Based on author's thesis (doctoral - University of California, Berkeley, 2009) issued under title: Truths and consequences : the legal and extralegal regulation of expression in Massachusetts and Nova Scotia, 1820-1840. Includes bibliographical references and index.
Contents:
Introduction -- The common law's diverging paths -- The transformation of privilege -- Truth, privacy and authority -- The individual conscience and blasphemous and obscene expression -- Private defamation suits : courts in everyday life -- Conclusion.
Summary:
"Truth and Privilege is a comparative study of the forces that drove the evolution of the body of law used for disciplining wayward presses and tongues in Nova Scotia and Massachusetts in the 1820s and 1830s. The book explores the interplay among legal and constitutional traditions, political and religious controversies, publishing practices, institutional logic and personalities, as these two deeply connected places worked through the implications of responsive democratic governance. Both places prized both good character and free expression, but courtrooms were far more often the site of these conflicts in Massachusetts. Professor Campbell's research on the defences of truth and privilege demonstrates the similarities and differences between these jurisdictions in how the tensions around assertions of legislative power and claims to individual conscience and expression played out. She explores the unfolding of legal and popular thought on acceptable justifications for publishing objectionable expression and the incentives institutions offered to draw participants, including women, into court or to keep them out"-- Provided by publisher.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.