Dr Andrew Scott

Dr Andrew Scott

Associate Professor of Law

LSE Law School

Telephone
020-7955-7259
Room No
Cheng Kin Ku Building 6.28
Connect with me

Languages
English
Key Expertise
Law

About me

Andrew Scott is a graduate of Queen’s University, Belfast (LLB Hons, MPhil) and the University of Wales (PhD). He held a senior lectureship at Norwich Law School, UEA before taking up a post at the London School of Economics in 2006. He is Assistant Director of the Executive LLM.

Administrative support: Law.Reception@lse.ac.uk

Research interests

Andrew’s research focus is the constitution of the public sphere. His current research agenda includes projects on the laws of defamation and privacy, the interplay between defamation and religious faith, freedom of expression and access to information, corporate power and the public sphere, and the regulation of journalistic newsgathering practices.

External activities

  • Member of the Advisory Board, IALS Information Law and Policy Centre
  • Competition law editor, Journal of Business Law
  • General editor, Sweet & Maxwell Encyclopedia of Competition Law
  • International contributing editor, Media & Arts Law Review (Aus)
  • Member of the Advisory Boards to the Law Commission of Ontario and the Scottish Law Commission projects on defamation, and legal adviser to the Northern Irish Department of Finance and Personnel on libel reform
  • Formerly Visiting lecturer at Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Muenster, and Universität Trier, Germany and Senior Fellow, University of Melbourne
  • Associate Academic Fellow of the Honourable Society of the Inner Temple
  • Member of the Social Sciences Appeals Panel appointed by the Portuguese FCT National Research Evaluation

REF Impact Case Study

Teaching

Books

Positive Free Speech: Rationales, Methods and Implications (Hart, 2020) (co-edited with Andrew Kenyon)

Freedom of expression is generally analysed as a bare liberty against restraint by state action. Underpinning rationales for freedom of speech very often imply, however, that the concept also has important positive aspects, and that to be truly 'democratic' the modern polity requires more than negative freedom. In contemporary conditions, this understanding of free speech raises matters such as media diversity or pluralism, the concept of voice and access to the public sphere, access to information, and the need to rethink the audience in relation to public speech. Whether securing positive free speech is a matter of politics or of law, a task for legislatures or for courts, is an open question. On one level, any programme of inculcating positive dimensions of free speech might be understood as inherently polycentric and hence political in character. Yet, a number of jurisdictions evince enhanced legal recognition for the principle.

The aim of this collection of papers is to interrogate the rationales of positive free speech, to consider the political and juridical methods by which it has or may be more fully reflected in the modern state, and to consider the range of practical contexts in which its valorisation has or would have significant implications. 

click here for publisher's site


 

Newsgathering: Law, Regulation and the Public Interest (Oxford University Press, 2016) (with Gavin Millar QC) 

This pioneering work draws together the law and other regulatory rules that relate to newsgathering. Written in the post-Leveson environment, each chapter considers a specific newsgathering practice, and covers ethics, (self-) regulatory rules, common law and statutory oversight.  In addition to covering the law of England and Wales, the work draws on the relevant jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights and applicable EU law. Written by highly-regarded authors Gavin Millar QC and Dr Andrew Scott, this is the first text to cover the full range of newsgathering issues from a legal perspective.

click here for publisher's site


Gatley on Libel and Slander (Rev 12th edn, London: Sweet & Maxwell,  2015/2013), with HHJ Richard Parkes QC, Alastair Mullis, Adam Speker and Godwin Busuttil

Gatley on Libel and Slander is the leading expert volume on the English law of defamation. It provides expert commentary on the common law, on practice and procedure, on related causes of action, and on the impact of the Defamation Act 2013 on law and practice. Andrew authored five chapters in the new edition: the general introduction, three chapters on the defences of truth (justification), honest opinion (honest comment), and publication on a matter of public interest (Reynolds privilege), and the chapter on the claim for misuse of private information.

click here for publisher's site


 

Broadcasting (Halsbury’s Laws of England, LexisNexis, 2011) (consultant editor)


 

Carter-Ruck on Libel and Privacy (6th edn, London: LexisNexis, 2010), with Cameron Doley, Alastair Mullis, Harvey Starte, Ian Helme, Caroline Addy, and Jonathan Griffiths.

Carter-Ruck on Libel and Privacy is the fully revised and renamed edition of this leading volume on the law governing publication and private interests. It offers comprehensive coverage of the substantive laws of defamation and privacy in England and Wales, details the legal practice and procedure in those areas, and gives an account of the comparable laws in over 60 other jurisdictions. Andrew authored six of seven chapters in the entirely new part on privacy law (chs 18-23). These chapters focus on the themes of privacy and publication; misuse of private information: the reasonable expectation of privacy; misuse of private information: the ultimate balancing test; remedies for misuse of private information; harassment, and data protection.

click here for publisher's site


 

Merger Control in the United Kingdom (OUP, 2006) (with M Hviid and B Lyons)

Merger control in the United Kingdom has recently entered a new phase in its development. The advent of the relevant aspects of the Enterprise Act 2002 has been welcomed as a 'depoliticisation' of the regime. The role of the Secretary of State has been all but excised, and the substantive criteria against which mergers are assessed have been revised to offer formally a competition-based standard. Together with guidance published subsequently, the reforms also prescribe a range of new procedural guarantees for those parties affected under the regime. In addition, the EC merger control regime and in particular the nature of its relationship with the competent authorities of the Member States has been significantly revised.

It is against this backdrop that the authors - leading experts with first rate regulatory, practical and academic experience - offer a comprehensive statement of the law, architecture, and procedure of merger control in the United Kingdom; explain the factors pertinent to the economic appraisal of mergers in a manner accessible to a legal audience; and give invaluable practical guidance on managing the transactional process and regulatory risk.

click here for publisher's site


 

Encyclopedia of Competition Law (London: Sweet & Maxwell, 1987/2002); general editor

The Encyclopedia of Competition Law collates and consolidates all the diverse sources of both primary and secondary competition law in the UK and the EU. * Narrative commentary explains current law and practice in the UK and EU * Full texts of relevant UK and EU legislation with annotations * Case summaries are included for clearer understanding

click here for publisher's site

 

Articles

Reports / Discussion Papers

 Reform of Defamation Law in Northern Ireland (Department of Finance, 2016)

Defamation Law in Northern Ireland (Northern Ireland Law Commission, 2014) NILC 14 (2014)

'Lord Lester's Defamation Bill: a distorted view of the public interest?' (2010) Inform, with Alastair Mullis, 7 July 2010 

'Prior notification in privacy cases: contesting a false premise' (2010) Inform, 25 June 2010 

'Four Papers on Contempt of Court and Media Publicity: UK Law and Enforcement, Comparable Jurisdictions, the Empirical Evidence, and Future Options'. LSE / BBC Forum on Contempt of Court and Media Publicity, October 2008 (90pp);

Audit Continuity Plan: Assessing the Competition Law Implications (2007) Report prepared for the Financial Reporting Council (25pp)

Media Mergers: A Framework for Analysis (2006) Report prepared for the Irish Competition Authority (120pp - with Hargreaves Heap, Gaudeul, and Akman)