LSAT 135 | Section 3 | Reading Comprehension: Q17

RC Question 17 Explanation

DISCUSSION: North American blackmail is the combination of two legal acts: free speech, and seeking money.

Roman was different. In Rome, any disclosure was illegal if it caused harm, and did not have a legitimate public purpose. That’s a very strict law. Roman law had the effect of prohibiting blackmail as well.

So Roman law had no paradox. In North America the paradox is that blackmail is the combination of two legal acts. But in Rome, almost any harmful speech was illegal, so blackmail would often have been illegal even without a threat.

___________

1. CORRECT. See the description above.
2. Roman blackmail was still triangular. For example, suppose someone threatens to expose a man for cheating on his wife. His wife is the one that would harm him.
3. Actually, the second paragraph says the laws are unclear and not meant to be precisely enforced.
4. This is true of both North American and Roman law.
5. Blackmail is a crime in North America. See the very first lines. It’s Roman law that has no category for blackmail.