Cleveringa Lecture 2022
Cleveringa Lecture 2022
Cleveringa Lecture 2022
5 December 2022, 17:00-18:30
Hall of Patriots, Karolinum, Ovocný trh 5, Prague 1
On 26 November 1940, six months after the Nazi invasion of the Netherlands, Rudolph Cleveringa, Professor of Law at Leiden University, spoke out against the dismissal of his Jewish colleagues, ordered by the occupation authorities. Cleveringa was supported by several of his fellow professors and students, who copied his address and distributed it widely across the Netherlands, including to other Dutch universities. Professor Cleveringa was arrested, students went on strike and as a result, Leiden University was shut down. In commemoration of Cleveringa’s courageous protest speech, an annual Cleveringa Lecture is held in the Netherlands and in many other countries, including the Czech Republic, on themes relating to the rule of law, freedom and responsibility.
Recognising the similarities between Professor Cleveringa’s principled stance against the Nazi occupiers and Vaclav Havel’s refusal to live under the lie of communism, the Netherlands Embassy in Prague joined forces in 2021 with the Václav Havel Library to start a new series of Cleveringa lectures.
The first of these lectures, titled “Freedom is Precious”, was given on 24 November 2021 by Prof. dr. Antoaneta Dimitrova, Professor of Comparative Governance at Leiden University.
The second lecture in this series will take place on 5 December 2022 under the auspices of the Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, H.E. Daan Huisinga, and will be given by Prof. dr. Luuk van Middelaar, Professor of Foundations and Practice of the European Union and its Institutions. After his lecture van Middelaar will engage in a dialogue with Michael Žantovský, Director of the Václav Havel Library, and take questions from the audience.
The event will be hosted by Prof. dr. Milena Králíčková, Rector of Charles University, and will take place in the Hall of Patriots at the Karolinum. The lecture will be given in English and will be live streamed on Havel Channel and Vaclav Havel Library Facebook.
Due to the limited capacity of the Patriotic Hall, reservations must be made through the following link.
