La libertad de expresión (en tiempos de guerra): un análisis desde Zechariah Chafee

Abstract

The present study deals with the human right to freedom of speech as regulated in the Espionage Act of 1917. The study relies mostly in a text by Zechariah Chafee which analyzes the Act's early application. To Chafee's mind, the fact that the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution consecrates freedom of speech should not prevent neither the Government nor the legislative power from stablishing certain limiting measures to it. However, both the wording and the interpretation of these measures must stay away from the doctrines of indirect causation and constructive intent, which are never appropriate in order to stablish whether a statement should be protected or not as freedom of speech (the reform of the Espionage Act in 1918 did not respect this boundary, and the majority of the American courts at the time went along the same path). In Chafee's view, speech should be unrestricted from censorship or punishment unless it is clearly liable to cause a direct and dangerous interference with the conduct of war. (English) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]