The last two academic years have been challenging with campuses across the US and Europe experiencing divisive conflict in reaction to political turmoil domestically and abroad. These events exist within a social as well as a legal context concerning the boundaries of free expression on campus.
Frederick M. Lawrence, Distinguished Lecturer at Georgetown University Law Center and Secretary & CEO at the Phi Beta Kappa Society, is an expert on the intersection of education law, civil rights and free expression. Accordingly, he recently testified before the US-Congress in May of this year concerning free expression on campus. In his opening remarks he emphasized the importance of maintaining a strong campus community, not shying away from the intellectual challenges posed by protest and an academic climate that fosters listening to each other and robust debate. We are delighted that he will share his insights on this timely issue at Hertie School and, doing so, his lecture aims to address several key questions:
- What are the legal limits of protected expression behaviour? Free expression encompasses not only speech but also non-verbal demonstrations.
- When may speech be restricted? Campuses may impose content-neutral practices to maintain campus safety. But because higher education requires the ability to inquire deeply and to express oneself freely, expression on university campuses is presumed to be protected. As US Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis taught, unless “immediate serious violence was to be expected or advocated,” “the remedy to be applied is more speech, not enforced silence.”
- What kind of speech culture do we wish to create? We should pursue “vigorous civility,” a climate of frank conversations across differences, seeking common ground and founded in mutual respect, even as we hold diverse points of view.
Prior registration to the lecture is needed.
Speaker
Frederick M. Lawrence
Frederick M. Lawrence is the 10th Secretary and CEO of the Phi Beta Kappa Society, the nation’s first and most prestigious honor society, founded in 1776. Lawrence is a Distinguished Lecturer at the Georgetown Law Center, and has previously served as president of Brandeis University, Dean of the George Washington University Law School, and Visiting Professor and Senior Research Scholar at Yale Law School. He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2018 and the American Law Institute in 1999. An accomplished scholar, teacher and attorney, Lawrence is one of the nation’s leading experts on higher education law, civil rights, free expression and bias crimes. Lawrence has published widely and lectured internationally. He is the author of Punishing Hate: Bias Crimes Under American Law (Harvard University Press 1999), examining bias-motivated violence and the laws governing how such violence is punished in the United States. He frequently contributes op-eds to various news sources and has appeared on CNN, MSNBC and Fox News among other networks.