This workshop is co-organised by the Centre for Fundamental Rights at the Hertie School, the European Convention on Human Rights Law Review and the University of Liverpool School of Law and Social Justice, International Law and Human Rights Unit, with the support of the European Society of International Law. It will be held online on 10-11 June 2021.
The European Court of Human Rights says that freedom of expression is one of the essential foundations of a democratic society. It is one of the basic conditions for the progress of a democratic society and each individual’s self-fulfilment. While the ‘classic’ questions remain (when can free speech be legitimately limited within a liberal democracy), a number of modern-day challenges to freedom of expression are arising. For instance, what is the role of private online intermediaries? How does the contemporary wave of disinformation impact on rights? What questions do the extraterritorial dimensions of freedom of expression raise? We welcome submissions proposing novel analysis of both ‘classic’ freedom of expression questions, such as hate speech, political correctness, terrorist propaganda and whistleblowing and new challenges, as online expression, mis/dis-information, mal-information and ‘fake news’, the increasing concentration of media ownership, and the rise of populist expression. Particularly, we seek to explore what can the ECtHR do to address the most problematic freedom of expression-related questions raised by illiberal democracies and restrictive political regimes within Europe. Freedoms of judicial, academic, artistic, political, journalistic and corporate expression fall squarely within the goals of this workshop.
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