The Constitution Meets the Climate
The climate crisis has reached South Africa’s Constitutional Court. A dispute over offshore oil and gas exploration along South Africa’s Wild Coast developed into a much wider constitutional inquiry. The Court brought questions of participation, dignity, culture and environmental protection into conversation with the growing demands of climate responsibility. The judgment illustrates how climate change can acquire constitutional significance without the recognition of a freestanding constitutional right to a stable climate.
Continue reading >>
Nobody Called Karlsruhe Captured
On 24 August 2026, Manfred Weber and Valérie Hayer wrote to Ursula von der Leyen asking the Commission to make the disbursement of Romania’s final tranche of €770 million under the Recovery and Resilience Facility conditional on the fate of a national statute. The letter arrived a week after the Romanian Constitutional Court had ruled on that statute in Decision 883 of 17 August 2026. The letter is right that something is wrong with Decision 883. However, the letter mischaracterises a contested and badly reasoned judgment as the output of a captured institution.
Continue reading >>
Romania’s Retroactive Amendment Constitutionally Upheld
At the end of this month, German-Romanian mayor of Timișoara, Dominic Fritz, is set to lose his mayorship. His removal comes as a consequence of a newly enacted amendment to the law governing Romania’s National Integrity Agency, which violates both the principle of nonretroactivity and the electoral rights of European Union citizens. Urgent action is necessary at Union level in order to prevent serious harm to the values and principles underpinning the Union’s constitutional order flowing from Article 2 of the Treaty on European Union.
Continue reading >>
Poland Tests EU Law Again
Poland is once again testing the procedures and limits of EU law. This time, however, it is doing so under a government that professes its commitment to European integration, whereas the government in office until 2023 chiefly generated political conflicts with the Union. Poland’s place in EU law textbooks will probably become even more secure, but for once an EU law scholar need not find the episode embarrassing. Poland v Court of Justice of the European Union, T-308/26, lodged before the General Court on 21 May 2026, raises important questions about judicial procedure and the Union’s liability.
Continue reading >>
Ja, Nein, vielleicht?
Der Ausgang der Wahl in Sachsen-Anhalt kann zu einer schwierigen Ministerpräsidentenwahl führen. Es ist nicht ausgeschlossen, dass der erste und zweite Wahlgang scheitern und es zu einem dritten kommt. Der dritte Wahlgang ist dabei nicht zwingend der letzte – kann aber Probleme mit sich bringen. Denn die Bestimmung der Abstimmungsmehrheit kann problematisch sein, wenn die Wahlzettel so ausgestaltet sind, wie es schon bei anderen dritten Wahlgängen in der Vergangenheit der Fall war. Stehen sich in diesem Wahlgang mehrere Kandidaten gegenüber, muss der Wahlzettel auch die Option „Nein“ beinhalten, weil es ansonsten für die Abgeordneten nicht möglich ist, gegen alle Kandidaten zu stimmen.
Continue reading >>
Becoming the Sea People
Christopher Nolan’s long-awaited The Odyssey, released in mid-July, is already one of the most successful – and most controversial – films of 2026. The film retells the homecoming of Odysseus, king of Ithaca, after ten years of war at Troy. Odysseus was pivotal to that war, as he devised the famous Trojan horse that allowed the Greeks to enter and destroy the city. I suggest that the film can be read as a reflection on the current state of international law. I am aware that I am not the first to draw this parallel. In contrast to other contributions, however, I read the film from a European perspective as a parable about Europe’s place in a fraying international order and its responsibility to uphold the rules of public international law.
Continue reading >>
Von der Revisions- zur Tatsacheninstanz
Der Entwurf eines Gesetzes zur Reform des Nachrichtendienstrechts sieht neue erstinstanzliche Zuständigkeiten für das Bundesverwaltungsgericht vor. So sollen etwa Klagen gegen eine Einstufung von Personenzusammenschlüssen als Verdachtsfall oder gesichert verfassungsfeindlich sowie die Information der Öffentlichkeit darüber erstinstanzlich vom Bundesverwaltungsgericht entschieden werden. Kyrill-Alexander Schwarz hat im Verfassungsblog diese Zuständigkeitsverschiebung grundsätzlich begrüßt – jedenfalls aus verfassungsrechtlicher Perspektive. Diese Würdigung kann aus der Sicht der Praxis, d.h. der eines mit solchen Fällen befassten Bundesrichters, nicht unwidersprochen bleiben.
Continue reading >>
A Frozen Clock and a Frozen Problem
Brussels, do we have a problem with the AI Act? My answer, in essence, was yes. Actually, more than one: overregulation and excessive demand on high-risk AI systems. In June 2026, when the European Parliament adopted the Digital Omnibus on AI, it seemed Brussels had answered my question in its own way. The language surrounding it – “simplification”, “burden reduction”, “protecting Europe’s competitiveness” – suggested that Mario Draghi’s words in its 2021 Report were somehow heeded. Sadly, the new changes are more cosmetic than real. In reality, Brussels only bought (itself) more time.
Continue reading >>
Wahlrecht als der falsche Hebel
Milad Schubart hat vorgeschlagen, die Fünf-Prozent-Sperrklausel in Sachsen-Anhalt ersatzlos zu streichen. Er hält sie für verfassungswidrig – auch, weil „kompromissbereite Parteien drohen, knapp zu scheitern“, während „kompromissunfähige, obstruktive Parteien weit mehr als 5 % erreichen“. Doch das Grundgesetz lässt kein Wahlrecht zu, das nach politischen Inhalten und der Kompromissfähigkeit der Parteien differenziert. Auch Verfassungsgerichten steht eine inhaltliche Bewertung von Partei- und Wahlprogrammen nicht zu. Wächst die Zahl der Kleinparteien, tritt genau der Fall ein, für den die Sperrklausel gemacht ist.
Continue reading >>Pangloss in Brussels
When it comes to the Commission’s Annual Rule of Law Report, first launched in 2020, the years go by and they all look the same. In its latest edition published last July, the Commission referred to a “broadly positive trajectory” regarding the rule of law in the EU. The year before, the Commission similarly asserted a “positive reform dynamic” and “positive trajectory” in the EU. This phrasing was virtually identical to the one used in 2024 (“positive reform dynamic”) and 2023 (“positive trend”). These claims and figures do not, however, survive close scrutiny.
Continue reading >>
CURRENT DEBATES
Die Vermessung des Verdachts: Automatisierte Datenanalyse und die neue Sicherheitsarchitektur
Automatisierte Datenanalyse verspricht, aus verstreuten Daten ein kohärentes, stimmiges Bild zu machen: Systeme wie Palantirs Gotham verknüpfen für Sicherheitsbehörden Informationen aus unterschiedlichen Quellen, erkennen Muster und machen Zusammenhänge sichtbar. Doch nicht nur die Versprechen, sondern auch die Risiken automatisierter Datenanalyse sind groß. Dieses Symposium vermisst Deutschlands neu entstehende Sicherheitsarchitektur und ihre Folgen für Grundrechte, demokratische Kontrolle und das Verhältnis von Staat und Big Tech.
Read all articles >>Beyond Sovereignty: Rethinking International Law
Thinking Constructively about International Law – a recent paper by Professor Monica Hakimi (Columbia University) – has renewed attention to some of the classic themes and questions of international legal theory: In what sense is international law “law”? How should we think about its existence, efficacy, and justifiability? And do we have to answer these questions through a standard sovereigntist conceptual frame? In this symposium, we engage with Professor Hakimi’s critique of sovereignty and her plea for constructive thinking in international legal theory.
Read all articles >>ADVERTISEMENT
Volume 7,Issue 2
July 2025
JUS COGENS
-
Killing Hitler Word by Word: The Oath as Apocalyptic Lawmaking
GREGOR NOLL
-
Adjudicating Climate Protest as a Tool of Modern Republicanism
DMITRII KUZNETSOV
OUR LATEST PUBLICATION
Christophe Geiger & Bernd Justin Jütte (eds.)
Enabling Access, Fostering Innovation: Towards a Digital Knowledge Agenda in Europe
Access to knowledge and information is essential to foster innovation. In the EU, existing copyright rules pose significant barriers to research and education. Instead of promoting access to knowledge resources, copyright creates legal uncertainty for researchers and educators and enables information intermediaries to exercise strict control over the use of protected works. This edited volume proposes ways out of the copyright conundrum by rethinking copyright as an access right.
Discover the Open Access digital edition here.
EDITORIAL
Wir gehen in die Sommerpause!
Nach arbeitsreichen Monaten verabschieden wir uns in die Sommerpause. Natürlich pausiert nur dieser Newsletter, nicht aber unser Tagesbetrieb. Das sollte Sie wiederum nicht davon abhalten, mal eine Pause zu machen. Wissen Sie noch? Diese kleine Lebenszeit, in der Sie gar nichts machen, keine Sonntagszeitung, kein Scrolling, kein Sudoku, nada! Stattdessen: Stille.
VB SECURITY AND CRIME
In cooperation with:
VB Security and Crime is a cooperation of the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Crime, Security and Law (MPI-CSL) and the Verfassungsblog in the areas of public security law and criminal law. The MPI-CSL Institute is a member of the Max Planck Law network.