As part of the most concerned country, Malaysia has provided clear written legal statutes in promoting and protecting the freedom of speech. Articles 10(1)(a) and (2)(a) of the Federal Constitution provides the clearest indication to the general public that the legal system of our country do give the protection of the freedom of speech. The objective of this paper is to focus on the provisions of the freedom of speech (especially academic freedom) from the related statutes and cases reported in the relevant journals. This paper will also focus on the scope, wisdoms, purposes and provide the possible recommendations or suggestions; in the area of the implementation of the civil law and the Islamic legal principles in the Malaysian legal system, in order to strengthen, enhance and harmonizing these respective laws in force, which deal with the academic freedom issues for the purpose of protecting and promoting the freedom of speech in Malaysia according to the rule of law. The legal research method will be applied in obtaining the relevant data and information. The writer is of the opinion that the Malaysian legal system should be transformed and harmonized between these two legal foundations, i.e., the civil law and the Islamic legal principles, in respecting the spirit of Article 3 of the Federal Constitution which provides that Islam as a religion of the Federation. The academicians should be given the autonomy to express their opinion that can contribute to the betterment of the society.

“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 and author of Safe Enough Spaces 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.

Is academic freedom threatened? The book examines current challenges to academic freedom in Europe, focusing mainly on Italy and Germany. The cases discussed demonstrate that research and teaching are under pressure in European democracies: in Hungary and Poland due to political constraints, in other countries due to societal expectations. Considering different interrelated aspects, the four parts of the book explore many real and potential threats to universities, scientific institutions and researchers, ranging from the European dimension of freedom of the arts and sciences to comparative analysis of emerging challenges to academic freedom against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic. They highlight threats to university autonomy from the economic orientation of university governance, which emphasizes efficiency, competition, and external evaluation, and from new rules concerning trigger warnings, speech restrictions, and ethics commissions. Detailed study of these complex threats is intended to stimulate scholarly reflection and elicit serious discussion at European and national level. The volume contributes to the search for a new role of universities and scientific institutions and is addressed to academics and political stakeholders.

The essays in Free Speech and Intellectual Diversity in Higher Education reflect diverse perspectives on one of the most pressing issues in higher education--the controversies over freedom of speech and its relation to intellectual diversity. Does the First Amendment apply on campuses and do its principles clarify or obscure the issues surrounding campus speech? What, after all, is the basis for those principles, and how do they relate to the purposes of the university? Is free speech truly effective without a diversity of perspectives, and to what extent is such diversity found at universities today? Does free speech discourage the inclusion of minorities or previously excluded groups? Are there specific policies that can address the issue of free speech on campuses today in ways that are fair to all parties and to the interests at stake?

Freedom of speech is fundamental towards the founding of a democratic country as distinctly expressed in Article 10(1)(a) of the Federal Constitution. However, there are restrictions to this right and freedom. Article 10(2)(a) of the Federal Constitution exempts or excludes defamation actions from this right by passing the Defamation Act 1957 to control and ensure this right and freedom of speech are exercised in accordance with law. This paper concentrates only on one element of defamation under the Defamation Act 1957 and Penal Code (Act 574); libel. Therefore, this paper will focus on the extent of the rights and freedom of speech, and how elements of libel plays a significant role in determining the restrictions of freedom of speech. The objectives of conducting this research are to examine the scope, concept and development of libel, explore the possible harmonisation, and establish recommendations that could be used to enhance the libel law. This paper look into the matter from the Malaysian law and the Islamic legal perspectives. Comparative legal research and qualitative methods will be applied in this paper based on the legal materials; law reports, legal commentaries, judicial decisions, Quranic verses, As-Sunnah, and opinions derived from Muslim scholars. The general observations is that, there are similarities and differences in libel laws according to the Malaysian laws and the Islamic legal principles which can be blended to form an effective Malaysian libel laws. It can strengthen the countermeasure against more complicated libel actions and at the same time to balance and integrate the relationship between libel laws and freedom of speech, and this may be implemented through the harmonisation processes.

This book explores the history of the debate, from 1915 to the present, about the meaning of academic freedom, particularly as concerns political activism on the college campus. The book introduces readers to the origins of the modern research university in the United States, the professionalization of the role of the university teacher, and the rise of alternative conceptions of academic freedom challenging the professional model and radicalizing the image of the university. Leading thinkers on the subject of academic freedom—Arthur Lovejoy, Angela Davis, Alexander Meiklejohn, Edward W. Said, among others—spring to life. What is the relationship between freedom of speech and academic freedom? Should communists be allowed to teach? What constitutes unacceptable political "indoctrination" in the classroom? What are the implications for academic freedom of creating Black Studies and Women's Studies departments? Do academic boycotts, such as those directed against Israel, violate the spirit of academic freedom? The book provides the context for these debates. Instead of opining as a judge, the author discloses the legal, philosophical, political, and semantic disagreements in each controversy. The book will appeal to readers across the social sciences and humanities with interests in scholarly freedom and academic life. The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.

This book argues that academic freedom in higher education in East Asia, the U.S. and Australia is under stress. Academic freedom means freedom to teach, research, and serve in multiple political and social roles based on professional principles. It is closely linked to shared governance, in which academics participate in and influence decision making in core academic concerns such as choosing new faculty, faculty promotion, tenure decisions and the approval of new academic programs. In different countries and regions, the duress confronting academic freedom may come from different directions, and the ability of faculty to share power can vary greatly. In authoritarian mainland China, it is mostly political and ideological controls that greatly affect academic freedom, and shared governance is very much limited. In semi-democracies like Hong Kong and Macau and democracies like Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, the U.S. and Australia, corporatization and commercialization have had great impact on both academic freedom and shared governance. The result is that the roles professors play within academia are continually being diminished and the academic profession is struggling to maintain its ground. Similar developments are also occurring in Europe. These developments should cause great concern to educators, researchers and policymakers everywhere. The authors collected here present attempts to learn from current practice in order to move policy into directions that will help protect higher education as a common good. This book highlights the importance of academic freedom and provides insights into the ways it is being infringed both by commercialization and corporatization on the one hand and political repression on the other. It vividly illustrates detailed case studies and empirical data that make it a compelling read.- Professor Ruth Hayhoe, University of Toronto, Canada Academic freedom is as important today as at any time in the last century. The authors point out the challenges that academic freedom faces on a global scale. The import of the book is in its comparative perspective steeped in data and analysis. Thoughtful. Cogent. Compelling. - Professor William G. Tierney and Professor Wilbur-Kieffer, University of Southern California, United States