Penn Calendar Penn A-Z School of Arts and Sciences University of Pennsylvania

FREE SPEECH BATTLES - Boycotts and Free Speech: BDS and Beyond (Panel)

Thursday, November 19, 2020 - 6:00pm to 8:00pm

Online - Go here for all event updates and registration links
Co-sponsored by the SNF Paideia Program.

BOYCOTTS OF CONSUMER GOODS as a means of applying political pressure have been part of American life since the first rumblings of the American Revolution. The Montgomery Bus Boycott and the movement to divest from South Africa demonstrated the continuing salience of this strategy. Recently, however, the call by the BDS movement to boycott, divest from, and sanction businesses and organizations associated with the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza has been met by state laws outlawing such actions. Ethicist BRIAN BERKEY (Wharton School) and legal scholars GENEVIEVE LAKIER (University of Chicago Law School) and AMANDA SHANOR (Wharton School) examine the First Amendment issues at play in this and similar conflicts.