No Such Thing as Free Speech? Performativity, Free Speech, and Academic Freedom in the UK

IF 0.8 Q2 LAW
Jana Bacevic
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引用次数: 0

Abstract

The relationship between academic freedom and freedom of speech features prominently in public and political discussions concerning the role of universities in Western liberal democracies. Recently, these debates have attracted increased attention, owing in part to media framing of a ‘free speech crisis’, especially in UK and US universities. One type of response is to regulate academic expression through legislation, such as the UK’s 2023 Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act. This article offers a critical analysis of the assumptions concerning the performativity of speech in this kind of legal intervention. It extends Judith Butler’s discussion of the concept of ‘harmful speech’ as reported by Butler (Excitable speech: a politics of the performative, Routledge Classics, London, 1997) to conceptualize speech-acts as performative not only when it comes to populations, but also when it comes to institutions. Reconceptualizing universities as producing as well as being constituted by speech-acts, the article argues that the effects of free speech legislation need to be considered in the context of the transformation of universities and other political actors (including governments and student unions) in the second half of the twentieth and the beginning of the twenty-first century. It argues that legal enforcement of free speech at universities further obscures the distinction between negative and positive liberties identified by Isaiah Berlin (Two Concepts of Liberty, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1958), and considers this shift as part of the reconfiguration of political ontology in late modernity.

没有言论自由这回事?英国的表演性、自由言论和学术自由
学术自由与言论自由之间的关系在有关西方自由民主国家大学角色的公共和政治讨论中占有突出位置。最近,这些讨论吸引了越来越多的关注,部分原因是媒体报道了 "言论自由危机",尤其是在英国和美国的大学。一种应对方式是通过立法规范学术表达,如英国的《2023 年高等教育(言论自由)法案》。本文对此类法律干预中有关言论表演性的假设进行了批判性分析。文章扩展了朱迪斯-巴特勒(Judith Butler)关于 "有害言论 "概念的讨论(《激动人心的言论:表演性政治》,伦敦 Routledge Classics 出版社,1997 年),将言论行为概念化为表演性的,不仅涉及到人群,还涉及到机构。文章认为,需要结合 20 世纪下半叶和 21 世纪初大学和其他政治行为者(包括政府和学生会)的转变来考虑言论自由立法的影响。文章认为,对大学言论自由的法律执行进一步模糊了以赛亚-伯林(《自由的两个概念》,牛津大学出版社,牛津,1958 年)所指出的消极自由与积极自由之间的区别,并认为这一转变是晚期现代性政治本体重构的一部分。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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来源期刊
CiteScore
2.30
自引率
25.00%
发文量
19
期刊介绍: Law and Critique is the prime international critical legal theory journal. It has been published for 20 years and is associated with the Critical Legal Conference. Law and Critique covers all aspects of legal theory, jurisprudence and substantive law that are approached from a critical perspective. Law and Critique has introduced into legal scholarship a variety of schools of thought, such as postmodernism; feminism; queer theory; critical race theory; literary approaches to law; psychoanalysis; law and the humanities; law and aesthetics and post-colonialism. Postmodern jurisprudence, law and aesthetics and law and psychoanalysis were pioneered in Law and Critique which remains the most authoritative international source for these schools of thought. Law and Critique is keen to translate and incorporate non-English critical legal thought. More specifically, Law and Critique encourages the submission of articles in the areas of critical legal theory and history, law and literature, law and psychoanalysis, feminist legal theory, critical race theory, law and post-colonialism; postmodern jurisprudence, law and aesthetics; legal phenomenology; and law and autopoiesis. Past special issues include: ''Critical Legal Education''; ''The Gender of Law''; ''Law and Postmodernism''; ''Law and Literature''; ''Law and Post-colonialism'', ''Law and Theatre''; ''Jean-Luc Nancy and Law''; ''Agamben and Law''. Law and Critique is ranked amongst the top 20 per cent of law journals by the Australian Research Council.
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