Bad review? The French have a remedy

On March 3, three judges in the Tribunal de Grande Instance de Paris, adjudicating a law that views attacks on personal honour as criminal assault, will issue their ruling as to whether an academic book review written in English by a German professor in New York about a book written in English by an author living in Israel, and published by a Dutch firm defamed the book’s author. The author who brought the complaint, Karin Calvo-Goller, at least, is a French citizen.  Calvo-Goller, a senior lecturer at the Academic Center of Law and Business in Israel and the author of The Trial Proceedings of the International Criminal Court, thought the review—a technical and mild., if condescending piece by Thomas Weigend, a law professor at the University of Cologne—said the review “may cause harm to my professional reputation and academic promotion.”

New York Times

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