Established in Seoul in July 2018
Purpose of the group:
The objective of the research group is to connect freedom of expression and freedom of information scholars from around the world. We are interested in the theory and practice of freedom of expression, access to information, communication law, and media law.
The research group's activities:
The activities of the research group include partnerships in international projects; setting the agenda for future global and comparative research; organizing panels at the congresses and interim meetings; organizing one meeting between each two IACL congresses; publishing publications, including edited volumes and special issues of journals; contributing to the IACL blog; running a guest lecture series by group members at universities of other group members;
Events:
The Free Speech research group held its inaugural meeting titled ‘Free Speech in the 21st Century’ on July 3-4, 2020.
The conference was scheduled to take place in Ljubljana, and due to the Covid situation, it moved online. It featured 13 panels, 52 presenters, and 130 attendees. The event was hosted by Alma Mater Europaea. András Sajó of Central European University and Mark Tushnet of Harvard Law School gave lectures. A roundtable on free speech and social media featured Jacob Rowbottom (Oxford University), Olivier Sylvain (Fordham Law School) and Boštjan M Zupančič, the longest-serving ECHR judge. The IACL President Adrienne Stone, the Alma Mater Europaea ECM president Ludvik Toplak and the Constitutional Court of Slovenia president Rajko Knez gave welcome remarks. Jurij Toplak chaired and moderated the symposium and the roundtable. It was the first IACL ’s virtual event of such size.
Other speakers included Janny Leung (University of Hong Kong), David Erdos (University of Cambridge), Mark Rush (Washington and Lee University), Itsuko Yamaguchi (University of Tokyo), Pierre de Vos, Richard Calland (both University of Cape Town), Corado Carruso, Marina Caporale (both University of Bologna), Oreste Pollicino, Elisa Bertolini (Bocconi University), Ivana Marković (University of Belgrade), Klemen Jaklič (Constitutional Court of Slovenia), Dwight Newman (University of Saskatchewan), Michael Pinto-Duschinsky (IPSA RC20), Germán Teruel (University of Murcia), Gavin Phillipson (University of Bristol), Neil Richards (Washington University at St. Louis), RonNell Andersen Jones (University of Utah), David Schultz (Hamline University and University of Minnesota), Djordje Gardasevic (University of Zagreb), Michael Riegner (Humboldt University), Orhan Emre Konuralp (Bilkent University), Daniela Messina (University of Naples »Parthenope«), Dimitris Christopoulos, Penelope Petsini (both Panteion University of Athens), Max Steuer (Comenius University Bratislava), Rawin Leelapatana (Chulalongkorn University), Marcin Górski (University of Lodz), Boldizsár Artúr Szentgáli-Tóth (Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Klemen Jaklič (Constitutional Court of Slovenia), and PhD candidates Šimon Drugda (University of Copenhagen), Alberto Nicotina (University of Antwerp), and Tamás Pongó (University of Szeged). Several speakers, and Jernej Letnar Černič (The New University), Jimmy Chia-Shin Hsu (Academia Sinica) and Miha Šepec (University of Maribor) chaired the panels.
The symposium program and more information is available at the conference website: http://iaclfreespeech.almamater.eu
Coordinators
- Jurij Toplak
- University Professor at the University of Maribor, Slovenia
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- Jimmy Chia-Shin Hsu
- Associate Research Professor at Academia Sinica, Taiwan
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Co-convener
- Marcin Górski
- University of Lodz