Thinking Allowed in the Academy: International Human Rights Law and the Regulation of Free Speech and Academic Freedom under the ‘Model Code’

Abstract

The recent Review of Freedom of Speech in Australian Higher Education Providers (‘the Review’), overseen by the Hon Robert French AC, identified areas for improving freedom of speech and academic freedom, and to that end proposed the adoption of umbrella principles embedded in a Model Code. The Review’s engagement with international human rights law standards was confined, even though many are binding on Australia. As universities consider implementing the Review’s recommendations, this article reflects on the Model Code in the light particularly of  the standards established by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (‘ICCPR’). If the drafters of the Model Code had paid closer regard to the ICCPR and other international standards, the result may have been a scheme that more clearly and predictably distinguishes permissible from impermissible restriction on free speech and academic freedom, and gives greater priority to promoting the human rights of those in the academic community than to the institutional power to limit them.