Olga Ceran speaks at the ICON-S BENELUX Chapter Inaugural Conference in Maastricht
On 26 October 2023, Olga Ceran spoke at the inaugural conference of the newly founded ICON-S Benelux Chapter, hosted by Maastricht University, Faculty of Law. The overarching theme of the conference was Crises, Challenges, and the Future of Public Law. Olga joined the panel on Power, knowledge, and EU law, together with Maciej Krogel, Marta Morvillo, and Stefan Salomon (all from the University of Amsterdam).
Olga’s presentation focused on the protection of academic freedom in EU law, in the context of the rule of law crisis. As academic freedom questions are increasingly raised as a matter of EU law together with other systemic issues arising from democratic backsliding, there is a need for a deeper reflection on the rights and responsibilities of various actors in the EU context. Yet, despite the increasing interest of EU policymakers, there is no uniform understanding of academic freedom as an EU fundamental right nor a clear vision how to protect it. Therefore, Olga outlined how the ongoing research conducted at Leiden University is supposed to address these issues. Drawing from work on the content and philosophical justifications of Article 13 CFR (AFITE project), this presentation shed light on the democratic justification of academic freedom and its relevance for the regulatory design at the EU level. The presentation explored therefore questions at the centre of Olga’s re:constitution fellowship project, interested in different avenues for a complementary protection of academic freedom in EU law.
More information about the ICON-S BENELUX Chapter Inaugural Conference in Maastricht can be found here.