Germany’s Shocking Court Ruling Strikes Down Open Access Mandate—What This Means for Academic Freedom and Research Worldwide
On March 24, 2026, in response to a lawsuit by seventeen academics, a German Court ruled that a mandatory article manuscript deposit requirement imposed by the German State of Baden-Württemberg on researchers working or affiliated with educational institutions within the state was void ab initio. The plaintiffs had alleged that the deposit requirement infringed their rights, including the rights to free expression and academic freedom.
This case arose out of the German Copyright Act and relates to the so-called right to “secondary publication right” or “SPR.” SPR, which is currently under consideration by the European Commission, is a bit of a misnomer. SPR essentially provides that an author of a scientific article cannot legally convey exclusive rights in an article without retaining a right to also post the article online, typically in the accepted manuscript form some months after initial publication.
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