, the UK courts have a positive obligation in law to provide information about their activities, but to what extent? Just how much, and by what method and why, are questions that are contested and open for interpretation. This chapter uses the positive free speech framework and normative arguments forwarded in this collection to address these questions and to suggest how the judiciary and courts service should be publicly communicating what happens in court. Accepting the premise that there are positive duties on the state that ‘insist[s] that everyone be able to exercise their rights’ in order to ‘support diverse speech environments’, and that positive free speech is a ‘central element existing alongside concerns about legal limitations on speech’, it proposes a way forward for further enhancing positive free speech in a court setting.

History

Publication status

  • Published

File Version

  • Published version

Publisher

Hart Publishing

Pages

216.0

Book title

Positive free speech: rationales, methods and implications

Place of publication

UK

ISBN

9781509908295

Department affiliated with

  • Law Publications

Research groups affiliated with

  • Sussex Centre for Human Rights Research Publications

Full text available

  • Yes

Peer reviewed?

  • No

Editors

Andrew T Kenyon, Andrew Scott

Legacy Posted Date

2018-04-11

First Open Access (FOA) Date

2020-06-10

First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date

2018-04-10

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