A recent comment at Daily Nous John Protevi on Dec 26, 2014 • 8:50 am at 8:50 am Reply Another anony, @62, I don’t accept your claim that we should subordinate our judgment as to collegial behavior to the Canadian legal system’s means of handling libel suits. Indeed, as no suit has yet been filed, what is under discussion is Brian Leiter’s having his lawyer threaten suit against some of our colleagues over what amounts to a blog fight. So we are perfectly well able to say, and I do say it, that Leiter is wrong to have had his lawyer write such a letter, regardless of how the eventual suit might turn out. What is collegial is more restrictive than what is legal; it is within Leiter’s legal rights to have his lawyer write letters threatening suit over a matter of such triviality, but it is wrong of him to do so in any sense of collegiality that values reasoned discourse and avoids legal bluster. Leiter had his chance to argue his case for having been wronged in the blogosphere; that he has recourse to the law to make up for what he must feel was his inability to win there is a perfectly good topic of discussion well before any suit occurs, let alone the result of the suit.
Posted on: Fri, 26 Dec 2014 13:57:28 +0000