2019

Peltz-Steele Publishes in Villanova Law Review on Access-to-Information Law

Professor Richard J. Peltz-Steele published comparative research in the Villanova Law Review proposing reform of the U.S. Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) inspired by South African law.

At Villanova Law School in 2017: Fran Burns, professor of practice in the Villanova Department of Public Administration; Anamarija Musa, commissioner of information of the Republic of Croatia; Suzanne J. Piotrowski, associate professor in the Rutgers School of Public Affairs and Administration; and Professor Peltz-Steele. Photo by Catherine E. Wilson, associate professor and chair in the Villanova Department of Public Administration.

UMass Law Professor Richard J. Peltz-Steele published comparative research in the Villanova Law Review on reform of the U.S. Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The research examines an emerging legal norm in Africa concerning information management in the private sector and urges that U.S. law take account of the same principle.

“Today in the twenty-first century, much power in American society has migrated from the public sector to the private sector, specifically into the hands of corporations,” Peltz-Steele writes in the article. “Even insofar as it works well, FOIA operates only against the conventional state by enabling an individual’s capacity to realize civil and political rights.”

The article focuses on the law of South Africa. Peltz-Steele explains how the complicity of private entities in Apartheid shaped the post-Apartheid South African constitution, creating a norm of transparency in the private sector, as well as in the public sector. Private-sector transparency is designed to facilitate the attainment of human rights beyond the narrow scope of the civil and political.

The article appears as part of a symposium edition of the Villanova Law Review on FOIA reform. The special edition commemorates 50 years of the FOIA, which was passed by Congress in 1966 and went into effect in 1967. Other contributors are academics, freedom of information (FOI) advocates, and federal government attorneys.

Peltz-Steele presented his research at Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law in 2017, upon invitation to the Norman J. Shachoy Symposium. Professor Peltz-Steele researches and teaches in freedom of information law and comparative law.

The article is available from SSRN, and the foreword appears on Professor Peltz-Steele’s blog, The Savory Tort. The article also will be posted under issue 63:5 at the Villanova Law Review.