Human Rights Law and Regulating Freedom of Expression in New Media: Lessons from Nordic Approaches

The Nordic countries are well known globally for their high human rights standards and, at the same time, high degree of internet freedom. This edited collection reveals how the Nordic countries have succeeded in the task of protecting freedom of expression in the new media. It contains an overview of public policy choices and best practices of domestic online companies, which have the aspiration of finding global acceptance.

Reviewing the topic of freedom of expression in new media within Nordic and Baltic countries, this book incorporates both general themes and interesting country-specific themes that will provide wider knowledge on the development of freedom of expression and media law in the online media era. A comprehensive analysis of regulation of online media, both at the level of legislation and application of law in courts and other authorities, are included. This book will contribute to the ongoing discussion as to whether there is a need to modify prevailing interpretation of freedom of expression.

Human Rights Law and Regulating Freedom of Expression in New Media focuses on the multi-layered and complicated relationship between internet and human rights law. It contributes to the ongoing discussion regarding the protection of freedom of expression on the internet in the context of various doctrines of constitutional law, including the proliferation of constitutional adjudication. It will be of interest to researchers, academics, policymakers, and students in the fields of human rights law, internet law, political science, sociology, cultural studies, media and communications studies and technology.

Mart Susi is Professor of Human Rights Law and Head of Legal Studies at Tallinn University. He has been leading several international research and development projects (EU Commission-funded Horizon 2020 project "Hurmur" and Nordic Council of Ministers-funded project "Law and Media Network"). He has authored several monographs and more than 50 articles. Currently, he is editing several books on the topics of new media, and human rights and the digital society. Susi has recently introduced and is developing the concept of the Internet Balancing Formula.

Jukka Viljanen is Professor of Public Law, Adjunct Professor of Human Rights Law and University Lecturer at the University of Tampere. He is an author of several international articles on the European Court of Human Rights and its doctrines. Viljanen has been leading several important research projects, e.g. ALL-YOUTH (Strategic Research Council, 2018–2020), Law and Media (Finnish sub-group) (Nordplus, 2015–2017), evaluation of Finnish Human Rights National Action Plan (Ministry of Justice, 2013–2014) and Finnish environmental constitutional right (Ministry of Environment, 2014).

Eiríkur Jónsson graduated as Cand. Juris from the University of Iceland (Faculty of Law) in 2002, LL.M. from Harvard Law School in 2006 and Ph.D. from the University of Iceland in 2011. Among other positions he has served as the chairman of the Icelandic Media Commission, chairman of the Icelandic Appeals Committee of Consumer Affairs, appointed judge at the District Court of Reykjavík and as an alternate judge at the Supreme Court of Iceland. He has written several books on Icelandic law, among other things on media law.

Artūrs Kučs is a judge of the Constitutional Court of Latvia and professor of the Faculty of Law of the University of Latvia. His research areas include comparative human rights law and media law, especially analysis on privacy, defamation and hate speech laws. Artūrs Kučs has been Fulbright Visiting Scholar at the University of Connecticut and DAAD Visiting Scholar at Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law in Heidelberg.