Event
Lies, Free Speech, and the Law
A symposium exploring how the law regulates or should regulate false and misleading speech
Columbia University and online
On April 8, 2022, the Knight Institute will host a symposium to explore how the law regulates or should regulate false and misleading speech. The symposium, titled “Lies, Free Speech, and the Law,” is being overseen by the Institute’s Senior Visiting Research Scholar Genevieve Lakier and will take place at Columbia University.
The symposium will focus on five themes that examine the connections between lies, freedom of speech (construed broadly), and the law. These are: 1) the sociological and constitutional status of false or misleading speech; 2) defining the category of lies; 3) structural regulation and the problem of lies; 4) government lies; and 5) the deregulation of disclosure.
Schedule
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Jerome Greene Hall, Room 104, Columbia Law School, or Online
Columbia Law School
435 W. 116th St.
New York, NY 10027
Welcome
- Lee C. Bollinger, President, Columbia University
- Jameel Jaffer, Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University
- Genevieve Lakier, Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University
Lies in historical context
Public discussion of the problem of lies in the United States tends to assume its novelty—that at no point in history was public agreement about factual truth so contested and uncertain. But is this true? What can we learn from historical battles over propaganda, falsehoods, and distrust of institutions? And if we are now experiencing an epistemic crisis, what are its sociological, political, and economic roots?
Panelists
- RonNell Andersen Jones, University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law
- Sam Lebovic, George Mason University
- Sonja R. West, University of Georgia School of Law
- John Fabian Witt, Yale Law School
Moderator
- Katy Glenn Bass, Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University
Coffee break
Doctrinal and definitional questions
What is the First Amendment status of false speech? More specifically, what rules can and should apply to different kinds of false speech (e.g., intentional lies, negligent untruths, wrong opinions) that the government might want to regulate? And what are the justifications for those rules? This panel will explore the thorny foundational doctrinal questions raised by the regulation of false speech.
Panelists
- Helen Norton, University of Colorado School of Law
- Deborah Pearlstein, Cardozo School of Law
- Mark Tushnet, Harvard Law School
- Eugene Volokh, UCLA School of Law
Moderator
- Carrie DeCell, Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University
Lunch
Boxed lunches will be available for pick-up outside of JGH 104.
Government lies
Of all the kinds of lies that proliferate in the public sphere, perhaps the most dangerous to the functioning of democratic government are government lies. When the government lies, it threatens the ability of the people to perform their basic democratic function: to judge whether their elected representatives are representing their interests satisfactorily. How should First Amendment doctrine treat government lies?
Panelists
- Alan Chen, University of Denver Sturm College of Law
- Jamal Greene, Columbia Law School
- Amanda Shanor, University of Pennsylvania Wharton School
Moderator
- Catherine J. Ross, George Washington University Law School
Sociological conditions for the production of truth
Lies do not occur in a vacuum. Particular institutional and cultural contexts can encourage and enable the production of falsehoods—or the production of truth. This panel will explore some of the sociological facts that encourage, or limit, the dissemination of untruths and the legal structures that enable them, as well as how law can support the production and dissemination of knowledge.
Panelists
- Adam M. Enders, University of Louisville
- Heidi Kitrosser, University of Minnesota Law School
- Artur Pericles Lima Monteiro, Yale Law School
- Joseph Uscinski, University of Miami
Moderator
- Francesca Procaccini, Harvard Law School
Speakers
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RonNell Andersen Jones
Knight Institute Senior Visiting Research Scholar 2023-2024; University of Utah
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Lee C. Bollinger
Columbia University and Knight Institute Board Member, Ex Officio
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Alan K. Chen
University of Denver Sturm College of Law
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Carrie DeCell
Senior Staff Attorney, Knight Institute
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Adam M. Enders
University of Louisville
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Katy Glenn Bass
Research Director, Knight Institute
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Jamal Greene
Knight Institute Senior Visiting Research Scholar, 2018-2019; Columbia Law School
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Jameel Jaffer
Executive Director, Knight Institute
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Heidi Kitrosser
Northwestern Pritzker School of Law
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Genevieve Lakier
Knight Institute Senior Visiting Research Scholar 2021-2022; University of Chicago Law School
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Sam Lebovic
Knight Institute Senior Visiting Research Scholar, 2023-2024; George Mason University
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Artur Pericles Lima Monteiro
Yale Law School
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Helen Norton
University of Colorado School of Law
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Deborah Pearlstein
Cardozo School of Law
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Francesca Procaccini
Harvard Law School
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Catherine J. Ross
George Washington University Law School
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Amanda Shanor
University of Pennsylvania Wharton School
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Mark Tushnet
Harvard Law School
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Joseph Uscinski
University of Miami
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Eugene Volokh
UCLA School of Law
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Sonja R. West
Knight Institute Senior Visiting Research Scholar 2023-2024; University of Georgia
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John Fabian Witt
Yale Law School