Academic freedom has gone through three distinct eras yet each era overlaps a great deal with the one following it. The first era was the bureaucratic. It was exemplified by the negotiations between administrators and professors in the 1920s. The American Association of University Professors and the American Association of Colleges began cooperating and a hierarchical structure emerged, with the tenured professor at the top of the faculty. The second era was the political era and it was mainly a result of loyalty oaths, which began after the first World War and then escalated again during the 1930s when communism became a major concern. The political era then gave way to the legal era when the first academic freedom cases went to the United States Supreme Court in the 1950s. The first cases were the result of political pressures that became legal pressures. Most of the early court cases were based on communism. The legal era has produced changes. There are now more rights; for students and teachers of all levels, including pre-college levels, are guaranteed some academic freedom rights. However, the First Amendment and academic freedom are not synonymous because a professor usually cannot win a case based solely on his free speech rights under academic freedom. It is only when academic freedom is guaranteed through some form of due process, custom or contract—and that guarantee has been violated—that a professor normally wins a suit. There are times, too, when a professor's free speech rights have been violated and she can then win a suit based on the First Amendment, but academic freedom is not always a part of the decision. Many times academic freedom is simply used as dictum in a decision that is, in fact, based on a different part of law such as contract law, public employee law, or a First Amendment violation. Academic freedom has been recognized by the courts but standing alone it is not usually sufficient to win a suit.

MASTER'S THESIS Evolution of the protection of the freedom of assembly and association under the ECHR and the ICCPR in the Russian Federation. Author: Daria Solomina Supervisor: JUDr. Milan Lipovský, Ph.D. Study programme: MAIN Academic Year: 2020/2021 Abstract The rights of assembly and association are vital elements of the international system of human rights. The democratic society needs to protect those freedoms to let the population a chance to express important ideas, concerns, raise political and social issues and make sure the government knows what is important to pay attention to. The international legal system (in particular created by the ECHR and the ICCPR), has come up with fundamental basis for the realization of the rights of assembly and association. However, the main responsibility of the implementation of those rules and norms lays on the states and their domestic legal systems. This thesis researches the structure of the legal protection of the freedoms of assembly and association in the Russian Federation, discovers the significant discordances between it and the provisions of the ECHR and the ICCPR, and attempts to give the political reasoning that is behind those differences. Analyzing the case-law, historical developments of the political life of the Russian Federation and the...

This project explores how film censorship shapes film production and circulation at film festivals, public screenings, and theatrical releases since the early 2000s in Turkey. It argues that, over time, mechanisms of censorship under Erdoğan’s authoritarian regime became less centralized; practices of censorship became more dispersed and less and less “official;” and the various imposing actors and agencies have differed from those in previous decades. Though still consistent with longstanding state ideologies, reasons for censorship practices, now more than ever, must be complexly navigated and negotiated by producers and distributors of film, including festival organizers, art institutions, and filmmakers themselves, through self-censorship.Drawing on a number of in-depth case studies of films banned after 2000, this project analyzes these works within the political and social contexts surrounding their releases, as well as ethnographic data based on dozens of extensive semi-structured interviews with cultural producers over five years of fieldwork. The corresponding ethnographic fieldwork research reveals how the political climate in Turkey has affected (and worked to suppress) cultural production, freedom of speech, activism, and political resistance to the Erdoğan regime. It asks how political activism, speech, and events are converted into the visibility of image, sound, and text (as film) ultimately meets up with structures of the states that seek to obstruct or eliminate this mode of political engagement, not just through banning of artistic expression, but also through processes of delegitimization, investigatory targeting, threats, hate speech, and violence. / Anthropology

Cancel culture can briefly be described as the active attempt to silence a person that has expressed an opinion that offended someone whether it was intentional or not. This thesis will present how cancel culture is understood, perceived and experienced by journalists, communication professionals, and media experts, as well as how, according to them, it impacts freedom of expression and journalism. The findings are analyzed from a theoretical framework of the public sphere and participatory democracy. The conclusion shows that cancel culture can both serve as a means to address social injustices while also threatening freedom of expression and, by that, journalism. Cancelling journalists, because they have reported on controversial issues that others have found offensive, can result in more self-censorship among journalists which can have negative consequences for democracy itself. Further research is encouraged to investigate the impacts of cancel culture on the field of journalism and ultimately its impacts on freedom of expression and democracy.

In recent years, the way Albanians consume news has changed radically. They have abandoned traditional media, and instead, a large majority now rely on television, social media, and online media as their primary source of information. The journalists I have interviewed say that the change has led to a deterioration in journalistic quality. According to them, consumers are no longer interested in the underlying causes; instead, most want journalism to be mixed with entertainment.   In 2022, wealthy businessmen continued to buy media outlets, which, i.a. Reporters Without Borders consider worrisome. Today, freedom of the press suffers from the fact that the owners of the media outlets can, to a large extent, control the reporting, which benefits their other businesses on the side. The country is also corrupt, enabling close ties between media owners, politicians, and organized crime. In Albania, during the spring, the population expressed dissatisfaction with the low wages and high petrol prices, which in May 2022 was one of the highest in the world.   The results I have reached show that freedom of the press in Albania is not doing well, and several of the journalists I interviewed admit that they have at some point censored their reporting out of fear of consequences.

Franchisetagares underlägsna ställning gentemot franchisegivare är ett ämne som varit föremål för diskussion under de senaste decennierna. Franchising är en affärsmodell som förenklat kan beskrivas som en samarbetsform mellan näringsidkare där franchisetagare, mot ersättning, får nyttja ett av franchisegivaren etablerat och beprövat affärskoncept. Syftet med denna uppsats har varit att utreda och analysera franchisetagares rättsliga skydd i Sverige och vilka avtalsrätts- liga begränsningar de ska behöva acceptera för att kunna utöva sin grundlagsskyddade frihet att bedriva näringsverksamhet. Franchising som samarbetsform förenklar möjligheterna att tillträda marknaden eftersom fran- chisetagare erhåller en rätt att nyttja ett redan etablerat varumärke. Därutöver kan franchiseta- gare åtnjuta stordriftsfördelar, vilket är en fördel som andra nystartade småföretag inte erhåller. Trots att franchise i regel sänker inträdesbarriärerna till marknaden är franchisetagare genom franchiseavtalet begränsade i sina möjligheter att expandera verksamheten. För att kunna ex- pandera till nya geografiska marknader och produktmarknader krävs att parterna kommer över- ens om det. Även om franchisetagare kan vara begränsade till en viss marknad kan marknads- uppdelning vara positivt eftersom det tillförsäkrar franchisetagaren en ensamrätt att i ett visst geografiskt område nyttja affärskonceptet. Avtalsfriheten är en del av näringsfriheten och är en central och grundläggande frihet inom avtalsrätten. Trots detta är inte avtalsfriheten någon absolut rättighet utan den kan begränsas med hänsyn till allmänintresset. Att maktförhållandet i franchiserelationer är ojämnt och att franchisetagares handlingsfrihet är mer begränsad än vid andra samarbetsformer följer av af- färsmodellens utformning. Att bedriva företag som franchisetagare påverkar bland annat fri- heten att styra verksamhetens inriktning och möjligheterna att fortsätta driva verksamheten efter att avtalstiden löpt ut. Trots att huvudregeln är att avtalsvillkor mellan näringsidkare inte ska jämkas kan det med hänsyn till omständigheterna i det enskilda fallet vara motiverat att be- gränsa franchisegivarens avtalsfrihet med hänsyn till franchisetagares underlägsna ställning. Såväl på nationell som unionsrättslig nivå har det anförts att det finns ett behov av förstärkt skydd för franchisetagare. Bland annat har det ansetts finnas behov av ett utökat skydd vad gäller deras förhandlingsrätt, uppsägningsrätt och möjligheter att angripa oskäliga avtalsvillkor. I svensk rätt finns endast en franchisespecifik lag som infördes för att stärka franchisetagares ställning. Denna lag har dock aldrig tillämpats av allmän domstol och reglerar endast franchi- segivares skyldighet att lämna information innan ingående av avtal med franchisetagare. Likväl har den svenska lagstiftaren bedömt att det saknas behov av ytterligare reglering och att tvister kan hanteras inom ramen för befintlig lagstiftning. Dessutom har svenska domstolar varit för- siktiga med att oskälighetspröva avtalsvillkor mellan näringsidkare eftersom näringsverksam- het är ett medvetet risktagande. Trots detta har befintliga skyddsregler kritiserats för att vara innehållslösa och inte fylla något verkligt behov. För att lagstiftningen ska kunna konstateras vara proportionerlig och tillfredsställande bör den franchisespecifika regleringen samt franchi- setagares behov av utökat skydd ses över. / Franchisees inferior position towards franchisors is a topic that has been a subject of discussion for the past few decades. Franchising is a business model that can be simply described as a form of cooperation between business where franchisees, against compensation, can use a business concept established and proven by the franchisor. The aim of this essay has been to investigate and analyze the legal protection of franchisees in Sweden and which contractual limitations they should have to accept to be able to exercise their constitutionally protected freedom to conduct business. Franchising as a form of cooperation simplifies the opportunities to enter the market because franchisees receive a right to use an already known brand. In addition, franchisees can enjoy economies of scale, which is an advantage that other start-up small business do not receive. Although franchising generally lowers the entry barriers to the market, franchisees are limited in their opportunities to expand the business due to the franchise agreement. To be able to ex- pand into new geographic markets and product markets, it is required that the parties agree about it. Although franchisees may be limited to a certain market, market segmentation can be positive because it ensures the franchisee an exclusive right to use the business concept in a certain geographic area. The freedom of contract is part of the freedom to conduct a business and is a central and fun- damental freedom in contract law. Despite this, the freedom of contract is not an absolute right, it can be limited in consideration of the public interest. It follows from the design of the business model that the balance of power in franchise relationships is uneven and that franchisees free- dom of action is more limited than in other forms of cooperation. Conducting a business as a franchisee affects, among other things, the freedom to control the direction of the business and the possibilities of continuing to run the business after the contract period has expired. Although the main rule is that contractual terms between traders should not be equalized, considering the circumstances of the individual case, it may be justified to limit the franchisors freedom of contract regarding the inferior position of franchisees. Both at national and EU level, it has been argued that there is a need for enhanced protection for franchisees. Among other things, it has been considered that there is a need for extended protection in terms of their right to negotiate, right to terminate and opportunities to tackle unfair contract terms. In Swedish law, there is only one franchise-specific law that was intro- duced to strengthen the position of franchisees. However, this law has never been applied by a general court and only regulates the obligation of franchisors to provide information before entering into agreements with franchisees. Nevertheless, the Swedish legislator has assessed that there is no need for further regulation and that disputes can be handled within the frame- work of existing legislation. In addition, Swedish courts have been careful to test the unfairness of contractual terms between companies because business activity is a deliberate risk-taking. Despite this, existing protection rules have been criticized for being empty of substance and not fulfilling any real need. For the legislation to be found to be proportionate and satisfactory, the legal regulation as well as franchisees need for extended protection should be reviewed.

Sustainable economic growth is vital to reduce poverty and a challenge to development. To aim and maintain a greater level of economic growth that will assist African countries in reducing poverty, they must investigate the specific determinants of economic growth. In this paper, we determine the impact of economic freedom, political freedom, and foreign direct investment on the gross domestic product. The gross domestic product was observed over a nine year-time period on a sample of 38 low-income and upper-income countries in Africa.

The Occupy movement has spread over hundreds of cities nationwide and over 1,500 cities around the world. The movement is formed around a common goal, which is to protest the way government actions or inactions have rooted widespread discontent. The Occupy movement has encountered opposition from the cities and counties where it is located. Arrests have been made for a number of violations of city and county codes including resistance to police orders and disorderly conduct charges. In our country, freedom of speech and the right to protest have been regarded as inalienable rights. The question becomes how to balance the rights of the people involved against the rights and obligations of the government. This thesis will provide an in depth look at the issues being discussed in cases and hearings involving the Occupy movement. The key issue plaintiffs argue is that their First Amendment rights are being infringed on. In January 2012, both international human rights and United States civil liberties experts at seven law school clinics across the country met and formed the Protest and Assembly Rights Project. The project investigated the United States response to Occupy Wall Street. This thesis will discuss and recap some of their findings. In addition, it will analyze the Federal Constitutional restrictions to protestor's rights and the cases that arise on the grounds of these restrictions, as well as examine how the courts interpret the First Amendment and clarify these issues along with defining protestor's constitutional rights. Based upon the Constitutional rights and legitimate restrictions, the thesis will make appropriate recommendations on the limits for both the protestors and the local government.

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The author has tried to show in this study the broad applications laid down by the Supreme Court in its decisions dealing with Jehovah's Witnesses. The tolerance used by the Supreme Court in working out the immense problems created by this sect at such a critical period, shows how tolerance builds strength rather than lessens it.