UC Law lecture critiques trends in defamation law, free speech and reputation
Event Information (passed)
In today’s social media environment where society is freed to comment on any topic imaginable, how can defamation law protect reputations and free expression? Lyrissa Lidsky, dean and Judge C. A. Leedy Professor of Law at the University of Missouri School of Law, will analyze trends in defamation cases to foretell what they foreshadow for modernizing defamation law during her lecture “Restating Defamation Law for the Twenty-First Century”, Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2020 @ 12:15 p.m., hosted by the University of Cincinnati College of Law CLE: Application approved for 1.0 hour of CLE in KY; application pending in OH. This event, the Schwartz Lecture in Torts, will be available via WebEx.
About the Lecture
The common law tort of defamation acquired its distinctive shape and labyrinthine doctrines over the course of the last five centuries. In this century, the tort is being confronted with its biggest challenge since the invention of the printing press, namely, how can defamation law protect reputation and free expression in a world where social media invite billions of people to impulsively comment on every conceivable topic from devices they carry in their pockets, all while creating a record of their carelessly chosen words? At this juncture in defamation’s long history, the American Law Institute has appointed reporters Robert Post and Lyrissa Lidsky, along with a stellar panel of advisers, to “restate” the tort of defamation. The launching of this project creates an opportunity to reconsider how defamation law can accommodate free speech and reputation in a society that weights them very differently than sixteenth century England or even the United States of the late 1970s when the Restatement (Second) of Torts: Defamation was completed. This presentation will examine and critique recent trends in defamation cases to scry what they portend for modernizing defamation law for the digital age.
About the Lecturer
Dean Lyrissa Lidsky, Univ. of Missouri School of Law
Lyrissa Lidsky is dean and Judge C. A. Leedy Professor of Law at the University of Missouri School of Law. The focus of her research and teaching lies at the intersection of Tort Law and the First Amendment, with an emphasis on free speech issues in social media. Prior to heading UM’s School of Law, Dean Lidsky served in a variety of leadership roles at the University of Florida (UF). There she was associate dean for Graduate and International Programs and Associate Dean for Faculty Development. She also held the Stephen C. O’Connell Chair in Law and received a number of teaching awards during her 23-year tenure at UF, including student-selected awards such as Teacher of the Year (twice) and Faculty Graduation Speaker (three times), as well as Teacher of the Year, which was selected by a faculty committee.
A prominent media law scholar, she is co-reporter on the Restatement of Defamation and Privacy, co-author of a leading media law casebook, a First Amendment casebook, and a reference book on press freedom. She also has published dozens of articles, culminating in her recent article in the California Law Review titled “Considering the Context of Online Threats”. Her work on anonymous speech has been cited by a number of state supreme courts as well as the highest courts of Canada and Hong Kong. She was recognized as Missouri Lawyers Media’s 2020 Woman of the Year based on her engagement with Missouri’s legal community.
Before becoming a law professor, Lidsky served as a clerk for the Honorable Joseph T. Sneed of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco, Calif. Lidsky received her law degree from the University of Texas School of Law. She was initiated into Order of the Coif in recognition of her scholastic achievement and served as articles editor of the Texas Law Review. Before law school, she was a Fulbright Scholar at Cambridge University, studying medieval legal history and early development of the Common Law. She received her bachelor’s degree from Texas A&M University.
The Schwartz Lecture in Torts is made possible by the generous support of Victor Schwartz.
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