Location, Location, Justification
Europe is in a housing crisis. Short-term rentals are an important driver of this issue, prompting cities like Amsterdam, Barcelona and Paris to restrict them. But under which conditions can they do that? Within six weeks, the EU has produced two texts answering that same question: the proposed Affordable Housing Act and the CJEU’s Smartflats decision. These texts make it considerably more difficult for governments to restrict short-term rentals.
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Stonewall-Vibes in Berlin
Am 18. Oktober 2026 durchsuchten 38 Polizeikräfte das Gesundheits- und Gemeindezentrum „Casa Kuà“ in Berlin. Diese Razzia hat die queere Community weit über Berlin hinaus in Aufregung versetzt. Casa Kuà ist ein Gemeinschaftsort in Berlin für gegenseitige Unterstützung, Austausch, regelmäßige Treffen, Workshops. Casa Kuà leistet einen wichtigen Beitrag zur Schadensminderung für trans* Personen in einem diskriminierenden Gesundheitssystem. Statt trans*affirmative Gesundheitsversorgung mit Razzien staatlich zu unterdrücken, sollte sie niedrigschwellig im Regelsystem der gesetzlichen Krankenkassen verankert werden.
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When Statistics Replace Rights
The EU’s New Pact on Migration and Asylum, entered into force in June 2026. The Asylum Procedures Regulation (APR) introduces a new crucial feature: a statistical threshold based on Eurostat data from the previous year that places applicants from countries with low asylum recognition rates into mandatory accelerated procedures. LGBTQI+ refugees are an especially vulnerable group, because many of these low-recognition countries are not safe for SOGIESC minorities.
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The Clock That Has Yet to Start Ticking
More than fifty years after they were allegedly tortured by the Shah’s secret police, three Iranian men are seeking justice in a Florida courtroom. In a landmark ruling, a US federal court has allowed their claims to proceed, finding that the statute of limitations has yet to begin running. But the case reaches far beyond the courtroom. It challenges a vision of Iran’s future that seeks justice for the Islamic Republic’s crimes while leaving the Shah’s repression in the past.
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A Renewed Mandate to Do Better
On 4 November 2026, ten days after Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva won a fourth presidential term, the Brazilian COP30 Presidency published two roadmaps: one on transitioning away from fossil fuels and one on halting and reversing deforestation by 2030. Brazil had promised them at the close of COP30 in Belém, after efforts to include a reference to a fossil fuel roadmap in the negotiated outcome failed. Both documents are voluntary and sit outside the formal UN process. Yet they also set a benchmark against which Brazil’s own record can be read.
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MMA Fighters Will Not Restore the Rule of Law
On 30 October 2026, Constitutional Tribunal judge, Anna Korwin-Piotrowska, decided to suspend the President and Vice-President of the Constitutional Tribunal. In a recent post on Verfassungsblog, Kim-Lane Scheppele, Laurent Pech and Maciej Kisilowski praised this move as lawful and necessary to restore the rule of law. In this post I present a different view. I argue that the legality of the order is doubtful and that to truly heal the Tribunal something else is needed – a rebuilding of its legitimacy, credibility and authority.
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Die Pflicht, zu denunzieren
Seit der Landtagswahl in Sachsen-Anhalt ist die Resilienz demokratischer Institutionen in aller Munde. Für so eine Resilienz ist das Berufsbeamtentum mitentscheidend. Daher stellt sich die Frage, ob Beamte bestimmte Dienstvergehen aus dem Kollegenkreis melden müssen, um präventiven Schutz vor verfassungsfeindlichen Kräften innerhalb des Staatsdienstes zu gewährleisten. Eine Entscheidung des Bundesverwaltungsgerichts aus der jüngeren Vergangenheit spricht dafür, dass eine solche „Denunzierungspflicht“ existiert, wenn sich Kollegen gegen die freiheitliche demokratische Grundordnung betätigen.
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Brazil’s Democracy Tomorrow
A historic runoff election took place in Brazil last month. Lula da Silva defeated the far-right candidate Flávio Bolsonaro by nearly 4.4 million votes. The outcome of this election provides an opportunity to take stock of the resilience of Brazilian democracy and the challenges it continues to face. Its future urgently depends on stronger institutions and a strategic reduction of excessive decision-making powers concentrated in individual actors.
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Where the Anger Remains
It is Tuesday afternoon, late October, and a few hundred people have gathered on Rruga e Durrësit in Tirana, the capital of Albania. They stand around in small groups, talking and smoking. Some are waving the Albanian flag. Every now and then, someone starts a chant. As a visitor who has stumbled upon the gathering by chance, I find the scene remarkably peaceful. The only reminders that the protests have not always been this way are three rubbish bins, apparently set alight out of habit and the façade of the Ministry of Education. It is against this façade that the anger of many Albanians has erupted – anger that has specifically Albanian roots on the one hand, but is also part of a broader European context, and for which Germany has long lacked any sustainable form of public expression.
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Wo die Wut bleibt
Es ist Dienstagnachmittag, Ende Oktober, und auf der Rruga e Durrësit in Tirana, der Hauptstadt Albaniens, haben sich ein paar Hundert Menschen versammelt. Sie stehen in Grüppchen zusammen, reden, rauchen, manche von ihnen schwenken die albanische Flagge. Auf mich, der ich hier nur zu Besuch bin, wirkt das alles erstaunlich friedlich. Das Einzige, was an diesem Tag noch darauf schließen lässt, dass die Proteste das nicht immer waren, sind die drei Mülltonnen, die man wohl aus Gewohnheit angezündet hat, und die Fassade des Bildungsministeriums. An dieser Fassade hat sich eine Wut vieler Albaner:innen entladen, die einerseits spezifisch albanische Wurzeln hat, andererseits aber eben auch in einem europäischen Kontext steht – und für die man in Deutschland schon lange keine nachhaltige öffentliche Form mehr findet.
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CURRENT DEBATES
Wenn es ernst wird: Recht zwischen Wehrfähigkeit und Bündnisfall
Die Verteidigungsfähigkeit der Bundesrepublik ist zu einer zentralen politischen Frage geworden. Hybride Bedrohungen, der russische Angriffskrieg gegen die Ukraine und die strategische Neuausrichtung der Vereinigten Staaten zeigen, wie dringend eine Neubefassung mit Sicherheit und Verteidigung ist, insbesondere im Verfassungsrecht. Dieses Symposium fragt, ob die wehrverfassungsrechtlichen Regelungen des Grundgesetzes ihr Versprechen einer effektiven Landes- und Bündnisverteidigung halten. Das betrifft etwa den Parlamentsvorbehalt oder die Vorschriften, die im Spannungsfall aktiviert werden und zum Teil erhebliche Grundrechtseingriffe mit sich bringen. Das von Kathrin Groh, Jasper Nebel und Moritz von Rochow redigierte Symposium gliedert sich in drei Stufen. Es beginnt mit den rechtlichen Grundlagen der Verteidigungsbereitschaft (Vorbereitung) und widmet sich dann Bedrohungslagen unterhalb der Kriegsschwelle (Hybride Bedrohung). Den Abschluss bildet der Ernstfall im engeren Sinne (Ernstfall): Angriff, Bündnisfall und die Rolle einer gemeinsamen europäischen Verteidigung.
Read all articles >>Reflexive Globalisation and the Law: Expanding and Deepening its Understanding
On the first anniversary of the Centre for Advanced Studies Reflexive Globalisation of the Law (RefLex) at Humboldt Universität zu Berlin and continuing the debate initiated with a first symposium that set the scene, this collection of blog posts showcases the research projects of the Centre's first cohort of fellows. Spanning across different fields and regions, the contributions share a common engagement with the Centre's central idea and research agenda, that is the premise that the globalisation of law and legal discourse has entered a reflexive phase in which law and the production of knowledge about law are increasingly understood not as one-way exports from or within the Global North but as dynamic, multidirectional exchanges that confront colonial legacies, epistemic hierarchies, and enduring asymmetries of power. Co-edited by Philipp Dann, Florian Jeßberger and Johannes Socher, the symposium kicks off with a live stream of the Centre's first annual lecture, followed by a series of posts that illustrate how the understanding of this premise has developed, further expanded, and been put to test over the first year of RefLex.
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Volume 7,Issue 2
July 2025
JUS COGENS
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Killing Hitler Word by Word: The Oath as Apocalyptic Lawmaking
GREGOR NOLL
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Adjudicating Climate Protest as a Tool of Modern Republicanism
DMITRII KUZNETSOV
OUR LATEST PUBLICATION
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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.
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EDITORIAL
Where the Anger Remains
It is Tuesday afternoon, late October, and a few hundred people have gathered on Rruga e Durrësit in Tirana, the capital of Albania. They stand around in small groups, talking and smoking. Some are waving the Albanian flag. Every now and then, someone starts a chant. As a visitor who has stumbled upon the gathering by chance, I find the scene remarkably peaceful. The only reminders that the protests have not always been this way are three rubbish bins, apparently set alight out of habit and the façade of the Ministry of Education. It is against this façade that the anger of many Albanians has erupted – anger that has specifically Albanian roots on the one hand, but is also part of a broader European context, and for which Germany has long lacked any sustainable form of public expression.
VB SECURITY AND CRIME
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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.