Lawful limits on freedom of expression for private communications ‘in public life’

Abstract

This is a case note on Hamzy v Commissioner of Corrective Services NSW, a 2022 decision in which the Court of Appeal of the Australian state of New South Wales interpreted the right to freedom of expression, which is enshrined in international human rights law. The decision shows the difficulty of protecting choice of a language as part of freedom of expression both where the semantic import of that choice is undervalued when assessing the reasonableness of a State imposing a language choice and where the lawful exception for a State to restrict the freedom by mandating a language for its public interactions is unduly expanded. The case also reveals the vulnerability of a language speaker group to racialised linguistic discrimination without straightforward recourse.