This course is part of the coursework component of Honours in the School of Social Sciences & International Studies. The aim of this seminar is to engage students in thinking and arguing about the character and purpose of politics and law, and in turn, their relationship to justice. We explore these questions with specific reference to the issue of freedom of speech. We shall look at the ways in which freedom of speech has been thought about, and what approaches have been adopted in public policy and law. While we focus on the Australian context, material from other legal and political systems, especially the USA and Canada, will be used to illuminate the principles we might use to think about the issue. We shall attempt to work out how (if at all) we can reconcile important values at stake in the issue: freedom of action, freedom from discrimination and harassment, personal integrity and inviolability, equality etc.


The first part of the seminar looks at general considerations that structure approaches to drawing the line between protected and regulated speech. The second part explores legal and political responses to hate speech or vilification, and topics such as blasphemy and religious speech. Throughout the seminar, we shall be concerned with what justice demands in terms of law and public policy concerning speech