Freedom of expression has long been cherished as a liberal ideal. This collection explores the new challenges to free expression posed by cultural and political conflict and by technological change. It asks: How, if at all, can it be traded against other goods? Can free speech survive, given the growing awareness of its costs?

It asks whether classical and modern liberalism still carry conviction against challenges to liberal orthodoxy.The contributors ask how to weigh the claims of free expression against other fundamental rights such as group membership, personal privacy, and the protection of the public sphere both as a discursive realm, and as a cultural space. Together they tackle the key questions facing free expression today: What does free expression mean in an age of global communications? How, if at all, can it be traded against other goods? Can free speech survive, given the growing awareness of its costs?