I covered SSRN’s decision to delete a draft by Professor Ann Lipton, entitled “Capital Discrimination”, last week after being sent a cease-and desist from Philip R. Shawe attorneys. He claimed the article defamed him and recounted his role in a prominent business dispute.
This is good news. Good news! noted yesterday on TwitterSSRN now has the article restored. Even better, SSRN announced that is reviewing its internal practices on how to respond to threats of defamation suits and other actions designed to deplatform or cancel academic manuscripts.
It Houston Law ReviewThe previous article had been accepted by. issued its own statementIt clarified that it hadn’t withdrawn its offer to publish and is currently going through radiational cite-checking, substantiation, which is a common part of legal academic publication.
Many more are now familiar with Philip R. Shawe, and the alleged actions of him, because his lawyers have taken his case to court. You can see the Streisand Effect at work!