The Right to Reputation

Colloquium

Speaker: Linda Radzik, Texas A&M

Start: Feb 20, 2026 - 03:30pm

Where: TBD

 

Description:

Human rights documents, constitutions, and jurisprudence from countries all over the world include reference to an allegedly fundamental right to “reputation,” “honor,” or “one's own good name.” But clarifying the content and justification of this alleged right is challenging. Drawing on legal and philosophical work on defamation, privacy, and the construction of the self, I defend an account of a moral right to reputation. I argue that this right is deserving of (at least some degree of) legal protection as one of the social bases of self-respect.