Stephen M. Harnik Introduces Former ACLU President Nadine Strossen and Attorney Pierre Ciric at American Foreign Law Association Event

Stephen M. Harnik, President of the American Foreign Law Association ("AFLA") introduced Nadine Strossen, the John Marshall Harlan II Professor of Law Emerita at New York Law School and past President of the American Civil Liberties Union (1991-2008) and Pierre Ciric, founding partner of the Ciric Law Firm, PLLC, to a standing room only luncheon held at the offices of Paul, Weiss.

Nadine and Pierre's presentation was titled "Hate Speech vs. Free Speech: Comparative legal perspectives from the U.S., France, and beyond." The two discussed the perennial worldwide debate about “hate speech” (and other controversial speech, such as “disinformation” and “extremist” speech) and how "hate speech" reflects many myths and misconceptions, even among lawyers. During this presentation, Nadine and Pierre dispelled some of these misconceptions, including that U.S. law is rigidly “absolutist,” and that U.S. law is an international outlier. Nadine outlined the U.S. law, explaining how it has been echoed by U.N. instruments and endorsed by human right champions in many other countries. Pierre Ciric described the French Constitutional Court’s recent invalidation of a French law against online hate speech, which he played a leading role in challenging.