Censorship and the Limits of Liberalism

MICHAEL ALEXANDER

ABSTRACT

When adjudicating disputes regarding the legitimate reach of laws regulating obscene expression under section 2(b) of the Charter, Canadian Courts have drawn on the authority of American Supreme Court cases decided under the First Amendment, but without an awareness of the contradictions and anomalies found in these cases. The American cases reveal all the problems involved in trying to legitimize censorship in a free and democratic society. The problems raised by these cases force us to turn to the fundamental principles of liberalism to find a principled basis for regulating obscene expression. But in doing so, we find that there is a fundamental tension in liberal theory that prevents the state from regulating certain types of pornography which conflict with the private virtues that liberals cherish.

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Citation: (1988) 47(1) U.T. Fac. L. Rev. 58.
Copyright © 1988. University of Toronto Faculty of Law Review.
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