ABSTRACT

The state of health of academic freedom in Europe is only deceptively good essentially because ‘the law and human rights’, and most ways of assessing compliance with academic freedom, do not properly cater for, or at any rate struggle to capture, ‘commercial infringements’ – what are termed, in this contribution, academic freedom violations of the ‘second generation’ (violations 2.0). This contribution seeks to explain how commercialisation affects academic freedom, and why academic freedom violations 2.0 have largely remained below the radar in Europe (and elsewhere) so far. Neither the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) nor the Revised European Social Charter (Revised ESC) expressly protects academic freedom. However, existing provisions in both instruments could be relied on to accord adequate protection to academic freedom. Nevertheless, as will be shown, there are also many obstacles to this endeavour. The best solution may, therefore, be for the Council of Europe (CoE) to adopt a specific European Convention on Academic Freedom. The contribution concludes with ten essential principles relating to the content of such an instrument.

EUROPE AND ACADEMIC FREEDOM VIOLATIONS 2.0

In 2022, Scholars at Risk reported that, in the preceding year, 391 attacks on academic freedom, arising from 318 incidents, in 65 countries and territories around the world, had been recorded. The attacks the network measures cover killings/violence/disappearances, wrongful imprisonment, wrongful prosecution, travel restrictions, loss of position, and ‘other incidents’ (such as closing of campuses, systematic threats against staffor students, systematic discrimination, and so on). Among the countries concerned only five were in Europe, namely Georgia, Greece, Poland, Türkiye, and the UK. Similarly, the recently launched Academic Freedom Index (AFI) reports, in its 2023 update, that, from among 179 countries monitored, only three European countries – Armenia, Hungary, and Türkiye – feature in the lower 50 per cent group of performers. Among the top fift h in the table, 21 out of 36 (almost 60 per cent) are European states. The Afimeasures freedom to research and teach, freedom of academic exchange and dissemination, institutional autonomy, campus integrity, and freedom of academic and cultural expression.