Paper short abstract:

Based on an ethnography of a courtroom in Paris which specialises in free speech cases, this paper explores the everyday material-semiotic production of two classic liberal forms, the public/private distinction and the mutual entailment of individual freedom and individual responsibility.

Paper long abstract:

French free speech legislation is built around a late 19th century statute which self-consciously sought to frame the end of state censorship and the liberal ideals of the Third Republic. This procedurally complex law, the judges and lawyers who specialise in its workings and the courtrooms where it is applied, together weave a thin but resilient network of liberal governance which establishes responsibilities and consequences - in public - for words and images which have been made public. Based on an ethnography of one of these courtrooms, this paper explores the everyday material-semiotic production of two classic figures of the liberal imagination, the public/private distinction and the mutual entailment of individual freedom and individual responsibility. These evanescent ideals are materialised at the intersection of publication, publishing and publicity.