Paper's abstract

Matthieu Béra, Open to criticism/not open to criticism
With regards to the Arts, the French law of criticism, which is rather unknown, first stems from the right of the press, which rules the way of handling questions of defamation, the right of reply and then from the civil law (art.1382). All these laws ban any incursion of art criticism in the economic field, which would risk damaging professional esteem and would be interpreted as a will to harm. This right solely deals with cultural goods and contributes to characterise them. All other goods obey the right of advertising (comparative or misleading advertising) linked to the notion of denigration, which depends on unfair competition and the right of trademarks. Within the strict frame of laws, it is illegal to criticise any good, which is necessarily the property of a competitor. It is also strictly forbidden to criticise industrial goods from a subjective point of view. In the cultural field, these rules are the exact opposite of the ones applying in the economic field: their criticism has to be based on personal judgement.
This article tries to demonstrate that the Law influences the way we consider the goods, treating them either like (subjectively) open, or not open, to criticism goods. The qualification of goods thus depends on how we differentiate them and contributes to define the cultural and industrial fields.


Key Words : critic, cultural goods, industrial goods
t. 48, 2004 : p. 413-437

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