Libel Law, Political Criticism, and Defamation of Public Figures: The United States, Europe, and Australia »

In studying friction between the exercise of free political speech and maintaining the reputation of public figures in societies advocating freedom of speech, Amponsah (information & communication sciences and technology, Catholic U. of Ghana) offers a comparative analysis of the approaches of four democratic jurisdictions to balancing these interests. Following historical background, he compares several US Supreme Court decisions in political speech jurisprudence to the UK's and Australia's common law of libel and the international treaty-based European Court of Human Rights. The verdict: speech protections are converging in these jurisdictions and those of others should be studied. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR