Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Five rarely critiqued propositions underpin contemporary accounts of the right to freedom of thought: that it is a forum internum right; absolute; and guarantees freedom from punishment for thoughts, freedom not to reveal thoughts, and protection against impermissible interference with thought. I argue that the first two are descriptively well-grounded but normatively contestable, while the latter three rest on thinner doctrinal foundations and overreach normatively. Drafting history suggests that absolute protection crystallised before the boundaries of “thought” were clearly defined, creating pressure to define thought narrowly. Drawing on critical legal studies, I consider regulatory-cost and relational explanations for why that narrowing took the form of the forum internum , and identify hypotheses capable of distinguishing them. The article concludes that these propositions should be reopened rather than treated as settled dogma, and argues that the right should recognise some forms of forum externum thought without necessarily extending them absolute protection.
Source: Human Rights Review
Author: Simon McCarthy-Jones
Institution: Trinity College Dublin
Language: English
Subfield: Law
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $2,090
Funder: Harvard University
OpenAlex ID: W7225347623