23 October 2026
“Police Violence Is Deeply Entrenched in France”
France has been gripped by protests and violence for weeks. One of our authors witnessed last Saturday’s demonstrations firsthand. Carina Bury is a German-French legal scholar who completed her PhD in Hamburg and teaches at the Universities of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne and Paris Nanterre. We spoke with her about the ongoing protests, the response of the justice system, and the role of the police in French society. Continue reading >>
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22 October 2026
Repression and Resistance
In less than a month, high school protests over a lack of resources in the Paris suburbs have escalated into a striking wave of police violence and mass arrests. How did a student demonstration over school conditions transform into a major public order crisis? The violence is primarily the result of a political choice by the Ministry of the Interior – prioritising arrests over negotiation – enabled by expanded pre-emptive offences and a hostile image of youth. Continue reading >>09 October 2026
Too Young for Rights, Old Enough to Be Maimed
For weeks, French students taking to the streets for better schools have faced relentless police crackdowns near their classroom gates. Emergency bans and mass arrests have replaced open debate, exposing a glaring contradiction at the heart of French law: a system that uses youth as a pretext to curtail freedom, while offering zero protection from state force. Continue reading >>
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17 October 2025
Speaking Out on Campus
Campus protests have been testing European universities. The demonstrations at Freie Universität Berlin highlighted the tension between seeing universities as open spaces for free speech and regarding them primarily as institutions dedicated to academic discourse. German courts have leaned toward the latter approach, whereas EU law provides a broader scope for academic freedom while still tying it to academic contexts. Although the upcoming European Research Area Act does not appear to address this issue, guidance from EU law could help universities strike a better balance between protecting the right to protest and safeguarding academic freedom. Continue reading >>
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03 May 2024
From Gaza to Manhattan and Back
The real protectors of the universities. Continue reading >>
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