Not hollowed by a Delphic frenzy : European intermediary liability from the perspective of a bad man : a response to Martin Husovec et al.

FITZGERALD, Michael

doi:10.1177/1023263X251316996

Not hollowed by a Delphic frenzy : European intermediary liability from the perspective of a bad man : a response to Martin Husovec et al.

dc.contributor.author	FITZGERALD, Michael
dc.date.accessioned	2025-02-13T09:00:45Z
dc.date.available	2025-02-13T09:00:45Z
dc.date.issued	2025
dc.description	Published online: 9 February 2025	en
dc.description.abstract	This article applies Oliver Wendell Holmes's heuristic device of the ‘bad man’ to the context of ECtHR intermediary liability jurisprudence. Holmes asserts: ‘if you want to know the law and nothing else’, you must look at it from the perspective of a ‘bad man’. In a June 2024 Issue of the Maastricht Journal, Martin Husovec et al. claim that this ECtHR jurisprudence has ‘officially descended into chaos’ since the 2023 judgment of Sanchez v. France. According to Husovec, Sanchez upended the Court's prior case law and overturned the landmark precedent of Delfi v. Estonia. This article produces a different conclusion. This conclusion is as follows: Sanchez does not overturn Delfi. Instead, Sanchez confirms Delfi. Thus, contrary to Husovec's view that the ECtHR is ‘at risk’ of colliding with EU law, this article proposes that the collision has already occurred, and that Europe's two highest courts have been in a state of ‘collision’ – espousing irreconcilable doctrine – for almost a decade. The fact that this collision has been invisible to scholarship, the article concludes, ought to encourage reflection upon the efficacy of doctrinal analysis of the highest European courts as a method for observing the actual downstream effects of major judgments like Delfi and Sanchez.	en
dc.format.mimetype	application/pdf	en
dc.identifier.citation	Maastricht journal of European and comparative law, 2025, OnlineFirst	en
dc.identifier.doi	10.1177/1023263X251316996
dc.identifier.issn	1023-263X
dc.identifier.issn	2399-5548
dc.identifier.uri	https://hdl.handle.net/1814/78033
dc.language.iso	en	en
dc.orcid.upload	true	*
dc.publisher	Sage	en
dc.relation.ispartof	Maastricht journal of European and comparative law	en
dc.rights	info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess	en
dc.subject	Internet law
dc.subject	Technology law
dc.subject	Intermediary liability
dc.subject	Platform regulation
dc.subject	European Union law
dc.title	Not hollowed by a Delphic frenzy : European intermediary liability from the perspective of a bad man : a response to Martin Husovec et al.	en
dc.type	Article	en
dspace.entity.type	Publication
person.identifier.orcid	0009-0003-2364-401X
person.identifier.other	53183
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