March 09, 2015

Catholic University law school Professor Marshall Breger is the author of "ORDRE PUBLIC and the First Amendment," just published in The Review of Faith & International Affairs, a leading international journal on religion and public policy. 0rdre public is a civil law concept according to which courts refuse to enforce the judgments of the courts of foreign countries because the judgments violate the enforcing state's core notions of public morals and public order. The concept is most often used in private international law. Breger's article concludes with this point: "Many social institutions today 'privilege' welcomeness, comfort zones, and civility. All these are positive concepts for a good society. In recent years, however, there has been a clash of values; free speech is too often balanced against these goods and found wanting. This is especially true on college campuses, which as we are so often told are the birthplace of future social values. The question we must ask is the extent to which such cultural change will ineluctably lead to a First Amendment jurisprudence that follows Canada and those European countries that are prepared to censor speech to ensure social stability. To the extent that this future comes to pass, there is little doubt that judicial understandings of ordre public will similarly evolve-in my view, for the worse." The online version is currently available and the print copy of the issue is expected later in March.