The Application of the Margin of Appreciation Doctrine in Freedom of Expression and Public Morality Cases

This paper discusses whether or not Strasbourg organs have created principled criteria governing the use of the doctrine within the context of free speech and public morals. The first part of the paper gives an overview of the doctrine and further examines how the doctrine has evolved within the European context. Part II focuses on the rationale behind the doctrine and discusses the legitimacy of the doctrine in light of its application to various forms of free speech. Part III covers one of the most problematic applications of the doctrine in matters concerning public morality, where Contracting States have a wide margin of appreciation. This part will discuss whether or not the “lack of European consensus” criterion is an elusive concept that might create a risk of abuse in the application of the doctrine. The paper concludes that while margin of appreciation today serves as a flexible instrument between the local necessities and the universal application of human rights, the imprecise and contradictory points might lead to its potential abuse that might endanger its future existence.

The Morality of Harm

In this article, we discuss the range of concerns people weigh when evaluating the acceptability of harmful actions and propose a new perspective on the relationship between harm and morality. With this aim, we examine Kelly, Stich, Haley, Eng and Fessler’s (2007) recent claim that, contrary to Turiel and associates, people do not judge harm to be authority independent and general in scope in the context of complex harmful scenarios (e.g., prisoner interrogation, military training). In a modified replication of their study, we examined participants’ judgments of harmful actions in these contexts by taking into account their explanations for their judgments. We claim that both in terms of participants’ judgments and rationales, the results largely confirm our hypothesis that actions involving harm and injustice or rights violation are judged to be authority independent and general in scope, which is a modification of Turiel’s traditional hypothesis.

Wellness as virtue:Morality and the pursuit of health

The interest and participation in health promotion and wellness activities has expanded greatly in the past two decades. The "wellness revolution", especially in terms of diet and exercise, has been affected by both scientific findings and cultural changes. The paper examines how a particular aspect of culture, the moral meanings of health-promoting activities, contribute to the pursuit of wellness. Based on interviews with 54 self-identified wellness participants at a major university, we examine how health can be a moral discourse and the body a site for moral action. The paper suggests that wellness seekers engage in a profoundly moral discourse around health promotion, constructing a moral world of goods, bads and shoulds. Although there are some gender differences in particular wellness goals, engaging in wellness activities, independent of results, becomes seen as a good in itself. Thus, even apart from any health outcomes, the pursuit of virtue and a moral lifeis fundamentally an aspect of the pursuit of wellness. © 1994 Kluwer Academic Publishers.