School of Law
University of New England
2020 Kirby Seminar series
Via Webinar Thursday 3 December 2020 at 12 noon AEDT
If interested and to obtain a link, please register for this Kirby Seminar at:
https://une-au.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Tysy_XiWTYipHaouH4tWbw
Horizontal Censorship – The legal ability of organisations to restrain speech
Professor Graeme Orr, University of Queensland School of Law
In this Kirby seminar, Professor Graeme Orr will present the argument that we used to think of ‘censorship’ as something imposed by governments or judges. Something top-down. Increasingly, organisations are restraining and even sanctioning the speech of those they deal with – or refuse to deal with. This talk will comment on the emerging and piecemeal law in this area. Contractual and property rights, and limits in anti-discrimination and employment protections. In a legal liberalism, this presents an intractable clash between ‘free speech’ and the ‘freedom to dissociate’ from such speech. In reality, the question is more one about the brand conscious power of organisations and uncertain norms about the time and manner of speech, in the social media age.
Graeme Orr is a Professor of Law at the University of Queensland Law School. The law of politics, in particular electoral law, is Professor Graeme Orr’s primary research expertise. He has authored The Law of Politics (1st edn 2010, 2nd edn 2019) and Ritual and Rhythm in Electoral Systems (2015), co-authored The Law of Deliberative Democracy (2016), co-edited Realising Democracy (2003), Electoral Democracy: Australian Prospects (2011) and The Cambridge Handbook of Deliberative Constitutionalism (2018) and edited 3 symposia on the law of politics. In the field of the law of politics, he does consultancy and pro bono work, and regular media commentary. Graeme has published over 100 commentary pieces in both the traditional press and online outlets.
Graeme is commencing a new project on ‘horizontal censorship’ – the ability of employers, social media and others to restrain ‘free speech’ by using their contractual and property law power, to defend their own ‘brand’ or right to dissociate themselves from a speaker. In recent times he has been international editor of the Election Law Journal and board member of the Australian Journal of Labour Law. He was formerly managing editor of the Griffith Law Review, columnist with the Alternative Law Journal on sport’s links to law, and employment law columnist with the Australian Journal of Administrative Law. He currently authors the entry on Australia for The Annual Register, a 257 year old almanac of world affairs.
