Introduction: Philosophical Preliminaries

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Matthew H. Kramer
Keyword(s):  
Freedom Of Expression ◽  
Focus Of Attention ◽  
Causal Relationships ◽  
Moral Conflicts ◽  
Constitutive Relationships

This chapter expounds some technical philosophical notions that figure prominently in the rest of the book. Among the phenomena elucidated are moral conflicts, strong permissibility versus weak permissibility, overtopping obligations versus non-overtopping obligations, weak absoluteness versus strong absoluteness, physical freedom versus deontic freedom, the Hohfeldian analysis of legal positions (claim-rights and duties, liberties and no-rights, powers and liabilities, and immunities and disabilities), and the distinction between causal relationships and constitutive relationships. Although all of these concepts and distinctions are of great significance in debates over the principle of freedom of expression, they also figure saliently in many other debates. Hence, the purpose of this introductory chapter is to provide the basic philosophical preliminaries that are needed for a rigorous engagement with the principle of freedom of expression. The chapter sets the stage for the subsequent chapters, where that principle is the focus of attention.

The Problem of the Border

The Border ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 1-24
Author(s):  
Martin A. Schain
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Focus Of Attention ◽  
Global Trade ◽  
Immigration Restriction ◽  
The Will ◽  
A Minor ◽  
Over Time ◽  
The Eu

This introductory chapter examines questions that have been raised about the evolving importance of the border, from whether global trade has made borders less relevant, to whether states still possess the capability (or the will) to control borders. A great deal has been written about border policies in Europe and the United States, but very little about how and why policies change, both over time and across space. In the United States, even during the most severe period of immigration restriction, borders were a minor focus of attention, and the northern and southern borders remained relatively open and only lightly patrolled. In Europe, even after the dismantling of the internal borders when the Schengen Agreement was implemented after 1995, the external borders still remained the responsibility of the member states, with relatively little coordination at the EU level. Therefore, why have borders become an important focus of politics?

Journalists and Freedom of Expression in the Twentieth Century

2018 ◽  
pp. 1-25
Author(s):  
Volker R. Berghahn
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
Weimar Republic ◽  
Freedom Of Expression ◽  
German History ◽  
Nazi Party ◽  
World War ◽  
Underground Resistance ◽  
The Right

This introductory chapter briefly reviews the lives of the three journalists under discussion—Marion Countess Dönhoff, Paul Sethe, and Hans Zehrer—and places them within the context of German history under the shadow of World War II. It shows that the three journalists were all anti-Nazis in the Weimar Republic who had been enjoying liberal press freedoms under Article 118 of the Constitution. According to this article, “every German” had “the right, within the limits of general laws, to express his opinions freely.” Their freedom became threatened when from 1930 onward they witnessed the rise of Nazism and then Adolf Hitler's seizure of power in January 1933. Sethe, Zehrer, and Dönhoff (though she was not yet a journalist) continued to keep their distance from the regime thereafter. Unlike millions of other Germans, they never became members of the Nazi Party, nor did they emigrate or join the early underground resistance. Instead, this chapter argues that these three journalists went into “inner emigration.”

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