Metaphors, Judicial Frames, and Fundamental Rights in Cyberspace

How do legal imagination, metaphors, and the "judicial frame" impact the degree of protection for free expression when the relevant (technological) playground is the world of bits? This Article analyzes the so-called judicial frame, focusing on legal disputes relating to freedom of expression on the Internet. The authors compare the European Court of Human Rights and the U.S. Supreme Court case law from a methodological perspective. The Article shows how the adoption by supreme courts of an internal or external point of view in relation to the Internet affects not only the use of different metaphors to describe the digital world, but also the balance struck between the fundamental rights at stake.