The free speech bill has finally become law – what happens next?

Very happy that my subs to the FSU have been used wisely. Great stuff.

It's worth noting that the Act covers England and Wales only (for readers in Scotland and Northern Ireland).

I think that this is an ill thought out act. Rather than increasing ‘freedom’ it is doing the opposite for some aspects.

The first half of this article is just a sales pitch by lawyers. Strangely, a lawyer who "specialises in academic freedom cases" thinks universities should spend lots of money consulting them...

What is mystifying are the objections to this. A free speech culture surely must be the heart and soul of any legitimate University. All this act really does is provide a fair dispute resolution process on occasions where one's Article 10 ECHR rights are breached by such bodies, allowing for them to first be heard by the regulator, and then on, if needed, by a relevant Court. There is an access to justice issue, in that most people won't be able to afford the costs risk of suing a University, who'll no doubt lawyer up at considerable expense. It might be preferable if these cases were to go then on to a Tribunal rather than a Court (e.g. the Upper Tribunal as with the most serious Freedom of Information cases). Or the CPR's could be modified to provide an access to justice regime similar to Aarhus cases. Hopefully the access to justice issue will be addressed sooner rather than later, as that's a fair loophole in it (although the upshot with the current tort is that the University's can't easily challenge a regulators decision under the scheme, because they wouldn't be the 'victim').

Here I don’t continue my lesson, because in Afghanistan we are in the cage. And please help me!