The University of Southampton is legally obliged under the Education (No 2) Act 1986, to ensure that freedom of speech within the law is secured for members, students and employees of the University, as well as for visiting speakers.
We must ensure that academic staff have the freedom within the law to question and test received wisdom, and to put forward new ideas and controversial or unpopular opinions.
For the avoidance of doubt, the University of Southampton is not expressing an opinion or taking any particular standpoint in relation to the conference, ‘International Law and the State of Israel’, but is fulfilling its legal obligations.