Academic Freedom Under Pressure?: A Comparative Perspective

Is academic freedom threatened? The book examines current challenges to academic freedom in Europe, focusing mainly on Italy and Germany.

The cases discussed demonstrate that research and teaching are under pressure in European democracies: in Hungary and Poland due to political constraints, in other countries due to societal expectations. Considering different interrelated aspects, the four parts of the book explore many real and potential threats to universities, scientific institutions and researchers, ranging from the European dimension of freedom of the arts and sciences to comparative analysis of emerging challenges to academic freedom against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic. They highlight threats to university autonomy from the economic orientation of university governance, which emphasizes efficiency, competition, and external evaluation, and from new rules concerning trigger warnings, speech restrictions, and ethics commissions.

Detailed study of these complex threats is intended to stimulate scholarly reflection and elicit serious discussion at European and national level. The volume contributes to the search for a new role of universities and scientific institutions and is addressed to academics and political stakeholders.

Margrit Seckelmann is managing director of the German Research Institute for Public Administration in Speyer. Furthermore, she is professor at the German University for Administrative Sciences Speyer. Before coming to Speyer, she worked with the Max Planck Institute for European Legal History in Frankfurt am Main and obtained her doctoral degree from the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University. She studied law (first and second state exam) and history (M. A.) in Heidelberg and Berlin. Science law is one of her fields of interests. Thus, her habilitation (Speyer) deals with "Evaluation und Recht" (published in 2018). She has been a visiting scholar in Switzerland (University of Zurich), Italy (European Academy Bolzano) and the United States (Indiana University, Bloomington, and University of California, Santa Barbara).

Lorenza Violini is full professor of constitutional and public comparative law at the University of Milan. She studied law at the University of Siena before obtaining a Diploma en Droit Comparé de l'Environment in Strasbourg (1979) and a Master of Comparative Law at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, USA (1983). She has been fellow at the Albert Ludwigs University of Freiburg - Germany (1980-1982), visiting scholar at the Bethlehem University - Palestine (2006), and since 2011 she is a permanent fellow of the Center for Ethics and Culture at the University of Notre Dame - Indiana, USA. From 1984 to 2002, she has worked at the University of Pavia. Prof. Violini is author and co-editor of hundreds of publications in the field of constitutional law, multilevel governance, human rights protection and, comparative public law. Among her books are: Bundesrat e Camera delle regioni: due modelli alternativi a confronto (1989); L'Europa e l'Università (1992); The fragmented landscape of fundamental rights protection in Europe: the role of judicial and non-judicial actors (2019); Una forma di stato a regionalismo differenziato? Percorsi e argomenti per l'attuazione dell'art. 116, III comma, Cost. (2021).

Cristina Fraenkel-Haeberle coordinates the research program European Administrative Space at the German Research Institute for Public Administration Speyer. She is also professor for public law at the German University of Administrative Sciences. Her main research interests are in European and national administrative law, university and environmental law, as well as democracy studies. She has written and co-edited several books, such as Giurisdizione sul silenzio e discrezionalità amministrativa (2004); Poteri di autotutela e legittimo affidamento: il caso tedesco (2008); Die Universität im Mehrebenensystem (2014); Citizen Participation in Multi-level Democracies (2015); Europäisierung und Internationalisierung im Vergleich: Deutsch-Italienische Analysen zur Denationalisierung der Öffentlichen Verwaltung (2017); Praxis der Richtlinienumsetzung im Europäischen Verwaltungsverbund (2020).

Giada Ragone, is research fellow and lecturer in constitutional law at the University of Milan. She developed her studies through sundry research experiences in Italy and abroad, including: Ph.D. in law, market, and person at Ca' Foscari University of Venice (2016); visiting scholar at Max Planck Institute of Heidelberg (Germany) and visiting scholar at the Center for Ethics and Culture, University of Notre Dame (USA. She has authored and co-edited several publications, among which are the following books: The Dissenting Opinion. Selected essays, edited with N. Zanon (2019) and Eine empirische Wende? La Corte costituzionale e le sfide della complessità tecnico-scientifica (2020).