The Cosmopolitan First Amendment

We live in an interconnected world in which expressive and religious cultures increasingly commingle and collide. In a globalized and digitized era, we need to better understand the relationship between the First Amendment to the United States Constitution and international borders. This book focuses on the exercise and protection of cross-border and beyond-border expressive and religious liberties, and on the First Amendment’s relationship to the world beyond US shores. It reveals a cosmopolitan First Amendment that protects cross-border conversation, facilitates the global spread of democratic principles, recognizes expressive and religious liberties regardless of location, is influential across the world, and encourages respectful engagement with the liberty regimes of other nations. The Cosmopolitan First Amendment is the product of historical, social, political, technological and legal developments. It examines the First Amendment’s relationship to foreign travel, immigration, cross-border communication and association, religious activities that traverse international borders, conflicts among foreign and US speech and religious liberty models, and the conduct of international affairs and diplomacy.

Author Biography

Timothy Zick is Professor of Law at William and Mary Law School. Professor Zick has twice been selected for a College of William and Mary Plumeri Award for teaching excellence and has been appointed the Cabell Research Professor and the Robert and Elizabeth Scott Research Professor. He has testified before Congress on free speech issues and has been a frequent commentator on the First Amendment in print and other media. Professor Zick is the author of Speech out of Doors: Preserving First Amendment Liberties in Public Places (Cambridge, 2008).