Drones and morality – European University Viadrina organizes conference on security and freedom with online transmission

"The drones above me and the moral law within me - (in)security and freedom in the 21st century" - this is the title and topic of an international conference hosted by Mykolas Romeris University (Vilnius) together with the European University Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder) on Thursday, April 18, 9.00 a.m. to 4.30 p.m. (local time, German time: 10.00 a.m. to 5.30 p.m.). The English-language conference, which will take place in Vilnius and as an online broadcast, is supported by the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Lithuania. The program can be followed on the Youtube channel of Mykolas Romeris University (link).

Law, philosophy and political scientists as well as human rights activists from Canada and the USA, Ukraine, Lithuania, Poland, Turkey, France, Spain, Great Britain, Poland and Germany will discuss the current situation of human rights and the rule of law in Europe against the backdrop of current threats and uncertainties, such as Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine.
The speakers at the opening include the Deputy Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany to Lithuania, Dr. Cornelius Zimmermann, the Prosecutor General of Ukraine, Andriy Kostin, and Oleksandra Matviichuk, Director of the Ukrainian human rights organization Center for Civil Liberties.

The subsequent speakers include Viadrina lawyer Prof. Dr. Stefan Haack, who will talk about the "Connection between dignity, autonomy and liberal democracy in the case law of the German Federal Constitutional Court".

The conference is being held as part of the European Reform University Alliance (ERUA). Since November 2023, the European University has been a member of this alliance of eight universities, which stretches from the Canary Islands to France, Poland, Bulgaria and Greece. https://erua-eui.eu

About the conference

The conference will focus on three current anniversaries: the 300th birthday of the moral philosopher Immanuel Kant, born in 1724, the 75th anniversary of the founding of NATO and the 20th anniversary of the European Union's eastward enlargement.

The first panel of the conference is therefore dedicated to the question of what role freedom and security play in Kant's moral philosophy and what implications it can have for the analysis of universal values that are currently under pressure, such as human rights and autonomy.

The second panel will look at the current situation of human rights and constitutional democracies in Europe against the backdrop of NATO, which was founded 75 years ago to protect freedom and security, and the 20th anniversary of the EU's eastward enlargement. In their contributions, the speakers will examine, for example, the current role of NATO in view of Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine and the current situation and protection of human rights in the European member states.

For the full program: PDF (Download)