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Parliaments in Wartime
Ukraine is under armed attack. What is under attack is not just Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, but also its political independence. To defend Ukraine is to defend constitutional democracy and the rule of law. This blog debate focusses on a central actor in Ukrainian constitutionalism: the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's Parliament. Examining the role of the Verkhovna Rada in armed conflict through a comparative lens, this debate, organised in collaboration with Stiftung Wissenschaft & Demokratie and the Institute for German and International Party and Parliamentary Law (PRUF), provides ideas for the Ukrainian context, and explores the issue more generally.
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Volume 4,Issue 1
April 2022
JUS COGENS
- Liberal Constitutional Democracies in Times of Crisis
CLAUDIO CORADETTI
- Democracy, Constitutionalism, Modernity, Globalisation
CHERYL SAUNDERS
AND MORE ARTICLES…
CURRENT PROJECT
9/11, zwei Jahrzehnte später: eine verfassungsrechtliche Spurensuche
9/11 hat sich zum 20. Mal gejährt. Welche Spuren hat dieses Ereignis in der globalen und nationalen Verfassungs- und Menschenrechtsarchitektur hinterlassen? Dieser Frage gehen wir gefördert von der Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung in einer Folge von Online-Symposien nach und bringen Rechtswissenschaftler:innen aus verschiedenen Regionen und Rechtskulturen ins Gespräch.
Read project's articles >>Konferenz
Am 23. Mai 2022, dem Tag des Grundgesetzes, schließt unsere Blogsymposium-Serie zu zwei Jahrzehnten 9/11 mit einer eintägigen Konferenz in Berlin ab, organisiert von der GFF und finanziert von der BpB.
Nicht verpassen!
Programm hier.
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21 Mai 2022
Verbraucherinteressen als Teil der öffentlichen Ordnung?
Am 28. Mai 2022 erhält das EGBGB erstmals eine eigene Bußgeldvorschrift. Das überrascht auf den ersten Blick. Bußgelder dienen eigentlich der Wahrung der öffentlichen Sicherheit. Doch die neue Vorschrift impliziert ein neues Verständnis des Verbrauchsgüterkaufs, das über den reinen Warenaustausch hinausgeht. Continue reading >>
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Enabling Digital Authoritarianism in the Name of Counterterrorism
Nigeria's transition to a digital economy is in full swing. As terrorism and violent extremism are ravaging certain parts of the country, the mounting insecurity has necessitated huge budgetary allocations to national security, giving way to a new kind of digital authoritarianism. Serious concerns have been raised regarding the misuse of collected data and arbitrary surveillance, which undermine human rights and civic freedoms. Continue reading >>
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Zur völkerrechtlichen Zulässigkeit der Cannabis-Entkriminalisierung
Erlaubt das völkerrechtliche Drogenkontrollregime die von der Bundesregierung geplante Entkriminalisierung des Cannabis-Konsums im Sinne der im Koalitionsvertrag geforderten „kontrollierte[n] Abgabe von Cannabis an Erwachsene zu Genusszwecken in lizenzierten Geschäften“? Die Antwort ist nicht so „eindeutig“ (negativ), wie mitunter suggeriert wird. Ein genauerer Blick in die einschlägigen Verträge sowie die jüngere Staatenpraxis ergibt, dass es entscheidend darauf ankommt, wie eine liberalere Cannabis-Politik konkret ausgestaltet wird. Continue reading >>
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The European Union and Preventive (In)Justice
The expansion of the EU counter-terrorism acquis has signified what I have called the preventive turn in European security policy. Preventive justice is understood here as the exercise of state power in order to prevent future acts which are deemed to constitute security threats. There are three main shifts in the preventive justice paradigm: (i) a shift from an investigation of acts which have taken place to an emphasis on suspicion; (ii) a shift from targeted action to generalised surveillance; and, underpinning both, (iii) a temporal shift from the past to the future. Continue reading >>
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19 Mai 2022
What Culture Wars Hide
The American Conservative Political Action Coalition (CPAC) is meeting in Budapest on 19-20 May. The meeting signals that US conservatives have chosen Hungary as proof of concept for the politics they want. Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is proudly illiberal and proudly politically incorrect. Having won his fourth consecutive election in April with his largest parliamentary majority yet, Orbán demonstrates to American conservatives that his brand of politics can triumph. Continue reading >>
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Those Dazzling Stars of Peace, Democracy and Freedom
In the dark, post-Soviet 1990s, Europe and America were viewed as shining spots by us, the young people, born in the Soviet Union. Embodying the West, they served as dazzling stars, relieving the darkness and promising freedom, security and happiness. I associate the brightest star with the symbol of human rights. I fondly remember myself, as a third-year law student, getting a strong sense of pride over the Chapter Two of the newly adopted Constitution of Georgia that is devoted to human rights. Continue reading >>
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18 Mai 2022
Die nukleare Option als ultima ratio im Ukraine-Krieg
Die nukleare Drohung ist ein ständiger Begleiter des Ukraine-Krieges – von seinen Anfängen über alle bisherigen Wendungen hinweg. Ausgerechnet ein IGH-Gutachten von 1996 hält die Tür zu einem zulässigen Einsatz von Nuklearwaffen einen Spalt weit offen, durch den die russische Föderation mit der Macht der Faktenverdrehung drängt. Es wird Zeit, den Einsatz von Nuklearwaffen pauschal zu ächten und zu verbieten. Continue reading >>
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Die (materielle) Gerechtigkeit vor dem OLG Celle
Das „Gesetz zur Herstellung materieller Gerechtigkeit“ vom 21. Dezember 2021 hat seinen ersten Praxistest bestanden. In einem ausführlich begründeten Beschluss vom 20. April 2022 kam das OLG Celle zu dem Ergebnis, dass das Gesetz in jeder Hinsicht mit dem Grundgesetz vereinbar ist. Continue reading >>GDPR Collective Litigation Against Facebook
The recent CJEU Case C-319/20, Meta Platforms Ireland provides insights on the interpretation of Article 80(2) of the Regulation (EU) 2016/679 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data (GDPR), which regulates representative actions in the data protection field. The Court of Justice specified that actions protecting general interests fall under the scope of Article 80(2) GDPR, but leaves the task unmoved to reconcile this provision with the Directive on Representative Actions (DRA). Continue reading >>
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From the War on Terror to Climate Change
From terrorism and economic crisis, to COVID-19 and climate change; the first decades of the 21st Century have seen democracies lurch from crisis to crisis, implementing legal and political responses to tackle the threat at hand. Many of these ostensibly emergency responses have, however, become permanent, raising profound challenges to the legitimacy of both the constitutional norms impacted by the emergency response, and the emergency response itself. This plea to emergency must, however, be interrogated; Ultimately, what is key to understanding permanent emergencies is not the threat but the decision-maker that claims such an emergency exists. Continue reading >>
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17 Mai 2022
Direct Democracy or Climate Litigation?
The Klimaseniorinnen case has gained worldwide attention since the announcement of the relinquishment in favour of the Grand Chamber. The case is one of many strategic proceedings initiated around the world to sanction inaction or insufficient action by states on climate issues. While the Swiss government claims that the Swiss political system, with its democratic instruments, offers sufficient possibilities for the consideration of such claims, this blog post argues that the Swiss right to initiative alone is not sufficiently effective and therefore not an alternative to legal proceedings. Continue reading >>
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Boda boda registration in Kenya
In Kenya, typical moments during which citizens' rights are limited have followed emergencies, such as terrorist attacks or the COVID-19 pandemic. It is much easier to implement personally invasive policies such as biometric identification under urgency and addressing only a section of the public. A recent incident involving motorcycle taxis in Kenya, popularly known as boda bodas, illustrates this. Continue reading >>
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The other legacy
The 9/11 attacks triggered a new practice of and renewed interest in emergency powers. Without doubt, the United States were at the forefront of the enhanced exercise of such powers, but France is a very interesting example of the many issues and challenges raised by states of emergencies' normalization. France has been governed under a state of emergency for more than half of the time that has elapsed since the attacks of 13 November 2015. Continue reading >>
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16 Mai 2022
A Swedish NATO Membership and Its Constitutional Barriers
After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the debate about a possible NATO membership in Sweden has been intense. The ruling Social Democratic Party was against a membership for a long time, but on Sunday 15 May it changed its position. Now everything points to a Swedish NATO accession and it seems likely that the constitutional barriers for that are surprisingly low: parliamentary approval with a simple majority vote. Continue reading >>
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Climate Change Litigation Before the ECtHR
Verein KlimaSeniorinnen Schweiz and Others v. Switzerland is the first case of climate change litigation before the ECtHR where all domestic remedies have been exhausted. The Chamber to which the case had been allocated relinquished jurisdiction in favour of the Grand Chamber. This reinforces the potential of the case to become a landmark ruling determining the Court’s approach to climate change.
Continue reading >>
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Between Filters and Fundamental Rights
On 26 April 2022 the CJEU delivered its much-awaited judgement in Case C-401/19 – Poland v. Parliament and Council. The case concerns the validity of Article 17 of the Copyright in the Digital Single Market Directive in light of fundamental rights. The judgment marks the climax of a turbulent journey in the area of copyright law, with potential implications for the future of platform regulation and content moderation in EU law. Continue reading >>
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Counter-Terrorism, the Rule of Law and the ‚Counter-Law‘ Critique
The Rule of Law requires that the law be a reliable and non-oppressive guide to how citizens should act: as such, the laws governing every citizen must be rationally knowable and voluntarily followable (and, by extension, open to rational challenge and justification). Tendencies in counter-terrorist legislation clearly run counter to the Rule of Law thus understood. Every move away from knowable and followable laws is a move away from it. Continue reading >>
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14 Mai 2022
