ABOUT THE CONFERENCE PROGRAMME SPEAKERS
Ecclesiastical Law and the Origin of University Autonomy
Presentation by Assist. Prof. Ivan Obadić, PhD
University autonomy is a consequence of the civilizational need to protect academic freedoms in research, teaching and publishing. Academic freedoms are the goal, and autonomy is only a means and institutional reflection of academic freedom that belong to an individual. Academic freedoms therefore require a high degree of university autonomy because it greatly substantiates the existence of academic freedoms.
It is well established that academic freedoms emerged with the first academic revolution, initiated at the beginning of the 19th century in Prussia by Wilhelm von Humboldt. The Humboldtian university model starts from the principle of the unity of science, unity of scholarship, and academic freedoms of university professors and students. However, universities as institutions have a significantly longer history. Universities were born in Europe approximately nine centuries ago. They stem from the system of education developed in the late Antiquity, during the Middle Ages, and at Modern-Period ecclesiastical and secular universities. In Europe during the Modern Period, universities arose as unions of professors and students (hence the name universitas) relatively independent of the Church as the founder or civil authority. They were established by papal bulls, royal charters or decisions of cities, granting them special privileges, including the independence from the worldly jurisdiction.
Starting from the University (end of the 11th century), the principle of university autonomy was established. That autonomy enabled the most knowledgeable persons, not politics or the government, to decide on the contents of study programme in agreement with students. It also enabled universities to appoint their own professors. The important of their status is also demonstrated by the document signed by the Roman-German Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa, titled Authentica habita or Privilegium scholasticum, the fundamental charter of medieval universities incorporated into the Code of Justinian, confirmed by Pope Alexander III. It legally formalised the special status enjoyed by university professors, roughly equated with the immunities and freedoms enjoyed by the clergy (among other things, professors had the right to be judged by heads of the academic community or ecclesiastical courts, not civil/state courts). Pope Gregory IX went one step further with his 1231 bull titled Parens scientarum, which further guaranteed the autonomy and self-government of the University of Paris.
The presentation will expound on the role of the Church in the establishment and development of medieval universities as well as some of the basic legal sources necessary for the understanding of the complex relationship between the ecclesiastical (and secular) authority and universities, the framework of their autonomy as well as the incipient concept of academic freedoms, which are increasingly more jeopardised in contemporary societies.
Key words: ecclesiastical law, university, university autonomy, academic freedom, the Middle Ages
