Book contents
- Truth and Privilege
- Studies in Legal History
- Truth and Privilege
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Tables
- Foreword – The Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Introduction
- 2 The Common Law’s Diverging Paths
- 3 The Transformation of Privilege
- 4 Truth, Privacy and Authority
- 5 The Individual Conscience and Blasphemous and Obscene Expression
- 6 Private Defamation Suits
- 7 Conclusion
- Book part
- Bibliography
- Index
- Publications of the Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History
7 - Conclusion
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 December 2021
- Truth and Privilege
- Studies in Legal History
- Truth and Privilege
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Tables
- Foreword – The Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Introduction
- 2 The Common Law’s Diverging Paths
- 3 The Transformation of Privilege
- 4 Truth, Privacy and Authority
- 5 The Individual Conscience and Blasphemous and Obscene Expression
- 6 Private Defamation Suits
- 7 Conclusion
- Book part
- Bibliography
- Index
- Publications of the Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History
Summary
Chapter 7 draws together the arguments presented in the preceding chapters, to underline the way that traditions around bringing disputes to court interacted with a written bill of rights to make courts the fora for disputes over expression in Massachusetts, as it dealt with the challenges to authority posed by challengers to religious and social orthodoxy and the gradual unfolding of its own version of democracy. Though no less concerned with individual reputation, Nova Scotians’ struggles over the jurisdiction of political institutions and greater distance from reform movements shaped disputes over expression and the way that defenses to libel claims were conceived. In these two kindred places, legal cultures, constitutional understandings, publishing practices and the quirks of personality interacted with sociopolitical pressures to shape libel law in general and the defenses of truth and privilege in particular, matters vital to individuals and to the institutions of democracy.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Truth and PrivilegeLibel Law in Massachusetts and Nova Scotia, 1820-1840, pp. 378 - 392Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2021