Professor JoAnne Sweeny cited by Penn Program on Regulation
- 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.