The Study Of Freedom Of Speech In German Law

The protection of freedom of speech can help the circulation of thoughts and information, which is the engine to promote the development of civilization. Without the protection of freedom of speech, there will be no the ferment of thoughts and the progress of society. Much countries in the world have special ways to protect freedom of speech, especially Germany.The first part of this paper define the concept of freedom of speech in German Law. To understand this question,we should focus on the distinguish of fact and value judgment and the relationship between freedom of speech and freedom of press. Then, the paper analyzes the protection scope of freedom of speech in German Law, including the Nazi speech, pornography, and valueless speech. After clearing this term, the third part of this paper analyzes the character of freedom of speech as a kind of basic rights. Freedom of speech has two qualities:the subjective right of defense and objective value order. Defense right is the basic function of freedom of speech, which is the core function of basic rights as a subjective rights. As a kind of subjective defense rights, freedom of speech can defense the invasion of national public power. At the same time, it’s also the cornerstone of a democratic society. Based on the defense function of basic rights, people have legal rights to rule out any illegal infringement behavior of the nation. The objects of the defense function of basic rights are abstract legislation, specific administrative sanction, judicial adjudication and factual behavior. As a kind of objective value order, freedom of speech not only stipulates the protection obligations of the state, but also has the function of organization and application. Germany’s federal constitutional court thought that objective value order is the basic decision of the constitution, which has normative force to all fields of law. It also has a program for binding for all state power, including legislative power,administrative power, and judicial power.The negative restriction to freedom of speech is mainly the conflict between it and it’s neighboring right, especially general personal rights. The forth part of this paper focuses on this question. Freedom of speech has complicated conflict between right reputation and right of privacy. The conflict between freedom of speech and right reputation mainly in the value measure in insulting comments, defamatory speech and public speech. The conflict and solution way between freedom of speech and rights of privacy in the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany’s judgment of the princess Caroline case.The fifth part mainly states the limits from the German Basic Law to the freedom of speech. It rules that based on the general law, protection to the teenager and the protection of human dignity, the basic law can make limits to the freedom of speech. It means that freedom of speech can not beyond the limits of the three aspects. The limits way of freedom of speech is proportionality principle, including appropriateness principle, necessity principle and the narrow proportionality principle. Because of this, German Law formed a thorough protection system of freedom of speech, which can solve possible problems. The protection of freedom of speech of China is still imperfection, and there is no doubt that Germany can provide a good experience for us. Because of this, the study of the freedom of speech of Germany can have a positive influence to the perfection of our relevant legal system.