Professor JoAnne Sweeny cited by Penn Program on Regulation

JoAnne Sweeny
JoAnne Sweeny

Brandeis School of Law Professor JoAnne Sweeny was cited by the University of Pennsylvania Law School's Penn Program on Regulation for her work on a new legal basis for regulating street and cyber-harassment.

"Many scholars have called for laws to penalize those who engage in these types of behaviors, but several barriers exist, including First Amendment speech protections. However, JoAnne Sweeny, a professor at the University of Louisville Brandeis School of Law, argues that a legal concept known as the “captive audience doctrine”—which takes into account the extent to which a person needs to flee, or is “captivated”— is the most viable theory to justify regulating street and cyber-harassment within the bounds of the First Amendment," states the article in The Regulatory Review.

Sweeny's current scholarly interests include comparative constitutional law, freedom of expression and law and gender.