ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book. The book highlights the central importance which liberal democracies attach to political expression. The civic republican variant of communitarianism places considerable emphasis upon the importance of public deliberation and plainly envisages a role for the courts in maintaining the conditions required for deliberative democracies to function. The brief analysis of political expression cases which followed indicated that the Canadian Supreme Court's reading of the freedom of expression guarantee had demonstrated a commitment to upholding a participative and representative democracy. The tension between liberalist and communitarian approaches to the regulation of freedom of expression where a selective analysis of some recent changes to electoral finance laws in the UK, US and Canada was offered. The thrust of book was to suggest that constitutional values beyond freedom of expression are implicated in the regulation of hateful expression.
