Skip to main navigation menu Skip to main content Skip to site footer

When Does Speech Perform Regulable Action? A Critique of Speech Act Theory’s Application to Free Speech Regulation

Abstract

This paper examines the application of speech act theory to free speech regulation and criticises the idea that an understanding of speech which performs speech acts can be of use in identifying regulable speech. It traces the legal application of speech act theory from its initial uses to the more contemporary. In response, this paper seeks to demonstrate that this influential legal application reaches conclusions against the core insight of speech act theory – that all speech performs actions in the relevant, illocutionary and performative, sense. Consequently, an arbitrary method in regulating speech has taken firm hold in contemporary free speech theory, through which some speech is erroneously perceived to be more like a form of speech act than speech proper. I examine the lessons of speech act theory alongside this free speech literature to conclude that we should not ask whether an utterance is an act but instead what kind of act it is, with the goal of refocusing on normative questions pertaining to speech regulation.

Cite as: Weston, JLL 11 (2022), 78–97, DOI: 10.14762/jll.2022.078

Keywords

free speech, speech act theory, illocutionary acts, performativity, hate speech, pornography

PDF

Author Biography

Daniel Adam Weston

I am a Lecturer at Bangor University, School of Law. My research specialism is in the application of philosophy of language to aid our understanding of legal concepts, with a particular interest in speech regulation and free speech.


References

  1. Adler, Amy (2001). Inverting the First Amendment. University of Pennsylvania Law Review, 149(4), 973–1002.
  2. Austin, John L. (1962). How to Do Things With Words. Oxford: University Press.
  3. Austin, John L. (1979). Performance Utterances. In Urmson & Warnock (Eds.), Philosophical Papers (3rd ed.) (pp. 232–253). Clarendon Press.
  4. Barendt, Eric (2019). What is the Harm of Hate Speech. Ethical Theory and Moral Practice, 22(2), 539–553. DOI: 10.1007/s10677-019-10002-0.
  5. Butler, Judith (1997). Excitable Speech: A Politics of the Performative. New York/London: Routledge.
  6. Cerf, Walter (1969). Critical Review of How to Do things with Words. In Fann (Ed.), Symposium on J. L. Austin (pp. 351–379). London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
  7. Collavin, Elena (2011). Speech Acts. In Bublitz & Norrick (Eds.), Foundations of Pragmatics (pp. 373–396). Berlin/New York: De Gruyter Mouton. DOI: 10.1515/9783110214260.373.
  8. Gelber, Katharine (2012). ‘Speaking Back’: The Likely Fate of Hate Speech Policy in the United States and Australia. In I. Maitra & M. K. McGowan (Eds.), Speech and Harm: Controversies Over Free Speech (pp. 50–71). DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199236282.003.0003.
  9. Graham, Keith (1977). J.L. Austin. Harvard: University Press.
  10. Greenawalt, Kent (2015). Interpreting the Constitution. Oxford: University Press.
  11. Greenawalt, Kent (1989). Speech, Crime and the Uses of Language. Oxford: University Press.
  12. Harel, Alon (2011). Is Pornography a Speech Act and Does it Matter? Jerusalem Review of Legal Studies, 3(1), 5–14. DOI: 10.1093/jrls/3.1.5.
  13. Holdcroft, David (1978). Words and Deeds: Problems in the Theory of Speech Acts. Oxford: University Press.
  14. Langton, Rae (2009). Sexual Solopsism: Philosophical Essays on Pornography and Objectification. Oxford: University Press. DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199247066.001.0001.
  15. Langton, Rae (2012). Beyond Belief. In Maitra & McGowan (Eds.), Speech and Harm: Controversies Over Free Speech (pp. 72–93). Oxford: University Press. DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199236282.003.0004.
  16. MacKinnon, Catharine (1993). Only Words. Harvard: University Press.
  17. MacKinnon, Catharine (2012). Foreword. In Maitra & McGowan (Eds.), Speech and Harm: Controversies Over Free Speech (pp. vi–xviii). Oxford: University Press.
  18. Maitra, Ishani (2012). Subordinating Speech. In Maitra & McGowan (Eds.), Speech and Harm: Controversies Over Free Speech (pp. 98–120). DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199236282.003.0005.
  19. McGowan, Mary K. (2005). On Pornography: MacKinnon, Speech Acts, and ‘False’ Construction. Hypatia, 20(3), 22–49. DOI: 10.1111/j.1527-2001.2005.tb00485.x.
  20. McGowan, Mary K. (2012). On ‘Whites Only’ Signs and Racist Hate Speech: Verbal Acts of Racial Discrimination. In Maitra & McGowan (Eds.), Speech and Harm: Controversies Over Free Speech (pp. 121–147). DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199236282.003.0006.
  21. McGowan, Mary K. (2019). Just Words: On Speech and Hidden Harm. Oxford: University Press. DOI: 10.1093/oso/ 9780198829706.001.0001.
  22. Schauer, Frederick (2015). On the Distinction Between Speech and Action. Emory Law Journal, 65(2), 427–454.
  23. Searle, John R. (1965). What is a Speech Act. In Black (Ed.), Philosophy in America (pp. 221–239). Cornell: University Press.
  24. Searle, John R. (1969). Speech Acts: An Essay in the Philosophy of Language. Cambridge: University Press.
  25. Tourkochoriti, Ioanna (2020). How Far Should the State Go to Counter Prejudice? A Positive State Obligation to Counter Dehumanisation. Erasmus Law Review, 3, 34–48. DOI: 10.5553/ELR.000162.
  26. Waldron, Jeremy (2012). The Harm in Hate Speech. Harvard: University Press.
  27. Weston, Daniel (2020). Free Speech, Speech Act Theory and ‘Speech Brigaded with Action’: When Does Protected Speech Become Regulable Action? [University of Leicester]. URL: leicester.figshare.com/articles/thesis/Free_Speech_Speech_Act_Theory_and_Speech_Brigaded_with_Action_When_Does_Protected_Speech_Become_Regulable_Action_/13289297 (accessed 3 October 2022).
  28. Weston, Daniel (2022). A Model for Free Speech. International Journal for the Semiotics of Law, (Online First/Forthcoming). DOI: 10.1007/s11196-022-09918-1.
  29. Wirenius, John F. (2004). First Amendment, First Principles: Verbal Acts and Freedom of Speech. New York: Holmes & Meier.
  30. Yong, Caleb (2011). Does Freedom of Speech Include Hate Speech? Res Publica, 17(4), 385–403. DOI : 10.1007/s11158-011-9158-y.