Noting that the work of Jurgen Habermas has had an important influence on philosophy and the social sciences recently, this paper examines the implications of using Habermas's "ideal speech situation" as a criterion for deciding issues relating to the First Amendment. The paper first briefly reviews the distinctive features of critical…

A review of federal court decisions in the area of cable television and First Amendment rights reveals an early, unified perception of cable's First Amendment status that has given way in the past decade to fragmented and often contradictory positions among lower level courts. This makes the problem before the courts today one of choosing from, or…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 11 titles deal with the following topics: (1) the Supreme Court and the limits of the First Amendment in "Zurcher v. Stanford Daily"; (2) the radical journalist, I. F. Stone; (3) group owned vs. independentl owned…

Placing the debate in the United States over amending the Constitution to permit state-sanctioned school prayer in global perspective, this report analyzes the results of a survey of the school prayer policies of 72 countries. The report concludes that the vast majority of the major countries of the world, including Western Europe, Central…