International Summer School on Liberty

Venue: Motovun, Croatia
Period: July 14-26, 2013
Application deadline: July 7, 2013

The theme of the summer school  is “Liberty, Equality and Fraternity”. The question that the summer school sets out to answer is what remains of these core values in Europe in the 21st century? How can the principles as laid out in the motto of the French Revolution help us enlighten contemporary tensions between rights and plights, positive and negative freedom, the right to national self-determination and the subjection to international (European) law, treaties and conventions? How does the liberty of free movement of people between and towards EU nation-states relate to the growing tendency of closing borders, not only territorial ones but also mentally in attitudes towards ‘strangers among us’? Is the revolutionary spirit of today somewhere else and has the battle cry of 1789 lost much of its lustre, in particular among those European citizens that seem to be disillusioned by the political system and have lost much of their initial optimism over the European project? In sum, what does the future hold for Europe’s founding ideas?
The challenges raised by an assessment of the contemporary relevance of ‘Liberty, Equality and Fraternity’ cannot be addressed from any national viewpoint, or from any one disciplinary perspective. That is why the Summer School adopts a multidisciplinary approach, embracing view points from different disciplines such as History, Anthropology, Sociology, Law and Political Science.

Students will receive an official Transcript of Records, number of ECTS (5), and other information about the course.

The contribution for the 13-day-residential stay including accommodation, full board (except Saturday and Sunday), course materials, cultural programme and excursion amounts to 600 €. 
Students from the Host University pay a non-residential rate as they do not require accommodation.
Once accepted, students must pay a 50 euro non-refundable deposit within four weeks of being accepted. Failure to do so will be interpreted as turning down the offer and a place will be offered to another student on the waiting list. Accepted students must pay the balance of the 600 euro participation fee (ie 550 euros) before May 31st. The participation fee will not be returned if the student cancels after May 31st.
Students belonging to the Erasmus Intensive Programme Project, i.e. Ankara (Middle East Technical University), Antwerp, Aarhus, Belfast, Bologna, Bratislava, Budapest (Eötvös Loránd Tudományegyetem), Brno, Cork, Graz, Krakow, Leipzig, Ljubljana, Madrid, (University of) Rijeka, Utrecht and Vilnius are entitled to receive a partial reimbursement of their travel costs, provided they comply with the requirements of the School and provide required documentation. Students from the host university cannot receive any reimbursement for travel.
Utrecht Network member universities have been encouraged to contribute towards these costs by making an extra student grant available. Students are requested to contact the international relations office of their university in order to apply for this scholarship where possible.

Further information on the application procedure can be found on the official website of the Summer School.

Hosting institution: Rijeka University

Academic Committee
Koen De Feyter – University of Antwerpen (BE)
Vesna Crnic-Grotic- University of Rijeka (HR)
Gerrit Dielissen– University of Utrecht (NL)
Jan Ifversen – Aarhus University (DK)
Katerina Uhlirova – University of Brno (CZ)
Rory O’Connell – University of Belfast (UK)
Jernej Pikalo – University of Ljubljana (SI)
FedericaTarabusi – University of Bologna (IT)

Utrecht Network Task Force Summer School
Katja Cerjak – University of Ljubljana (SI)
Patricia De Clopper – University of Antwerp (BE)
Alain Higgins – University of Lille-USTL (FR)
Sabine Pendl—University of Graz (AT)
Svend Poller – University of Leipzig (DE)
Gianluca Bolelli, University of Bologna (IT)

Local Organizing Committee

Academic Director:s
Vesna Crnic-Grotic, Rijeka University
Email:vesnacg@pravri.hr

Koen de Feyter, Antwerp University
Email:koen.defeyter@ua.ac.be

Gerrit Dielissen, Utrecht University
Email:g.b.m.dielissen@uu.nl

Project Coordinator:
Gerrit Dielissen