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49 Cornell L. Q. 581 (1963-1964)
Freedom of the Press and the Law of Libel The Modern Revised Translation

handle is hein.journals/clqv49 and id is 603 raw text is: CORNELL LAW QUARTERLY VOLUME 49 SUMMER 1964 NUMBER 4 FREEDOM OF THE PRESS AND THE LAW OF LIBEL: THE MODERN REVISED TRANSLATION Willard H. Pedrickt Freedom is an unstable compound. Because one man's liberty can be another man's constraint, because conditions of life in our dynamic so- ciety continue to change and because freedom at large is grand but elu- sive in the particular, the task of formulation is never ending. Despite the difficulties, we are committed to the task and we believe that history will vindicate our faith in a society which undertakes to submit for par- ticipating individual decision a multitude of issues concerning the frame- work for life. In the economic sphere as workers, as managers, as in- vestors, and as consumers, in the social sphere as members of a variety of social units, groups, and circles, and in the political sphere as citizens, voters, office seekers, and public officials our society undertakes to pro- vide an opportunity for individual and collective decisions. The extent to which the individual is enabled in fact to determine his own destiny and to participate in shaping the social destiny is much affected, of course, by the practices of economic, social, and political institutions, by pervasive attitudes and in our society to some extent by the law. One of the essentials to this democratic way of life is a flow of informa- tion enabling the individuals comprising society to discharge their vari- ous decisional responsibilities-to make up their minds. But the sheer mass of available information, the certain knowledge that part of what may pass for information is misinformation, false and sometimes mis- chievous, clogging the rational processes of public debate and threatening unwarranted damage to individuals, calls for some mechanism to secure a minimum standard of responsibility in the transmission of information. The formulation of the minimum standard has quite generally been as- signed to the law and in the common-law world (with some notable ex- f Professor of Law, Northwestern University and J. du Pratt White Visiting Professor of Law, Cornell University, Spring 1964.

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