ABSTRACT
The goal of this chapter is threefold. First, it introduces reputation as a social phenomenon and explains why it has long been a component of human social organization even under quite disparate conditions. Second, it then establishes the role of the state in regulating the information that pertains to citizens’ reputations and offering some sort of redress for undue reputational injury. In the process, we are thus introduced to the conflict that is central to assessing any system (whether via legal institutions or other means) of reputational dispute resolution: balancing the need for a pluralistic and inclusive “marketplace of ideas” in a liberal democratic society and the imperative to protect reputation as a means of facilitating human flourishing. Finally, the chapter considers the conceptual variables that pertain to both legal resolution and systems of “private ordering,” exploring the advantages and disadvantages that scholars in law and political theory have associated with each.
