Academic Freedom and Protected Philosophical Belief: Strengthening the Legal Analysis

Naomi Waltham-Smith and James Murray

Industrial Law Journal, 2024, vol. 53, issue 4, 711-745

Abstract: This article evaluates the state of protection for academic freedom and academic freedom of expression in English law, specifically the effectiveness of protected philosophical belief (PPB) as a vector for protecting them. We argue that the category of PPB (circumscribed by the test in Grainger v Nicholson) is inherently inappropriate as a means of protecting values that are of signal importance in the academic employment context. Furthermore, this framing poses a risk that the concepts of academic freedom and academic freedom of expression may be overlooked or misconstrued in the analysis when applying legal tests (eg of harassment) or in carrying out balancing exercises with the rights of others. We offer critiques of the analytical approach in two recent employment tribunal decisions—Phoenix v The Open University and Miller v University of Bristol—identifying how these problems arise in the reasoning of both tribunals in relation to academic freedom and academic freedom fo expression. Examining how the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023 fails to remedy these issues, we set out the approach that tribunals and courts should in fact take in cases concerning AF and AFoE with reference to the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights and international instruments.

Date: 2024
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/indlaw/dwae038 (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oup:indlaw:v:53:y:2024:i:4:p:711-745.

Access Statistics for this article

Industrial Law Journal is currently edited by Professor Simon Deakin

More articles in Industrial Law Journal from Industrial Law Society
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Oxford University Press ().