Kirley on Whether Digital Speech Can Loosen the Gordian Knot of Reputation Law @kirleez

Elizabeth Kirley, Deakin University Faculty of Business and Law, has published Can Digital Speech Loosen the Gordian Knot of Reputation Law? at 32 Santa Clara High Tech. L.J. 171 (2016). Here is the abstract.

This paper likens the current state of reputation law to a Gordian knot, entangled in complexities and calling for novel thinking to make it relevant to our public and private lives. Its central thesis is that digital speech is ontologically different from offline speech and so calls for a more informed response to the harms it can inflict in order to determine whether legal or extra-legal mechanisms are most restorative. In spite of a wealth of international norms that address the value of personal reputation, they have had minimal influences on regional and domestic laws of the European Union and the United States, reflecting the deeply rooted cultural differences on each side of the Atlantic that shape laws of privacy and free speech. In conclusion, implications for future methods of addressing online reputational harm outside of traditional legal systems are discussed.

Download the article from SSRN at the link.