Implementation and Protection of the Right to Freedom of Expression in Ukrainian Civil Law: Modern Problems

Abstract

Abstract The article focuses on the implementation and protection of the freedom of expression in Ukraine and attempts to explore this issue not from the perspective of traditional constitutional law, but rather from that of civil law. For this purpose, constitutional rights and personal immaterial rights are compared and ways of their implementation as well as remedies of their defense are analyzed. To achieve the mentioned purpose of research, the notion of ‘views’ has been analyzed and compared with the notion of ‘facts’ as a subject of civil rights. This analysis helped the author to determine ways and conditions of free sharing of information, factors hindering the freedom of sharing information and remedies of defense of the right to share information freely. The functional method allowed the author to explore the implementation of the right to freedom of expression as a systemic phenomenon influenced by various aspects, such as the language used in expression, form of expression, informational sources providing public access to the shared information, and peculiarities of access to these sources for different persons. The article emphasizes the difficulties accompanying the implementation of the right to freedom of expression in various social areas, e.g., in science, politics, religious affairs, etc. The author presumes that the freedom to express one’s own opinions is comparable to the freedom of having one’s own thoughts on various issues not violated, and this should be guaranteed by the appropriate infrastructure with a simple access to it for all regardless of their beliefs, political opinions, and other factors.