The video meeting link will be sent in advance over the network mailing list. Sign up to the mailing list to be updated.
Event suggestions are welcome!
Upcoming Events
Upcoming events for Summer/Autumn 2026 will be uploaded soon!
Past Events
23 April 2026 – ‘Social Media and the right to freedom of thought’. Chaired by Bethany Shiner, this panel event will hear 10-15 minutes presentations from Richard Mackenzie-Gray Scott (Bonavero Institute of Human Rights at the University of Oxford), Nina Keese (Turkey Human Rights Litigation Support Project, Middlesex University) and Christoph Bublitz (University of Hamburg), with Kelly Amal Dhru acting as discussant.
26th March 2026 – Dr Elisabeth Steindl (Department for Ethics and Law in Medicine, University of Vienna) featuring her recent book titled “A Datafied Mind: Untangling EU Regulation of Emotion Technology and Neurotechnology“ (Cambridge University Press, 2025).
26th of February 2026 – Kelly Amal Dhru (Max Planck Institute, Heidelberg/University of Hamburg) “The Right to Freedom of Thought and the Background Conception of the Legal Right-holder”.
29th January 2026 – Jose Angel Marinaro (National University of La Matanza, Buenos Aires), Ramiro Gutiérrez (Congressman, Member of the Chamber of Deputies, Argentina) and Faustino Garcia de la Torre Garcia (University of Castilla-La Mancha, Spain) “The Third Habeas: Addressing the Procedural Protection of Human Thought”.
20 November 2025 – Emine Ozge Yildrim-Vranckaert (KU Leuven) “A Contextualized Framework for Freedom of Thought Under the ECHR”. Emine’s talk was based on her chapter published in The Law and Ethics of Freedom of Thought, Volume 2.
23 October 2025 – Kebene Wodajo (ETH Zurich) gave a talk on “The Societal Dimensions of the Right to Freedom of Thought in the Digital Age”. Kebene’s talk was based on her chapter Realising the Societal Dimensions of the Right to Freedom of Thought in the Digital Age through Strategic Litigation published in The Cambridge Handbook of the Right to Freedom of Thought.
25 September 2025 – Marc Blitz (Oklahoma City University) presented his book The right to see with technology: Recording, Augmented Perception, and the Constitution.
10 July 2025 – Sjors Ligthart (Tilburg University) ‘Enslaving minds: On Freedom of Thought and the Exploitation of Mental Vulnerabilities’.
12 June 2025 – Ana Maria D’Ávila Lopes (Professor at the University of Fortaleza (Brazil); CNPq Research Productivity Fellow; Coordinator of the International Network of Neurolaw and Human Rights), and Sebastian Smart (Senior Research Fellow, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, UK.) launched he open-access co-edited book NEUROLAW-Legal Impacts of Neurotechnology.
2 May 2024 – The Right to Freedom of Thought in Africa. A special 90-minute-long panel with presentations from Dr. Victoria Miyandazi (University of St Andrews) and Sfiso Nxumalo (University of Oxford). Harrison Otieno (University of Nairobi), Miracle Mudeyi (University of Nairobi), and Christopher Phiri (University of Turku) will act as discussants and Bethany Shiner will chair the discussion.
7 February 2024 – Patrick O’Callaghan, along with Talya Deibel and Felicitas Benzinger, (all from UCC School of Law) will discuss their Research Project Law and the Inner Self.
17 January 2024 – Christoph Bublitz (University of Hamburg) will trace key developments during the drafting of the Declaration and sketch some lessons for a contemporary interpretation of the right. Prof. Heping Dang (The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen) will explore the distinct Chinese contribution to Article 18.
1 December 2023 – Professor Ahmed Shaheed (previous U.N. Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief (2016-2021), and who dedicated his final report to the right to freedom of thought (under article 18 ICCPR)) kick-starts our series Celebrating 75 anniversary of the UDHR.
30 March 2023 – Sjors Lighart (Tilburg University) will discuss his recent book Coercive Brain-Reading in Criminal Justice: An Analysis of European Human Rights Law (Cambridge University Press, 2022).
13 April 2023 – Sümeyye Elif Biber (University of Luxembourg), Significant Developments in the European Approach to AI: The AI Act, the European Declaration, and the CoE Convention on AI.
25 May 2023 – Nita A. Farahany (Duke) will present her new book The Battle for Your Brain: Defending the Right to Think Freely in the Age of Neurotechnology (St. Martin’s Press, 2023).
8 December 2022 – George Sher will present his recent book A Wild West of the Mind (Oxford University Press, 2021).
24 November 2022 – Susie Alegre will present her new book Freedom to Think: The Long Struggle to Liberate Our Minds (Atlantic, 2022).