Do apologies ordered by the court serve a purpose?
An employee seeks an apology from his employer for inadequately handling a complaint against him. A sexual abuse victim pursues an apology from the Catholic Church for the harm that was done by one of the priests. Can individuals claim an apology, and will a court order one?
The conventional wisdom is that apologies that are claimed or ordered do not serve a purpose because they lack sincerity and violate the right to freedom of expression. In a recent publication, I challenge conventional wisdom by demonstrating that apologies do not need to be sincere in order for them to serve a purpose.
If sincerity cannot be the decisive criterion for determining whether apologies should be ordered, what criterion should then be decisive? Based on available empirical research, case law and scholarly research on apologies, the article identifies the purposes of coerced apologies and uses these purposes to draft criteria for determining when ordered apologies are appropriate. It is concluded that an ordered apology is a fulfilment of a legal requirement rather than a statement of genuinely held feelings.
A proportionality test is developed in order to determine the permissibility of ordered apologies. The findings in the article refute the sincerity myth, offer suggestions as to how to overcome freedom of expression concerns and call for a more welcoming approach towards court-ordered apologies.
This blog is a summarised version of an article published on the Oxford Journal of Legal studies
This blog is published on Law Blogs Maastricht
-
G. van DijckMore articles from G. van DijckGijs integrates legal, empirical, and computational analysis in order to improve the description, application, understanding, and evaluation of the law. He has taught courses on tort law, contract law, property law, empirical legal research, and computational legal research. Gijs has published in top journals including the Journal of Empirical Legal Studies and the Oxford Journal of Legal Studies.
Other blogs:
Also read
-
On 23 February 2022, the European Commission released the much anticipated proposal for the Directive on Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence. The aim of this Directive is to reduce human rights violations and environmental harms across the global value chain by making large companies carry out...
-
Achieving a sustainable way of life requires massive societal changes and (private international) law should enable, rather than hamper, the realization of such essential goals.
-
The DSA reflects the issue of advertising in its draft Art. 24, mandating transparency in advertising displayed by platforms – the traditional ad archives, discussed above. However, the proposal makes no acknowledgement whatsoever of new advertising business models emerging from content monetization...
