"The best kind of scholarship-deeply researched and immensely useful. Wherever you stand on issues of free speech and academic freedom, you will learn from this book." -Michael Roth, President of Wesleyan University
A definitive interpretation of academic freedom as a First Amendment right, drawing on a comprehensive survey of legal cases.
Is academic freedom a First Amendment right? Many think so, yet its relationship to free speech as guaranteed by the Constitution is anything but straightforward. David Rabban examines the extensive case law addressing academic freedom and free speech at American universities, developing a robust theory of academic freedom as a distinctive subset of First Amendment law.
In subsuming academic freedom under the First Amendment, Rabban emphasizes the societal value of the contribution to knowledge made by the expert speech of professors, the classic justification for academic freedom in the influential 1915 Declaration of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP). Any indication that professors might be disciplined because people without academic training disagree with their scholarly views would undermine confidence in the integrity of their work and therefore their ability to perform this vital function on behalf of the public. Rabban argues that academic freedom fosters two central First Amendment values recognized by courts in a wide range of contexts: the production and dissemination of knowledge and the contribution of free expression to democratic citizenship.
The First Amendment right of academic freedom applies most directly to professors, but it also plausibly extends to the educational decisions of universities and to students' learning interests. More broadly, this vision of academic freedom can guide in developing additional distinctive First Amendment rights to protect the expert expression of journalists, librarians, museum curators, and other professionals. At a time when academic freedom is under attack from many directions, Academic Freedom proposes a theoretically satisfying and practically useful guide to its meaning as a First Amendment right.
Rezensionen / Stimmen
Could not be more timely...[Rabban] offers a definitive treatment of the subject, comprehensively surveying the entire landscape of relevant court decisions and advancing a lucid and persuasive theory of academic freedom as a distinctive First Amendment right. -- David Cole * New York Review of Books * A welcome arrival...provides a careful and precise accounting of the state of the relationship between academic freedom and the First Amendment as well as provocative arguments about the proper relationship between the two. -- Michael Meranze * Los Angeles Review of Books * The most thoughtful legal discussion of academic freedom ever published. -- John O. McGinnis * Law & Liberty * An indispensable guide...makes a solid case for classifying academic freedom as a specific subset of First Amendment rights...[Rabban's] account of First Amendment law on academic freedom is likely to remain the gold standard. -- John R. Vile * Free Speech Center * A much-needed defense of academic freedom just when it is imperiled on campuses nationwide. Rabban, a respected First Amendment scholar, is uniquely qualified to illuminate academic freedom issues...[He] provides a welcome counter to the rampant confusion and controversy about this constantly invoked yet generally misunderstood concept. -- Nadine Strossen, New York Law School and former President of the American Civil Liberties Union Rabban argues convincingly that academic freedom should be seen as a distinctive First Amendment right...A much clearer distinction between claims that should qualify for the protection of academic freedom and those best left to general First Amendment doctrine is long overdue. Rabban's book provides a terrific starting point. -- Glenn Altschuler and David Wippman * The Hill * The best kind of scholarship-deeply researched and immensely useful. Wherever you stand on issues of free speech and academic freedom, you will learn from this book. -- Michael Roth, President of Wesleyan University The best book that I have seen on academic freedom and its relationship to the First Amendment. It describes the history of academic freedom in the Supreme Court and in lower courts, and develops a useful approach for applying the concept. A must-read for all involved in higher education. -- Erwin Chemerinsky, University of California, Berkeley School of Law A major work on the history and practice of academic freedom in the United States by one of our leading experts. This landmark contribution could not be more timely and more necessary. -- Keith Whittington, Princeton University Essential. Through insightful analysis of historical controversies and conflicting case law, David Rabban constructs a theoretical framework that foregrounds the distinctive value of expert academic inquiry in fostering knowledge and promoting democratic citizenship. This book clarifies the meaning not only of academic freedom but also of free speech more broadly and the First Amendment itself. -- Laura Weinrib, Harvard Law School Indispensable. Academic freedom is a perennially contested subject, particularly in its constitutional dimensions, but David Rabban has authored a comprehensive guide to the law. -- Robert Post, Yale Law School
Sprache
Verlagsort
Zielgruppe
Maße
Höhe: 235 mm
Breite: 156 mm
Dicke: 22 mm
Gewicht
ISBN-13
978-0-674-29105-8 (9780674291058)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Klassifikation
David M. Rabban is Dahr Jamail, Randall Hage Jamail, and Robert Lee Jamail Regents Chair in Law and University Distinguished Teaching Professor at the University of Texas School of Law. The author of Free Speech in Its Forgotten Years, he was General Counsel of the American Association of University Professors and chaired its Committee on Academic Freedom and Tenure.
