BOOKS—COMPARATIVE MEDIA LAW

Compiled by Angela Campbell,
Georgetown University Law Center

Mark Armstrong, David Lindsay, Ray Watterson, Media Law in Australia (3d ed. 1995).

Eric Barendt, Broadcasting Law:  A Comparative Study (Oxford: Clarendon Press 1993) covers Britain, France, Germany, Italy, and the US.  Topics include historical and constitutional background, freedom of speech, public broadcasting, private broadcasting, program standards, competition law, access, etc.

Eric M. Barendt (ed.), The Yearbook of Media and Entertainment Law 1996 (Clarendon Press 1996) collects Articles by various authors, annual surveys, and book reviews, with focus on Western Europe.  The book contains tables of cases, statutes, and treaties.  Topics include ownership, information society, cameras in courtrooms, libel, copyright, trade, etc.  Similar yearbooks are available for other years.  Some articles may be good models for comparative work.

Donald R. Browne,  Comparing Broadcast Systems:  The Experience of Six Industrialized Nations (Iowa State University Press 1989) includes chapters on the Netherlands, Japan, Russia, and France.

Donald R. Browne, Electronic Media and Industrialized Nations: A Comparative Study (Iowa State University Press, 1999) compares media systems of France, the Netherlands, Germany, the Soviet Union and Russia.

Peter Carey, Media Law (London: Sweet & Maxwell 1996) describes media law in UK.  Topics include sources of law, the courts, legal actions, lawyers, reputation, obscenity, racial hatred and blasphemy, contempt, reporting the courts and parliament, publication of information and television.

Richard Collins, Broadcasting and Audio-Visual Policy in the European Single Market (John Libbey & Co. 1994) traces the development of European Community’s broadcasting and audiovisual policy, noting interaction between cultural unity v. diversity, market v. interventionist means to achieve policy goals, and opposition between institutions.

Everette E. Dennis and Robert W. Snyder, Media and Democracy (Transaction Publishers 1998) collects articles that include, inter alia, articles on television in India, Africa, and China.

William J. Drake (ed.), The New Information Infrastructure:  Strategies for U.S. Policy, Twentieth Century Fund (1995) collects articles, including Linda Garcia on “The Globalization of Telecommunications and Information,” Bruno Lanvin on “Why the Global Village Cannot Afford Information Slums,” Anthony M. Rutkowski on “Multilateral Cooperation in Telecommunications:  Implications of the Great Transformation” and Kalypso Nicolaidis on “International Trade in Information-Based Services:  The Uruguay Round and Beyond.”

Kenneth Dyson and Peter Humphreys, Broadcasting and New Media Policies in Western Europe (Routledge: 1988) includes eight chapters by various authors concerning how new communications technologies of cable and satellite have transformed economic and political landscape of Western European broadcasting.  Traditional PSP organizations have been forced onto the defensive.  New private commercial broadcasters, such as Murdoch’s sky Channel, have emerged.  New legislative frameworks have been adopted in UK, France, and W. Germany.  The book is written for political science audience and seeks to address the following issues: What policy issues have emerged and how have governments responded?  What are central characteristics of regulatory process?  How is policy being made?

Euromedia Research Group, The Media in Western Europe:  The Euromedia Handbook (Bernt Stubbe Ostergaard, ed., Sage Publications 1994) provides nation-by-nation introduction to historical media developments since 1945 and reference guides to press, broadcasting and new media in seventeen countries, each by different author.  Each chapter includes country profile, brief history, legal and policy framework for press and electronic media and statistics.

Mike Feintuck, Media Regulation, Public Interest and the Law (Edinburgh University Press 1999) focuses on the responses to challenges posed by ongoing changes to the regulation of the media in the context of liberal-democratic theory and practice.  The book argues that while regulatory techniques are continually being refined and reformed, not enough attention is being paid to crucial questions, e.g. Why regulate?  What are objectives of regulation?  The book also argues that important public interest values continue to justify regulation and attempts to develop a theoretical and institutional framework for development and implementation of policies.  It is written by lectura at Law School of the University of Hull and focuses on UK.

David I. Fisher, Prior Consent to International Direct Satellite Broadcasting (Utrecht Studies in Air and Space Law vol. 8) (Martinus Nijhoff Publishers 1990).

Thomas Gibbons, Regulating the Media (London:  Sweet & Maxwell 1991) is written by lecturer in law discussing regulation of media in UK, with focus on freedom and responsibilities of media, economic arrangements, fairness and quality in content, controls and transition to increased competition.

David Goldberg, Tony Prosser, and Stefaan Verhulst, EC Media Law and Policy (Longman 1998).

David Goldberg, Tony Prosser, and Stefaan Verhulst, Regulating the Changing Media:  A Comparative Study (Oxford: Clarendon Press 1998).

Wolfgang Hoffmann-Riem, Regulating Media:  The Licensing and Supervision of Broadcasting in Six Countries (Guilford Press 1996).  Part I covers broadcasting and its supervision in US, Great Britain, Germany, France, Canada, and Australia.  Part II is a comparative study of broadcasting regulation and supervision including justifications for the regulation of broadcasting. approaches to regulation, organization and procedures of licensing and supervision, filings of supervisory action, patters of practical supervisory action and assessment.

Peter Humphreys, Mass Media and Media Policy in Western Europe (Manchester: Manchester Univ. Press 1996).

Cristina Murroni and Nick Irvine, Access Matters (Institute for Public Policy Research, London 1998) reports on EU policies for access.  Chapter 1 analyses the role and meaning of universal service for telephone and makes recommendations. Chapter 2 analyzes universal service in broadcasting. Chapter 3 examines issues of quality and the public service broadcaster. Chapter 4 considers third party access to telecommunications networks in light of convergence and argues for essential facilities doctrine should be used to mandate access in certain circumstances. Chapter 5 examines intellectual property rights and argues that enforcing copyright and ensuring inter-operability are both essential objectives, and one should not be sacrificed for the sake of the other.  Chapter 6 examines the problem of illegal and harmful material on the Internet and policies that have been implemented so far around the globe to enforce protection of minors.  This chapter proposes sliding scale of content restrictions with focus more on the context of display than on actual content and few controls for material restricted to voluntary use by adults.  It opposes US example of placing liability on operators.  Appendix I analyzes Danish model of universally available telephony and advances services, a universal service obligation well above the minimum.  Appendix II analyzes Britain’s policy for commercial digital terrestrial broadcasting.

National Telecommunications and Information Administration, Globalization of the Mass Media (1993) assesses US communications policies in light of increasingly global nature of the electronic mass media.  The book discusses why and how globalization is occurring, looks at US exports and foreign investment in mass media products.  It analyzes effect of US domestic policies on international trade and suggests policy changes to all US firms to compete more effectively.  Appendix D contains country profiles for Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, and UK.

Eli Noam, Television in Europe (Oxford University Press 1991) deals with rise and decline of powerful monopoly institutions, i.e., public broadcasting institutions that have dominated Western European TV from its inception.  Part I addresses the setting of European broadcasting.  Part II describes the TV systems in 20 European countries (including  Germany, France, UK, Italy, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Austria) and in Eastern Europe.  Part III discusses the evolution of European broadcasting including efforts at integration and DBS.

E.M. Noam and A.J. Wolfson (eds.), Globalism and Localism in Telecommunications (Elsevier 1997), a project of Columbia Institute for Tele-Information, collects articles grouped under the following headings:  Dynamics of the New Local Communications Markets, Universal Service: Creating Effective Policies for the future, Communications Beyond Frontiers: Expansion of National Carriers Across Borders, Investment Drivers for Global Telecommunications, and Policy Issues for the New Global Communications Environment.  App. A lists foreign investments of major carriers.  App. B lists alliances and investments.  Specific chapters of interest include: Universal Service in Japan by Koichiro Hayashi.  Papers largely focus on telecommunications issues.

Emmanuel E. Paraschos, Media Law and Regulation in the European Union: National, Transnational and U.S. Perspectives (Ames: Iowa State University Press 1998) describes the purpose, history, organization and membership of the EU and its philosophical and legal foundations.  It also discusses personal protections (such as defamation and privacy), national security, public order and morality-oriented limitations, secrecy and access to information, broadcasting content and program regulation, advertising, pluralism, competition and concentration, and self-regulation and ethical considerations.

Monroe E. Price, Television, the Public Sphere, and National Identity (Oxford: Clarendon Press 1995) covers media developments in US and Europe, including the states of post-Soviet transition.  The book examines meaning of “independent” TV, role for government, and impact of globalization.

Serge Robillard, Television in Europe:  Regulatory Bodies (London: John Libbey 1995) is a study by the European Institute for the Media on the status, functions and powers in 35 European countries.  The book describes and analyzes various authorities responsible for regulation of broadcasting (especially TV).

Andras Sajo and Monroe Price, Rights of Access to the Media (Kluwer Law International 1996) collects essays on media access growing out of 1993 conference in Budapest.  The book includes essays on US, Western Europe, Central and Eastern Europe, Czech Republic, and Hungary.

Paddy Scannell and David Cardiff, A Social History of British Broadcasting, Vol. 1: 1922-39 Serving the Nation (Basil Blackwell 1991) examines impact of BBC in Britain.  The book describes ways in which broadcasting developed and interacted with society.

Joachim Scherer (ed.), Telecommunications Laws in Europe (Kluwer Law International, 3d ed. 1995) includes studies done by European Telecommunications Law Practice Group of Baker & McKenzie.  Topics include telecommunications law and policy of the European Union, Belgium, Czech Republic, Egypt, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Russian Federation, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, and UK.  The book describes and analyzes national telecommunications laws, using the emerging EU telecommunications law as a frame of reference.

Anthony Smith (ed.), Television: An International History (Oxford Univ. Press 1995) collects chapters by various authors (mostly British) in four areas:  origins and institution; forms and genres; TV and society; TV across the world (US, Japan, third world, Australia and Africa).  The book is intended to offer broad account of the ways in which TV has evolved and its cultural impact.

Milton L. Smith, International Regulation of Satellite Communication (Utrecht Studies in Air and Space Law vol. 7) (Martinus Nijhoff Publishers 1990) reviews technology of satellite communication, analyzes international framework, regulatory regime pre-Space WARC, historical background on international regulation of satellite communications, goal of Space WARC (equitability access to orbit/spectrum), results of first session of Space WARC (1985), i.e., new legal regime but open questions, work done between sessions and second session (1988), analyzing key decisions, compliance with  new regulatory regime, and likely impact on future.

Rachel Craufurd Smith, Broadcasting Law and Fundamental Rights (Oxford: Clarendon Press 1997) examines Britain, Italy, France and the European Community.  Topics include the development of broadcast regulation, the role of the courts, and how the regulatory regimes have changed.

Colin Sparks, with Anna Reading, Communism, Capitalism and the Mass Media, (Sage: 1998) provides a “critical” or Marxist analysis of changes that have taken place since 1989 in media systems of Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Alan Wells (ed.) World Broadcasting: A Comparative View (Norwood, NJ: Ablex Pub. Co. 1996).  The book is intended as introduction to world’s broadcasting and its organization.  Audience seem to be college students rather than law students or lawyers.  The book contains fifteen chapters, each by different authors and covers areas of the world (Western Europe, former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, middle east and North Africa, sub-Sahara Africa, Latin America and Caribbean, Asia, Oceania and the Pacific), as well as some specific countries (UK, Germany, Italy, Brazil, Japan, China, and India).  Its introduction states that “central task in studying media systems is to determine how the type of system adopted influence the way the medium is used and how this in turn shapes its social impact.”  The book identifies media system typologies.  Chapters provide overview of media and how regulated in each area or country.  The book provides useful background when trying to decide upon a topic or starting research.

David B. Winn, European Community and International Media Law (Graham & Trotman 1994) is a treatise that seeks to set out rights of the cultural community, explain concepts of European Community law and jurisprudence of European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and fundamental Freedoms.  It reproduces various directives, conventions, etc.

Mark W. Zacher and Brent A. Sutton, Governing Global Networks:  International Regimes for Transportation and Communications (Cambridge University Press 1996).  Chapter 5 covers the international telecommunications regime from a political science and economic perspective.  The book discusses ITU and other important regulatory bodies.  Topics include jurisdiction, damage control problems, technical and procedural barriers and price and market shares.

Yuezhi Zhao, Media, Market, and Democracy in China:  Between the Party Line and the Bottom Line (Univ. of  Illinois Press 1998) describes changes in news media in post-Mao China.  Increasing commercialization but little progress in terms of political democratization.  Chapter 5 discusses broadcasting reform.

Last Updated: 10/13/99

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