Open Statement by University Law Teachers on Academic Freedom

As a result of the recent decision by the Harvard Law Review to not publish a commissioned article by Palestinian scholar, Rabea Eghbariah, I have signed the following Open Letter, along with 100 more of my fellow international law scholars. I hope others will sign as well (here). I am attaching the full text below.

Academic Freedom
Open statement by university law teachers
5 December 2023

We, university law teachers from around the world, are alarmed at the decision by the Harvard Law Review (HLR) to nix the publication of a commissioned short HLR Online essay by Rabea Eghbariah, a Palestinian human rights lawyer and doctoral candidate at Harvard Law School. The essay, entitled “The Ongoing Nakba: Toward a Legal Framework for Palestine,” was eventually published in The Nation. According to a statement issued by over twenty five members of the HLR Editorial board:

[The] piece was originally solicited for publication on the Harvard Law Review Blog. Days before the finalized piece was to be posted, at a time when the Law Review was facing a public intimidation and harassment campaign, the journal’s leadership intervened to stop publication. The body of editors—none of whom are Palestinian—voted to sustain that decision.
 
We are unaware of any other solicited piece that has been revoked by the Law Review in this way. This unprecedented decision threatens academic freedom and perpetuates the suppression of Palestinian voices. We dissent.

Some of us agree with the views expressed in the article.  Others disagree, or have no particular view either way, or, indeed the expertise to form a judgment. We write here on a different matter than the substance of the article. A matter on which we are united, and, indeed, forms the bedrock of what it is that we at universities are about.  The cancellation of the article, in and of itself.

Academic freedom, and diversity of academic thought and expression, are under threat. By decisions like this. And by the internal and external pressures on scholars, educators and students at universities, by those within and outside the academy who seek to advance their own viewpoint by promoting the views of those they agree with, and silencing their opponents. This is not the way to win an argument in a free society. It is authoritarian. And it is damaging academia.

Censorship has no place in academia. We call on university leaders to redouble their efforts to safeguard the precious role of their institutions in society, and stand up to the intellectual bullies, both internally and externally. And do more to protect their staff and students from such bullies.

To Rabea Eghbariah and those members of the editorial board who resisted the pressure to censor him: we offer our solidarity and support. To those who put pressure on the editorial board, or facilitated an atmosphere at the university that left students vulnerable to such pressure: you have behaved disgracefully. Threatening young people with the denial of their future aspirations, to stifle a view being expressed by one such young person, is a mean, grubby act. To the students who cancelled the article: you were put in a difficult position. But giving into bullies only emboldens them to repeat their behaviour. You owe it to yourselves and your fellow students to resist.

Signed (institutional affiliations, where mentioned, are for information only; we are all signing in our individual capacities only, not also on behalf of any institutions or entities):

Ralph Wilde, Faculty of Laws, University College London, UK

Aslı Ü. Bâli, Professor of Law, Yale Law School, USA

Halla Shoaibi, Assistant Professor, Law Department, Birzeit University, Palestine

Duncan Kennedy, Harvard Law School, USA

Maha Abdallah, Faculty of Law, University of Antwerp, Belgium

Paulo Borba Casella, Full Professor for Public International Law, São Paulo University Law School, Brazil

Ardi Imseis, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Law, Queen’s University, Canada

Makau Mutua, SUNY Distinguished Professor, Margaret W. Wong Professor, SUNY Buffalo Law School, USA

William Schabas, Professor of International Law, Middlesex University London, UK

Maria Aristodemou, Emerita Professor of Law, Birkbeck University of London, UK

Assem Khalil, Professor, Law Department, Birzeit University, Palestine

Vasuki Nesiah, Professor, NYU Gallatin, New York, USA

Sharry Aiken, Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, Queen’s University, Canada

Faisal Bhabha, Associate Professor, Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, Canada

Mutaz M. Qafisheh, Professor of International Law, College of Law and Political Science, Hebron University, Palestine

Brenna Bhandar, Associate Professor of Law, University of British Columbia, Canada

Michelle Burgis-Kasthala, University of Edinburgh, UK

Mohammad Fadel, Professor, University of Toronto Faculty of Law, Canada

Rama Sahtout, Lecturer, Exeter University, UK

Alyssa S. King, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Law, Queen’s University, Canada

Ahmed Hosni Ali Ashqar, Assistant Professor of Public Law, Arab American University, Palestine

Nicolas Lamp, Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, Queen’s University, Canada

Audrey Macklin, Professor and Chair in Human Rights, University of Toronto Faculty of Law, Canada

Heidi Matthews, Assistant Professor, Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, Canada

John Reynolds, Associate Professor of International Law, Maynooth University, Ireland

Iain Scobbie, Professor of Public International Law and Director of the Manchester International Law Centre, University of Manchester, UK

Omar Yousef Shehabi, Acting Assistant Professor, New York University School of Law, USA

Anna Su, Associate Professor, University of Toronto Faculty of Law, Canada

Ashwini Vasanthakumar, Associate Professor and Queen’s National Scholar in Legal & Political Philosophy, Faculty of Law, Queen’s University, Canada

Lisa M. Kelly, Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, Queen’s University, Canada

Darryl Li, Associate Professor of Anthropology and in the College and Associate Member, Law School, University of Chicago, USA

Florian Hoffman, Professor of International Law, Pontifical Catholic University (PUC) of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Frédéric Mégret, Full Professor, Co-director, Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism, Hans & Tamar Oppenheimer Chair in Public International Law, McGill University, Canada

Satvinder Juss, Professor of Law, Dickson Poon School of Law, King’s College London, UK

Ezgi Yildiz, Assistant Professor, California State University, Long Beach, CA, USA

Surabhi Ranganathan, Professor of International Law, University of Cambridge, UK

Ximena Medellín-Urquiaga. Profesora-Investigadora Titular del Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas, Mexico City, Mexico

Alonso Gurmendi Dunkelberg, Lecturer, King’s College London, UK

Nicolás Carrillo Santarelli, Researcher, University of Cagliari, Italia

Salvador Herencia-Carrasco, HRREC, Universidad de Ottawa, Canada

Eddie Bruce Jones, Professor of Law, SOAS, University of London, UK

Raed Abubadawia, Assistant Professor of International Law and International Relations, Faculty of Graduate Studies, Arab American University, Palestine

Michael Fakhri, Professor, University of Oregon School of Law, USA

Julia Dehm, La Trobe School of Law, Australia

Zinaida Miller, Professor of Law & International Affairs, Northeastern University School of Law

Christopher Gevers, School of Law, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

Adil Hasan Khan, Melbourne Law School, Australia

Bill Bowing, Professor of Law, Birkbeck University of London, UK

Maryam Jamshidi, Associate Professor of Law, University of Colorado Law School, USA

Adam Gearey, Professor of Law, Birkbeck University of London, UK

Sahar Aziz, Distinguished Professor of Law, Rutgers University, USA

Oscar Guardiola-Rivera, Professor of Law, Birkbeck University of London, UK

Nico Krisch, Professor of International Law, Graduate Institute, Geneva, Switzerland

Elena Loizidou, Professor of Law, Birkbeck University of London, UK

Renata Salecl, Professor of Law, Birkbeck University of London, UK

Maria Tzanakopoulou, Birkbeck University of London, UK

Bernard Keenan, Professor of Law, Birkbeck University of London, UK

Urfan Khaliq, Professor of Public International and European Laws,

Cardiff University, UK

Tor Krever, Assistant Professor of International Law, Cambridge University, UK

Dimitri Van Den Meerssche, Queen Mary University of London

Karin Loevy, NYU School of Law, New York University, United States

Sergey Vasiliev, Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Amsterdam, Netherlands

Daniel Stein, Assistant Professor, Jindal Global Law School, OP Jindal Global University, India

Lorenzo Gasbarri, Assistant Professor, Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies, Italy

Aziz ur Rehman, Professor, School of Law, Quaid-i-Azam University, Pakistan

Sana Khan, Lecturer, University of Karachi School of Law, University of Karachi, Pakistan

Muhammad Umar Ranjha, College of Law, University of Sargodha, Pakistan

Omer Mirza, Lecturer, Department of Law and Criminology, University of Sahiwal, Pakistan

Fahad Nawaar, Assistant Professor, Department of Law, University of Sahiwal, Pakistan

Sheetal Soni, Senior Lecturer, School of Law, University of Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa

Rob Howse, Professor of International Law, New York University, United States

Tamar Barkay, Social Sciences, Tel Hai College, Israel

Irina Ceric, Assistant Professor,  Faculty of Law, University of Windsor, Canada

Eleni Methymaki, Departmental Lecturer in Public International Law, Law Faculty University of Oxford, UK

Mario Ricciardi, Professor of Philosophy of Law, Cesare Beccaria University of Milan, Italy

Petra Molnar, Faculty Associate, Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society Associate Director, Refugee Law Lab Harvard University and York University, United States and Canada

David Rossati, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Law, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Maxine Eichner, Graham Kenan Distinguished Professor of Law, University of North Carolina Law School, US

Mario Prost, Keele University School of Law, Keele University, UK

Ruth Marshall, Associate Professor, University of Toronto,Canada

Chantal Meloni, International Criminal Law Professor, University of Milan Law Faculty, Italy

Andrea Caligiuri, Associate Professor of International Law, University of Macerata Law Department, Italy

Thomas Phillips, Senior Lecturer in Law, Liverpool John Moores University, United Kingdom

Luigi Daniele, Senior Lecturer in Law, Nottinghan Law School, Nottingham Trent University, United Kingdom

Emily Kidd White, Assistant Professor, Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, Canada

Ata Hindi, Research Fellow, International Law Institute of Law, Birzeit University, Palestine

Aman, Associate Professor of Legal Practice, Jindal Global Law School, OP Jindal Global University, India

James (Jim) Cavallaro, Visiting Professor, Jackson School of Global Affairs, Yale University, United States

Malcolm Katrak, Assistant Professor, Jindal Global Law School, O.P. Jindal Global University, India

Oishik Sircar, Professor, Jindal Global Law School, O. P. Jindal Global University, India

Rohan Grey, Assistant Professor,  Willamette University College of Law, United States

Faisal Chaudhry, Assistant Professor of Law and History, University of Massachusetts School of Law, University of Massachusetts,  USA

Mian M. Sjeraz, Assistant Professor Law Faculty of Law, Grand Asian University Sialkot, (GAUS) Pakistan

Marco Longobardo,  Reader in International Law, Westminster Law School University of Westminster,  UK

Souheir Edelbi, Lecturer School of Law, Western Sydney University,  Australia

Sarah Joseph, Professor, Griffith University,  Australia

Saeed Bagheri, Lecturer in International Law,  Law University of Reading, England

Andrea Longo, Research Associate, School of Law, University of Strathclyde, United Kingdom

Alessandra Arcuri, Professor,  Erasmus School of Law, Erasmus University, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

Jessica Dorsey, Assistant Professor, International and European Law, Utrecht University, Netherlands

Nicola Perugini, Senior Lecturer, Politics and International Relations, University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom