Contextualizing Disclosure’s Effects: Wikileaks, Balancing and the First Amendment

17 Pages Posted: 25 Jul 2012

See all articles by Christina E. Wells

Christina E. Wells

University of Missouri School of Law

Date Written: July 25, 2012

Abstract

This essay responds to Professor Fenster’s article in the Iowa Law Review, Disclosure’s Effects: WikiLeaks and Transparency, assessing the effects of the recent WikiLeaks disclosures. The essay agrees with many of Professor Fenster’s conclusions regarding the promise and peril of those disclosures, especially his concern regarding the problematic balancing approaches used to assess the likely impact when confidential information is revealed. It specifically elaborates on courts’ current application of the Espionage Act, a criminal law likely to be applied to the WikiLeaks disclosures, and the implications of that deferential application for WikiLeaks, Julian Assange and journalists in general.

Keywords: WikiLeaks, Assange, freedom of speech, first amendment, Espionage Act, Pentagon Papers

Suggested Citation

Wells, Christina E., Contextualizing Disclosure’s Effects: Wikileaks, Balancing and the First Amendment (July 25, 2012). Iowa Law Review Bulletin (Forthcoming), University of Missouri School of Law Legal Studies Research Paper No. 2012-24, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2117583

Christina E. Wells (Contact Author)

University of Missouri School of Law ( email )

Missouri Avenue & Conley Avenue
Columbia, MO MO 65211
United States

Do you have a job opening that you would like to promote on SSRN?

Paper statistics

Downloads
117
Abstract Views
1,014
Rank
452,829
PlumX Metrics