Guest Lecture by Prof. Douglas McKechnie (U.S. Air Force Academy, USA)
We are pleased to invite you to a Guest Lecture by Prof. Douglas McKechnie from the U.S. Air Force Academy, Colorado, United States.
📖 Lecture Topic: “Freedom of Speech - Contemporary Challenges and Constitutional Perspectives”
📅 Date: Tuesday, April 21, 2026
⏰ Time: 13:15 - 15:00 CET
📍 Venue: Faculty of Law and Administration, University of Gdańsk, classroom 2014
Join us to gain valuable insights into freedom of speech and its contemporary constitutional challenges, presented by an experienced academic with an international and comparative perspective.
We warmly welcome all members and friends of our Faculty community to this engaging and thought-provoking session.
Prof. Douglas McKechnie is an award-winning teacher and scholar specialising in constitutional law and theory, with particular emphasis on the intersection of civil liberties and technology. His scholarship, examining how constitutional rights are affected by technological change, has been cited in United States federal district and appellate court decisions. He has received grants for comparative constitutional law research in several European countries and has served both as a Fulbright Scholar and as a Fulbright Specialist in the Slovak Republic.
In the classroom, Professor McKechnie’s teaching is grounded in active learning, encouraging students to engage with legal doctrine through structured problem-solving and informed reasoning. He employs dynamic pedagogy to develop both substantive legal knowledge and critical thinking skills, using interactive methods that require students to analyse complex scenarios, test their reasoning in dialogue with peers, and reflect on alternative interpretations. Before joining the U.S. Air Force Academy, he taught First Amendment law and Civil Procedure at the Appalachian School of Law and practised law in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, litigating labour law and free speech cases.
He holds a Juris Doctor (cum laude) from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science (summa cum laude) from Ohio University.
Professor McKechnie is currently Professor in the Department of Law at the U.S. Air Force Academy, Colorado. He previously served as Associate Professor in the same institution, and earlier as Assistant Professor and Associate Professor at the Appalachian School of Law in Virginia.
His distinctions include the U.S. Air Force Academy’s Outstanding Academy Educator Award, the Superintendent’s Faculty Performance Award, several Dean of Faculty Research Grants for comparative constitutional law projects conducted in Poland, Lithuania, and Croatia, as well as Fulbright Scholar and Fulbright Specialist awards.
His research focuses on constitutional law, especially the relationship between technology and civil liberties from doctrinal, theoretical, and comparative perspectives. Among his publications are Choosing Between the State and Social Media as the Arbiter of Decency and Truth (2024), The Unhealthy Necessity of Constitutional Court Independence(2022), and National Security Law (with Eric Merriam, 2020).