01.14.21 — Professor Claudia Haupt has been named the law school’s Center for Health Policy and Law faculty fellow for the current academic year. Haupt’s research is situated at the intersection of the First Amendment, health law and torts in the context of professional speech. As faculty fellow, she is exploring this question: How should the First Amendment treat experts in public discourse who are giving advice?

“During the coronavirus pandemic, reliable health advice has been in high demand. As health experts started disseminating advice to the public, some of this advice aligned with scientific insights, some did not. But the law does not proscribe bad advice outside of the professional-client or doctor-patient relationship,” explained Haupt. “In ordinary times, this perhaps reflects an appropriate tradeoff between expertise and freedom of speech. But the value of this tradeoff is significantly strained when the stakes of advice-giving are exceptionally high. This project investigates the interplay of speech, harm and expertise to expose the weaknesses of the ordinary doctrinal framework, and illustrates how the normative balance may shift when the stakes of advice-giving are particularly high.”

About Northeastern University School of Law

The nation’s leader in experiential legal education since 1968, Northeastern University School of Law offers the longest-running, most extensive experience-based legal education program in the country and is a national leader in legal education reform. Founded with cooperative legal education as the cornerstone of its program, Northeastern guarantees its students unparalleled practical legal work experiences. All students participate in full-time legal placements, and can choose from the more than 1,500 employers worldwide participating in the school’s signature Cooperative Legal Education Program. The future of legal education since 1968, Northeastern University School of Law blends theory and practice, providing students with a unique set of skills and experience to successfully practice law.

For more information, contact d.feldman@northeastern.edu.