Slightly More Than Two Cheers For Sneaky Private Investigations Into Questionable Business Operations

34 Pages Posted: 25 Nov 2023

See all articles by R. George Wright

R. George Wright

Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law

Date Written: October 26, 2023

Abstract

Journalists and interest groups often investigate, more or less clandestinely, the business practices of a particular corporate enterprise. Their aim in doing so is to document and graphically publicize illegal or controversial such practices. How the criminal and civil law should respond to such undercover investigations is the focus of the inquiry below.

Ultimately, three full-throated cheers for such private-party investigations is excessive. The investigations in question may, in some cases, run up against, merely for example, limits set by valuable personal privacy rights. A mere two cheers response, however, is insufficient. The free speech-related and other public interest value of such investigations is collectively too great for only two cheers. Two and a half cheers may then seem an apt accommodation of the conflicting interests at stake. Herein, though, a slight muting of the two and a half cheers is endorsed. This final adjustment is strategically intended to encourage investigators to minimize any unnecessary harms caused by their valuable investigation and reporting in the public interest.

Keywords: free speech, free press, privacy, property rights

JEL Classification: K10, K11, K13, K14

Suggested Citation

Wright, R. George, Slightly More Than Two Cheers For Sneaky Private Investigations Into Questionable Business Operations (October 26, 2023). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4614032 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4614032

R. George Wright (Contact Author)

Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law ( email )

530 West New York Street
Indianapolis, IN 46202
United States

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