Legal Safeguards of Truth
Theoretical Bases, Constitutional Limits, and Regulatory Instruments of Countering “Fake News”
This project seeks to analyze and assess the constitutional and practical possibilities and limits of legal instruments countering the spreading of “fake news,” especially in the digital realm. In the past decade, the phenomenon of “fake news”— severely exacerbated by the digital media revolution—has raised persistent and heightened concerns throughout liberal democracies. Indeed, what we take to be factually the case as well as sufficiently shared epistemic standards are the foundation upon which any human—and thus also political—decision-making builds. However, since the beginning of modern constitutionalism, policing “the truth” as such through state power has been considered a problematic undertaking, often conceived as opening up a slippery slope towards autocracy. Given this tension between the need for sound epistemic bases of collective and individual decision-making, on the one hand, and liberal-democratic commitments, on the other, my research aims to analyze and clarify the constitutional grounds for, limits to, and red lines of safeguarding “the truth” and/or sound epistemic norms through legal means. On this basis, it will seek to suggest new regulatory instruments that might counter the harms of digital misinformation without violating dearly held constitutional commitments.
| Research outcome: | habilitation at the university of Freiburg (2021–2026), co-supervisor Prof. Dr. Johannes Masing |
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| Research focus: | 2. Trends: Internationalization, Digitalization, and Fragmentation |
| Project language: | German |
Key publications
Buchheim, J. & Schrenk, M. (2024). Der Vollzug des Digital Services Act — Strukturen und Probleme eines vielfach verschränkten Vollzugsregimes. Neue Zeitschrift für Verwaltungsrecht, Heft 1–2, S. 1–8.
Abiri, G. & Buchheim, J. (2022). Beyond True and False: Fake News and the Digital Epistemic Divide. 29 Mich. Tech. L. Rev. 59, DOI.
Buchheim, J. (2022). Der Kommissionsentwurf eines Digital Services Act — Regelungsinhalte, Regelungsansatz, Leerstellen und Konfliktpotential [The Commission’s proposal of a Digital Services Act — regulatory content, regulatory approach, gaps, and potential for conflict], in: Spiecker gen. Döhmann, I., Westland, M. & Campos, R. (eds.), Demokratie und Öffentlichkeit im 21. Jahrhundert — zur Macht des Digitalen (Nomos), pp. 239–261.
Buchheim, J. (2022). Rechtfertigungszentrierte Grundrechtslehren — Grundrechtsgeltung und Grundrechtswirkungen in der jüngeren Rechtsprechung des Bundesverfassungsgerichts [Justification-centered theories of fundamental rights — applicability and third-party effects of fundamental rights in the recent case law of the Federal Constitutional Court] In: Müller/Dittrich (ed.), Linien der Rechtsprechung des Bundesverfassungsgerichts, vol. 6 (De Gruyter), pp. 3–47.
Buchheim, J. (2020). Rechtlicher Richtigkeitsschutz — Zugleich ein Beitrag zur Unterscheidung von Meinungen und Nachrichten im Rahmen des Art. 5 Abs. 1 GG [Legally safeguarding truth — along with a contribution to the distinction of opinions and factual statements under Art. 5 Sec. 1 of the Basic Law], DER STAAT, pp. 159–194.
Talks and lectures
Talk presented at Blankensee Colloquium – Meinungsfreiheit: Transformation und Regulation politischer Öffentlichkeiten. Wissenschaftskolleg/Humboldt-University Conference, Berlin, 03/20–22/2024.
Evening lecture and discussion (together with Dr. Sarah Tacke, Redaktionsleitung Recht und Justiz des ZDF): Fake News und die Wirkung auf die Demokratie, German Academic Scholarship Foundation [Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes], Mannheim University, 05/08/2023.
Lecture: Freedom of Expression and Legally Safeguarding Truth, Kyoto University Lecture, Kyoto, 03/15/ 2023.
Talk: The EU Digital Services Act—A Proceduralist Structuring of the Digital Sphere, Presented at Keio University Conference, Tokyo, 03/06/2023.
Summer School German Academic Scholarship Foundation (Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes): Fighting Fake News — Legal Safeguards of Truth? — Theoretical backgrounds, legal means, constitutional limits, Hattingen, 08/15–08/24/2022 (together with Abiri, G.).
Paper presentation: 10th Freedom of Expression Scholars Conference, Yale Law School, 04/29–05/01/2022 (together with Abiri, G.).
