Taking Delight in Being Contrary, Worried About Being a Loner or Simply Indifferent: How do Judges Feel about Dissent?

Lynch, AN

Taking Delight in Being Contrary, Worried About Being a Loner or Simply Indifferent: How do Judges Feel about Dissent?

Lynch, AN

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Publisher:: Australian National University
Publication Type:: Journal Article
Citation:: Federal Law Review, 2004, 32 (2), pp. 311 - 329
Issue Date:: 2004-01

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Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Lynch, AN	en_US
dc.date.issued	2004-01	en_US
dc.identifier.citation	Federal Law Review, 2004, 32 (2), pp. 311 - 329	en_US
dc.identifier.issn	0067-205X	en_US
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/1495
dc.description.abstract	In Cass Sunstein's new book, Why Societies Need Dissent, the reader is presented with an impassioned yet methodical rumination on the value to be gained through the airing of voices which challenge the mainstream. Sunstein's canvas is an ample one and while the book presents a compelling case overall for the legal protection of free speech, it is wholly inadequate to describe Why Societies Need Dissent as a book simply for lawyers.[1] Through repeated references to the lessons of history and by drawing significantly upon psychological research into group decision-making, Sunstein seeks to reach out to as broad an audience as possible. The book may irritate those who would prefer that the incessant voices of disquiet were silenced but will surely provide comfort to social activists and those feeling disenfranchised from the mainstream in their community's political and social life. As such, it is very much a book for our times. So far as this wider scope of the book is concerned, Sunstein succeeds admirably in sifting through and explaining rather a lot of humanities research to bolster what is, ultimately, a fairly straight-forward and commonsense proposition: 'unchecked by dissent, conformity can produce disturbing, harmful, and sometimes astonishing outcomes'.[2] Many of the examples which Sunstein uses in support of this contention would readily occur to the reader without prompting the American government's actions at the Bay of Pigs and subsequently in Vietnam, the defeat of the Axis powers in World War II and the financial collapse of corporations with complacent and pliant boards of governance, to name just a few.	en_US
dc.publisher	Australian National University	en_US
dc.relation.ispartof	Federal Law Review	en_US
dc.title	Taking Delight in Being Contrary, Worried About Being a Loner or Simply Indifferent: How do Judges Feel about Dissent?	en_US
dc.type	Journal Article
utslib.citation.volume	2	en_US
utslib.citation.volume	32	en_US
utslib.for	1801 Law	en_US
pubs.embargo.period	Not known	en_US
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney
utslib.copyright.status	closed_access
pubs.consider-herdc	true	en_US
pubs.issue	2	en_US
pubs.volume	32	en_US

Abstract:

In Cass Sunstein's new book, Why Societies Need Dissent, the reader is presented with an impassioned yet methodical rumination on the value to be gained through the airing of voices which challenge the mainstream. Sunstein's canvas is an ample one and while the book presents a compelling case overall for the legal protection of free speech, it is wholly inadequate to describe Why Societies Need Dissent as a book simply for lawyers.[1] Through repeated references to the lessons of history and by drawing significantly upon psychological research into group decision-making, Sunstein seeks to reach out to as broad an audience as possible. The book may irritate those who would prefer that the incessant voices of disquiet were silenced but will surely provide comfort to social activists and those feeling disenfranchised from the mainstream in their community's political and social life. As such, it is very much a book for our times. So far as this wider scope of the book is concerned, Sunstein succeeds admirably in sifting through and explaining rather a lot of humanities research to bolster what is, ultimately, a fairly straight-forward and commonsense proposition: 'unchecked by dissent, conformity can produce disturbing, harmful, and sometimes astonishing outcomes'.[2] Many of the examples which Sunstein uses in support of this contention would readily occur to the reader without prompting the American government's actions at the Bay of Pigs and subsequently in Vietnam, the defeat of the Axis powers in World War II and the financial collapse of corporations with complacent and pliant boards of governance, to name just a few.

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http://hdl.handle.net/10453/1495