| As a vital right, freedom of expression has become a popular topic attractingmore and more attention, which presently the academic circle of journalism andcommunication mainly interpret from the perspective of jurisprudence. This moduleof thinking, as this dissertation points out, has some limitations as well. Therefore,this dissertation tries to restore freedom of expression to its original context of Britishand American tradition, and thus give an answer from the point of institutionalarrangement to the question why freedom of expression has become a possibility inBritish and American tradition. The analysis about liberal institutional arrangementmainly consists of three parts, namely liberty-safeguarding legal system, economicfreedom made up of free enterprises and political freedom with liberal democraticsystem as its main body. This dissertation acknowledges that judging from westerntraditional political life's characteristics, freedom is but a concept under legalsafeguarding; and legitimacy is the most conspicuous description of theliberty-safeguarding institutions. Therefore this dissertation first describes the conceptof freedom of expression and its legislative process in British and American politicalphilosophy. It is the political philosophy that endows freedom of expression with itsphilosophic basis of legislative process. However, with the evolvement of politicalphilosophy, the philosophic basis of freedom of expression has also undergoneconstant changes, namely from the God's power to natural law, and then utilitarianism.All these changes have profound and long-standing effects on the later ages,especially on American prejudication about freedom of expression. Moreover, sucheffects are reflected in the philosophic conflict between John Rawls'theories andutilitarianism. However, the legal safeguarding of freedom of expression is notwithout any condition in British and American tradition, which is embodied in thehistorical analysis of two major constitutional doctrines, namely Amendments To TheConstitution of The United States (1791) and Declaration of The Rights Of Man andof The Citizen (1789). They are generally regarded as the summary of rights in Britishcommon laws. The former, with its detailed argument rooted in property rights'priority over freedom of expression, which is the premises of free enterprises system,explains the significance of economic freedom consisting of free enterprises tofreedom of expression. And the latter gives an explanation to the unique relationshipbetween liberal democracy and freedom of expression that limitation is firstly IIindispensable to safeguarding, which can refer to James Madison's and DeTocquerille's philosophies and Robert Dahl's and David Easton's theories aboutpoly-archy times. Based on this dissertation's analysis on the evolvement of freedomof expression, we might conclude that the safeguarding of rights is firstly an issue tobe considered in accordance of order, and such logic of order presents itself on andbetween different institutional levels. |
