BCL, M.A. (Oxon.).
Fellow and Tutor in Law, St Catherine’s College, Oxford: 1971-1990;
Goodman Professor of Media Law, UCL: 1990 - 2010
Emeritus Professor of Media Law/Senior Teaching Fellow, UCL: 2010 -
Barrister, Gray’s Inn
Profile
Eric Barendt was Goodman Professor of Media Law at University College London
between 1990 - 2010; it was the first chair in media law in the United Kingdom. Previously
he had been teaching at St. Catherine's College, Oxford from 1971. He has held
Visiting Professorships at Rome (1991), Siena (1996), Paris II (1999), Melbourne
(2003) and Auckland (2007). In addition to teaching at those universities, he
has given lectures and seminars at the European University Institute in Fiesole,
Hamburg, Siegen, Münster, Sydney, Canberra, and Dunedin. He was principal
editor of the Yearbook of Copyright and Media Law (Oxford University Press)
from 1995 to 2001/2, and will be an editor of a new Media and Communications
Law Review to be published by Hart from 2009. He has given informal advice,
and formal evidence, to the House of Commons Culture, Media, and Sport Committee
on Privacy and Media Intrusion (2003), and he gave evidence to the Joint Committee
of the House of Lords and House of Commons on the Draft Communications Bill
(2002). He has given advice on freedom of expression issues to the government
of Turkey, the European Community Cigarette Manufacturers, and the Canadian
Radio and Telecommunications Commission.
Research
Eric Barendt's principal research has been concerned with freedom of speech/expression
and related constitutional and legal questions. These have generally had a comparative
dimension, as shown in his books, Freedom of Speech, (2nd, ed, 2005)
and Broadcasting Law (1993). He has also written a book on constitutional
law for the prestigious Clarendon Law series published by Oxford University
Press (1998), which has also published his study of the empirical impact of
libel law on the media, written with three other authors (1997).
He has taken a particular interest in the relationship of libel and privacy
law to freedom of speech in both English and European Convention law.
Next year, Eric Barendt will be starting a study of the legal protection of
academic freedom from a comparative perspective, which will lead to the publication
of a monograph.
Publications
Books
Freedom of Speech, 2nd edition (Oxford University Press, 2005)
Broadcasting Law (OUP, 1993)
Libel and the Media: the chilling effect (OUP, 1997)
Introduction to Constitutional Law (OUP, 1998)
Media Law: Cases and Materials (with Lesley Hitchens, Longman, 2000)
Book Chapters
‘Privacy and Freedom of Expression’ in New Dimensions in
Privacy Law, ed by A Kenyon and M Richardson (Cambridge University Press,
2006)
‘The United States and Canada: State Action, Constitutional Rights,
and Private Actors’ in Human Rights and the Private Sphere,
ed by J Fedtke and D Oliver (Routledge-Cavendish, 2007)
‘Free Speech and Religion: Secular and Religious Perspectives on Truth’
in Censorial Sensitivities: Free Speech and Religion in a Fundamentalist
World, ed by A Sajo (Eleven International Publishing, 2007)
Recent Articles
‘Defamation and Fiction’, 2 Current Legal Issues (ed
by M Freeman, OUP) 481-98
‘What is the Point of Libel Law?’ (1999) 52 Current Legal
Problems 111-25
‘The Impact of the Human Rights Act 1998 on the Law of Libel’,
(2001/2) 6 Yearbook of Copyright and Media Law 141-57
‘Free Speech and Abortion’, [2003] Public Law 580-591
Publications in progress
‘Libel, Privacy and Freedom of Expression’ in a volume to mark
the end of the House of Lords as a judicial tribunal (ed by Sir Louis Blom-Cooper
and others, to be published in 2009)
‘Freedom of Expression after the Human Rights Act 1998’, conference
paper delivered in Auckland in 2007 to be published by New Zealand Law Review.
Current Teaching Undergraduate
Jurisprudence & Legal Theory
Graduate
Media Law, Libel and Privacy
Principles of Media Regulation (convenor)
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11 October, 2011
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