The Red Lines of European Society
The Court of Justice ruled on 21 April 2026 that the Hungarian law portraying non-heterosexual and non-cisgender persons as dangerous violates the values enshrined in Article 2 TEU. The decision is historic. We focus on what we see as its two central innovations. First, after years of academic controversy, there is now clarity: Article 2 TEU itself is a justiciable provision that sets enforceable red lines as a separate ground in infringement proceedings. And second, the Court advances a collective singular to which it attributes the EU legal order: European society.
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Deregulating Better Regulation
The European Commission's Communication A Simpler, Clearer and Better Enforced EU Rulebook is the most structurally ambitious reform of EU policymaking since the launch of the Better Regulation agenda in 2002, extending its scope for the first time beyond the design of new initiatives to cover their review and enforcement. The Communication reveals a coherent but constitutionally problematic logic. The EU Commission’s procedural safeguards are relaxed upstream, existing EU law is systematically reviewed midstream, and EU law enforcement federalised downstream, all under the legitimising banner of Better Regulation.
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Ein Mandat zur Selbstbegrenzung
Der Wahlsieg der TISZA in Ungarn ist historisch. Gerade deshalb verlangt er politische Zurückhaltung. Denn auch die von TISZA errungene Zweidrittelmehrheit ist nicht einfach Ausdruck eines schrankenlosen gesellschaftlichen Konsenses, sondern Ergebnis eines Wahlrechts, das bereits in vergangenen Wahlzyklen die jeweils stärkste politische Kraft unverhältnismäßig stark belohnte. Wie es zu diesem Umstand kam, verrät ein Blick in die Geschichte der ungarischen Wahlgesetze seit dem Systemwechsel von 1989/90.
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Heavy Artillery, Light Reasoning
In its judgment of 21 April 2026 in Commission v. Hungary (C-769/22), the CJEU took the decisive step: its “value turn”. The Court for the first time applied Article 2 TEU as an autonomous and standalone review standard. The judgment deploys what might be called heavy artillery. Yet, the firepower of the instrument stands in uneasy tension with the lightness of the reasoning marshalled to justify its use. Nonetheless, the critical observations advanced by Riedl ultimately underestimate both the structural logic of the EU legal order and the functional mandate of the Court.
Continue reading >>Parlamentsvorbehalt für Angriffskriege
Ramstein Air Base ist nicht nur ein logistisches Drehkreuz der US Air Force. Der Stützpunkt ist auch das Epizentrum einer schleichenden Erosion des grundgesetzlichen Friedensgebots im Zuge des Iran-Krieges. Die Bundeswehr legt das Bundesverfassungsgericht als „Parlamentsheer“ an eine kurze Leine. Für die Unterstützung alliierter Militäroperationen von deutschem Boden aus gilt dagegen exekutives Faustrecht. Wenn Deutschland durch Überflugrechte und logistische Unterstützung zum Gehilfen völkerrechtswidriger Gewalt wird, ist dies aber keine Frage diplomatischer Zweckmäßigkeit, sondern eine Verfassungsfrage.
Continue reading >>(K)eine Frage der Zurechnung
Das Bundesverwaltungsgericht hat am 26. März 2026 entschieden, wann eine Partei den Austritt einer Kommune aus einer „Allianz gegen Rechtsextremismus" verlangen kann. Die entwickelten Maßstäbe sind in vielem zustimmungswürdig. Doch das Gericht begreift die Frage als Problem der Zurechnung privater Äußerungen zum Staat. Das ist dogmatisch falsch und politisch folgenreich. Anknüpfungspunkt kann nur die staatliche Förderentscheidung selbst sein. Die Zurechnungskonstruktion verschleiert das und sorgt für Unklarheit, gerade bei denjenigen, die der Staat finanziell oder durch Mitgliedschaften fördert.
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Mistaking the Tree for the Forest
More than six decades after the assassination of the first prime minister of the newly independent Congo, Patrice Lumumba, and his collaborators Maurice Mpolo and Joseph Okito, Étienne Davignon is the only defendant to stand trial before a criminal court for colonial-era war crimes. The Lumumba litigation marks a historic step forward. But it risks producing the illusion of a legally contained resolution of the colonial past – by individualizing responsibility for a structural crime and offering the Belgian state an opportunity for self-absolution.
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Pioneers Wanted
With full-scale war on the European continent and doubts about US support, the EU still treats this existential security crisis like a regular bureaucratic undertaking. It is against this backdrop that Commissioner Kubilius is expected to engineer a genuine European Defence Union – and in our view, raising the right legal questions amounts to answering them: differentiated integration, pursued by a core group of willing member states, is the way forward.
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An Off-Ramp for the Plaumann Paradox
On 16 April 2026, AG Ćapeta delivered an Opinion in the Medel case (C-555/24) on the standing of NGOs to bring actions for annulment under conditions that they are directly and individually concerned. Instead of copying the ECtHR’s approach in KlimaSeniorinnen, she gives an elegant and simple spin to the Plaumann formula. At its core, AG Ćapeta recognises that associations protecting collective interests have a separate identity of their own with a distinct interest. The Opinion gives the Court an argumentative avenue to finally amend its self-inflicted access to justice paradox.
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Invisible by Design
The EU AI Act will fail to adequately protect trans asylum seekers because it regulates system outputs while the harm lies in the binary assumptions that make their exclusion appear technically compliant. When the Act’s high-risk regime becomes fully applicable on August 2nd, 2026, AI systems for automated decision-making in migration and asylum processes will need to meet stricter compliance requirements. This is an advance in regulatory and constitutional accountability under the EU Charter. It nonetheless leaves untouched the administrative architecture the Act takes for granted.
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CURRENT DEBATES
Reflexive Globalisation and the Law
In October 2025, a new Centre for Advanced Studies was established at the Humboldt University of Berlin’s Law Faculty. Named “Reflexive Globalisation and the Law: Colonial Legacies and their Implications in the 21st Century” (RefLex), the Centre explores the premise that the globalisation of law and legal discourse has entered a reflexive phase: one in which law and knowledge production about law are less and less one-directional exports from or within the Global North but rather dynamic, multidirectional exchanges that confront colonial legacies, epistemic hierarchies, and enduring asymmetries of power. This blog symposium, co-edited by Philipp Dann, Florian Jeßberger, and Kalika Mehta, aims to present and extend these interactions to a broader, accessible dialogue with a wider community beyond the university setting. Featuring contributions from a range of different disciplines and regions, the symposium serves as a public prelude to its official launch, which can be watched live here.
Read all articles >>Wem gehört die Wissenschaft?
Wem gehört die Wissenschaft – und wem sollte sie gehören? Obwohl Wissen als öffentliches Gut prinzipiell unbegrenzt teilbar ist, wird der Zugang zu wissenschaftlichen Publikationen und Infrastrukturen durch ökonomische und rechtliche Strukturen beschränkt. Zwischen kommerziellen Verlagsmodellen, staatlicher Finanzierung und Community-getragenen Open-Access-Initiativen stellen sich grundlegende Fragen nach Eigentum, Verantwortung und Unabhängigkeit wissenschaftlicher Arbeit. Das Blog-Symposium „Wem gehört die Wissenschaft?“ greift diese Frage auf und beleuchtet Facetten der Organisation von Wissenschaft als Gemeingut, der Eigentums- und Machtverhältnisse im Publikationssystem und der Bedingungen offener und freier Wissensproduktion.
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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
Jakob Gašperin Wischhoff, Till Stadtbäumer (eds.)
In Good Faith: Freedom of Religion under Article 10 of the EU Charter
Freedom of religion, its interaction with the prohibition of discrimination, and the self-determination of churches are embedded in a complex national and European constitutional framework and remain as pertinent and contested as ever. This edited volume examines the latest significant developments from an EU perspective, placing freedom of religion at the centre of analysis and critically assessing its operationalisation and interpretation in light of the EU Charter.
Discover the Open Access digital edition here.
PROJECTS
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.
Das Justiz-Projekt
Weltweit gerät die unabhängige und unparteiische Justiz unter den Druck des autoritären Populismus.
Wie verwundbar ist die rechtsprechende Gewalt in Deutschland – im Bund und in den Ländern?
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.
EDITORIAL
Making Abuse More Costly
What happens when executive power in a German federal state falls into the hands of authoritarian populists? Everyone knows by now that this can happen – and will, perhaps rather soon. Elections are scheduled in Saxony-Anhalt and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania in September; within six months, the AfD could control two of Germany’s 16 state justice ministries. We are taking a close look: with additional editorial capacity, we will follow both states
Continue reading >>Den Missbrauch teurer machen
Was passiert, wenn in einem deutschen Bundesland die Exekutivgewalt in autoritär-populistische Hände fällt? Jeder weiß mittlerweile, dass das passieren kann – wahrscheinlich schon ziemlich bald. In Sachsen-Anhalt und Mecklenburg-Vorpommern wird im September gewählt; in einem halben Jahr könnte die AfD zwei der 16 Landesjustizministerien kontrollieren. Wir schauen genau hin: Mit zusätzlichen Kapazitäten in der Redaktion begleiten wir beide Länder vor, während und nach den Wahlen – in einer eigenen Spotlight-Sektion
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