A sceptical appraisal of the claim that freedom of expression is a human right.

Larry Alexander is Warren Distinguished Professor, University of San Diego School of Law.

Introduction; Part I. Defining Human Rights and Delimiting the Scope of Freedom of Expression: 1. Preliminaries: what is a human right, and what activities implicate freedom of expression?; 2. Freedom of expression and regulations that affect messages but are not enacted for that reason; 3. The puzzles of governmental purpose; Part II. The Core of Freedom of Expression: Government Regulations and Acts Taken To Affect Messages: 4. The core of freedom of expression: regulations of conduct for the purpose of affecting messages received; 5. Track three: Government speech and subsidies of speech; 6. Miscellaneous regulations of expression; Part III. Theoretical Perspectives on Freedom of Expression: 7. General justifying theories of freedom of expression; 8. The paradoxes of liberalism and the failure of theories justifying a right of freedom of expression; Epilogue: 9. Muddling through: freedom of expression in the absence of a human right.