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Speech on campus: правовое регулирование свободы выражения мнения на территории университетов в странах общего права
The problems of public activity of students and university staff expressing political, moral, religious,
and other views on university campuses was discussed in academic literature and been the subject of
a number of judicial cases in national courts long before the Israel-Palestinian conflict gave rise to
mass protest actions at universities in the USA, Europe, and Asia. In the UK, complaints brought by
right-wing professors and students mainly dealt with the deplatforming of invited professors with
conservative, nationalist, or ultra-left views or of religious bigots. The mass wave of pro-Palestinian actions raised concerns about the possibility of sanctions against students who called for violent actions, occupied buildings, interfered with the teaching process or official ceremonies, or sent offensive e-mails to those who dared to dissent. The US, UK, Malaysia and India have been selected for analysis because of the difference in their legal cultures and approaches to regulation of speech. The new challenges spurred legal scholars and politicians to think again about the flaws and benefits of laisser-faire doctrine for free speech and of over-broadness of speech regulation and their opposite — excessive regulation of freedom of speech. The article analyzes the role of codes of conduct for
students and professors as well as universities’ freedom to regulate the content of courses and reading
lists, introduce or discontinue academic programs, agree or disagree with invitations to visiting lecturers with unpopular or even non-scientific views, and discipline those who violate university standards. It concludes that the search for balance involves difficult choices in response to the need for finding a fair response to calls for violence, discrimination, and dissemination of threats, in order to create a more safe university environment, one where students and staff of different ethnic origins, nationalities, and religions may benefit from the opportunities which the university offers for education and free development of personality. Different legal cultures propose different answers to the same questions.