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07 July 2026
Whose European Society?
Commission v Hungary must be understood in the context of the European rule of law saga and the ongoing struggle for true European solidarity. The CJEU confirmed the autonomous justiciability of Article 2 TEU even when the link to specific EU Charter provisions or secondary legislation would already suffice. A close look at ASJP case and its antecedents discloses a European society selectively built – protecting some configurations while leaving others outside – with solidarity, as an operative legal category, consistently among the absences.
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Debating European Society
Antoine Vauchez famously stated that the “constitutionalization of Europe” flourished in the hills of Fiesole. The Academy of European Law (AEL) at the European University Institute organizes an annual Summer Course on the Law of the European Union for two weeks of intensive lectures and exchange. I reflect on this year’s Summer Course as a site where ideas of European society are debated, contested, and further developed. Ultimately, I will critically reflect on what the Summer Course might tell us about the future of EU law.
Continue reading >>06 July 2026
European Society without European Private Law?
Integration Through Law was and remains, in various forms, the major driver of European integration. Constitutional Pluralism arose out of constitutionalisation, counterbalancing the move to neoliberalism in the new millennium. In Commission v Hungary, the Court recognised European society “in which pluralism prevails” as a legal concept. The Court radiates judicial authority at a time when Europe is again in crisis, politically through populism, economically through competitiveness and sustainability, and technologically through dependence on US companies.
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Private International Law and European Society
Can one speak of a European society without speaking about private relations? Recent scholarship on European society has largely approached the concept through the lens of public law. Yet societies are constituted at least as much by the horizontal relations between individuals and groups as by public institutions. This blogpost turns to EU private international law (PIL) and will argue that EU PIL brings into view the importance of coordination frameworks for organising a mode of integration based not on unification, but on interdependence.
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Instrumentalised Migration or an Instrumentalised Court?
Amid pending proceedings before the ECtHR concerning summary expulsions and arbitrary detentions, in a context marked by over 120,000 documented push-backs on the Belarusian border, the Chișinău Declaration seeks to influence the legal framework within which the Court assesses such practices. The Declaration emphasises the fundamental duty of states to protect their borders and maintain national security in the context of instrumentalisation of migration, drawing on “democracy capable of defending itself”. I argue that it is not a task for the Court to carve its decisions based on geopolitical circumstances.
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03 July 2026
A European Society of Constitutional Interpreters
On 21 April 2026, the full court wrote history, finding for the first time a separate infringement of Article 2 TEU. This landmark decision Commission v Hungary is the outcome of a long, public, and controversial process. The activation of Article 2 TEU is much less an act of self‑empowerment than a collective interpretation of the Court, Commission, Member States, civil society, and legal scholarship. Borrowing from Peter Häberle, we can see a European society of constitutional interpreters at work. The contribution tells their story.
Continue reading >>European Society in the Digital Sphere
The judgment in Commission v Hungary facilitates European society in a negative, boundary-setting sense: it identifies what cannot be accommodated within the European framework of shared values. EU digital regulation, by contrast, facilitates European society in a positive, practice-structuring sense: it translates its values into regulatory duties, procedures, and institutional practices. In my intervention, I show how digital regulation can facilitate the circulation of the values underpinning European society and identify the obstacles to building shared European values in the digital sphere.
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02 July 2026
Between and Beyond Regional Perspectives on Climate Change and Human Rights
Climate change has reached the dockets of (international) courts. The intersecting nature of this existential threat has led to a flurry of judicial action – somewhat paradoxically in the absence of meaningful political action. Yet, as case law is proliferating, the discussion about climate change in international adjudication has become highly specialized. Against this background, this contribution shares observations on the emergence of regional climate change law and calls for taking this regional perspective seriously by extending it beyond what is traditionally understood as inter-judicial dialogue.
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01 July 2026
Fundamental Rights Protecting European Society
The central question of the justiciability of Article 2 TEU following Commission v Hungary is inevitably linked to the issue of protection of fundamental rights in the EU legal order. In fact, the judgment could extend the review of EU fundamental rights beyond the scope of Article 51(1) of the EU Charter, as the application of the values set out in Article 2 TEU is not limited to the “implementation of Union law”. In this contribution, I link Commission v Hungary to the debate on Reverse Solange.
Continue reading >>Culture and Law in European Society after Commission v Hungary
The judgment of the CJEU in Case C-769/22 Commission v Hungary is not only about cultural services and their regulation but features several arguments regarding both Hungarian Christian culture and the culture of gender and sexually diverse individuals – what could be called LGBTQI+ culture in general. I reflect on three cultural implications emerging from the case: the societal implication of cultural content, the role of EU law in accommodating national preferences and the limitations of EU law in interacting with cultural practices.
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30 June 2026
Envisioning a Gender-Equal European Society
Among the manifold analyses of Commission v Hungary and a flourishing debate on the realization of a European society based on values, the question of gender has been largely overlooked. We argue that the understanding of a European society which aims to uphold the values of Art. 2 TEU has to be anti-patriarchal. In the following contribution, we apply a feminist methodology – feminist re-writing/re-reading – to the Court’s arguments to carve out hypothetical future orientations for creating a non-patriarchal European society.
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Compelled Decryption of a Mobile Phone
In Minteh v. France, decided in May 2026, the ECtHR held that compelling a suspect to reveal the password to a mobile phone does not violate the right against self-incrimination. And while courts across jurisdictions have adopted different frameworks, the ECtHR unanimously found no violation. In my view, rather than analyzing whether evidence exists independently of the suspect’s will, courts should explore whether the defendant is compelled to actively participate. This approach would tackle why compelling defendants to reveal their passwords is different from taking their fingerprints.
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29 June 2026
A Society of Trust
This contribution investigates a still underexplored element of Commission v Hungary. The judgment undoubtedly matters in terms of the enforceability of Article 2 TEU. Yet its significance reaches further. The Court also recalled that the Union’s common values are linked to one of the central mechanisms of EU law: the principle of mutual trust. I submit that mutual trust should not be understood merely as a technical rule of inter-state recognition but as the horizontal institutional grammar of interdependence within European society.
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26 June 2026
The Dangerous Idea of a European Society Based on Common Values
The CJEU began to treat the values enshrined in Article 2 TEU as justiciable legal norms in its ASJP judgment from 2018. In its 2026 judgment in Commission v Hungary, it took the further step of treating those values as justiciable stand-alone norms and justified that step by invoking the existence of a European society. This contribution approaches the matter from a social-science point of view. I argue that the Article-2-TEU claim of a European society is theoretically unconvincing, empirically untenable, and politically dangerous.
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Not a Return, Rather an Abduction
On 17 June 2026, the European Parliament approved the new so-called Return Regulation with the backing of conservative and far-right groups. Only the Council's final approval is now pending. Under the Regulation, people may be forcibly transferred to a country they have never known or even set foot in. By any ordinary understanding of the term, this has nothing to do with a "return." It bears a much closer resemblance to what most people would call abduction.
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European Society Between Facts and Norms
Article 2 TEU values, such as pluralism, oscillate between descriptive claims, legal normativity, and appeals to European society as a source of authority. From a Habermasian perspective, the democratic legitimacy of EU values enforcement remains difficult to justify in the absence of a robust pan-European deliberative process through which those values can be articulated and contested. At the same time, Commission v Hungary constitutes a legitimate restorative intervention in a dysfunctional democratic process distorted by the stigmatisation of LGBTQ+ persons.
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24 June 2026
European Society at the Italian Constitutional Court
In its recent judgment No. 63/2026, the Italian Constitutional Court acknowledged the existence of a European society grounded on the values in Article 2 TEU. The judgment appears to be the first explicit reference by a constitutional court of an EU Member State to the emergence of a European society. Judgment concerned the constitutionality of recent legislation restricting access to Italian citizenship for descendants of Italians abroad. The passage on European society is an obiter dictum. I argue that its real significance lies in the question: Who belongs to European society?
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23 June 2026
EU Law as the Law of European Society
In its decision Commission v Hungary, the CJEU’s plenary qualified EU law as the “common legal order of a society in which pluralism prevails”. Leaving pluralism aside, this blogpost explores possible meanings of the “of” in the first part of that formula. My exploration sketches four ever more foundational understandings: European society as the social field of EU law; EU law as expressing deep structures of that society; European society as generating EU law; and European society as the source of EU law’s authority.
Continue reading >>22 June 2026
European Society After Commission v Hungary
Since the CJEU published its monumental decision Commission v Hungary on April 21, scholars have already produced an impressive number of analyses. This symposium on ‘European Society after Commission v Hungary’ aims to add to this debate by focusing on the deeper, structural, and so far overlooked implications of this decision for the concept of European society. In this introductory post, we adopt a genealogical approach to the emergence of the research interest in European society and elaborate on its implications and challenges.
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19 June 2026
The Hungarian Transition’s Meaning for European Constitutionalism
The Hungarian transition is not only a Hungarian event. It is a European constitutional moment. The contributions to this symposium have shown how demanding the repair of constitutional democracy after a hybrid regime will be: a new government must restore constitutional supremacy, reconsider cardinal laws, guarantee judicial and prosecutorial independence, reopen markets, reestablish media pluralism, and counter corruption. But there is more. The Hungarian transition can play a crucial role in the development of European constitutionalism itself.
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Keine Rückführung, sondern eine Entführung
Am 17. Juni 2026 hat das Europäische Parlament mit den Stimmen der konservativen und rechtsextremen Fraktionen der neuen sogenannten Rückführungsverordnung zugestimmt. Nun steht nur noch die finale Annahme im Rat aus. Nach der Verordnung können Menschen gegen ihren Willen in ein Land verbracht werden, das sie weder kennen noch jemals betreten haben. Nach allgemeinem Verständnis hat das mit einer Rückführung nichts zu tun. Es passt eher zu dem, was man unter einer Entführung versteht.
Continue reading >>17 June 2026
Post-Illiberal Women’s Rights
Women’s rights turned out to be the litmus test for harms caused by the rule of law backsliding. That is why it is worth analysing the effectiveness of the post-2023 restoration of the rule of law in Poland, focusing specifically on what was visibly undermined by the populists: women’s rights. We argue that the pre-populist negligence in recognising the constitutional status of women’s rights made it easier for populists to attack them. Such negligence can also be identified in the Hungarian context.
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30 April 2026
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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24 March 2026
Vorbehalt Verfassungstreue
Der Ausschluss mehrerer Buchhandlungen vom Deutschen Buchhandlungspreis auf Grundlage verfassungsschutzrelevanter Erkenntnisse hat politische und rechtliche Debatten ausgelöst. Der Fall wirft grundsätzliche Fragen auf, wie Demokratie- und Extremismusschutz mit staatlicher Kulturförderung verbunden werden dürfen und wo die Grenzen der Grundrechte liegen. So dürfen Fördermittel keinesfalls wegen einer politischen Einstellung oder auf Grundlage einer weiten „Extremismustheorie“ verweigert werden. Allenfalls bei einer Verfassungsfeindlichkeit kann ein Ausschluss in Betracht kommen.
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17 March 2026
Wenn Hetze nicht ausreicht
Das Verwaltungsgericht Köln hat dem Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz vorläufig untersagt, die AfD als gesichert rechtsextrem einzustufen. Die Entscheidung beruht teilweise auf der Prämisse, es sei unklar, ob die AfD der Hetze auch Taten folgen lassen wolle. Gleichwohl liefert sie wichtige Impulse: Das Gericht fordert die Nachrichtendienste auf, bisher zurückgehaltene Erkenntnisse zu veröffentlichen, damit Gericht und Öffentlichkeit die tatsächlichen Ziele der AfD besser bewerten können – auch mit Blick auf ein mögliches Parteiverbotsverfahren.
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16 March 2026
Protecting Democracy Through International Law
While the 2023 presidential election marked a pro-democratic turning point for Guatemala, authoritarian forces continue to pressure the newly elected government to this day. In light of this, Guatemala’s pro-democratic government requested an advisory opinion on the protection of democracy and political rights from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. This week, from 17 to 20 March 2026, the IACtHR will convene the public hearings. I argue that Guatemala’s pro-democratic government turned to international law to generate resources for its domestic struggle against national authoritarian forces.
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16 February 2026
Peace by Chairman
Das Board of Peace, gegründet am Rande des Weltwirtschaftsforums in Davos, inszeniert sich als pragmatischer Gegenentwurf zu den Vereinten Nationen. 60 Staaten wurden zur Mitarbeit eingeladen, 21 erklärten ihre Bereitschaft zum Beitritt. In Europa überwog jedoch die Skepsis. In Deutschland ist diese Skepsis auch verfassungsrechtlich begründet: Das Board weist institutionelle Defizite auf, konzentriert Entscheidungsbefugnisse und ist nicht hinreichend an die Mitgliedstaaten rückgebunden.
Continue reading >>21 December 2025
A General Obligation to Monitor
In Russmedia Digital, the ECJ ruled at the beginning of December that in cases dealing with data protection violations, such as defamatory content, the notice-and-takedown procedure should not be applied, but rather that the respective platform is (jointly) liable for illegal content from the publication of the content on. Clearly unaware of the enormous implications of its decision for the freedom of expression and information of millions of users in the EU, the Court is thus demanding the establishment of a comprehensive monitoring system for communication in the digital public sphere.
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08 December 2025
Drohnenabwehr durch die Bundeswehr
Drohnensichtungen beschäftigen die deutsche und europäische Sicherheitspolitik. Da die Polizei Drohnen militärischer Bauart, die in sehr großer Höhe fliegen, nicht effektiv abwehren kann, hat die Bundesregierung nun auf die Situation reagiert und einen Entwurf zur Änderung des Luftsicherheitsgesetzes beschlossen, der Befugnisse der Bundeswehr zur Drohnenabwehr regelt. Der geplante § 15a LuftSiG fügt sich passend in die von der Wehrverfassung vorgegebene Trennung von innerer und äußerer Sicherheit ein.
Continue reading >>05 December 2025
Eine allgemeine Verpflichtung zur Überwachung
Notice-and-takedown ist der Grundsatz, der ein Internet ermöglicht hat, in dem Nutzende auf Plattformen Inhalte veröffentlichen können, ohne dass diese vorab kontrolliert und selektiert werden. In Frage gestellt wird dies durch die Entscheidung des EuGH vom Dienstag in Russmedia Digital. So verlangt der Gerichtshof den Aufbau eines umfassenden Überwachungssystems für Kommunikation im digitalen öffentlichen Raum.
Continue reading >>The ECHR’s Contribution to European Society
On the Convention’s 75th anniversary, this essay highlights its contribution to “European society” as stated in Article 2 TEU. It sketches how the Convention, as operationalized by the Strasbourg institutions, has shaped European society’s constitutional core, provided a general structure of rights, supported a culture of justification, and contributed to making European society democratic. Finally, it speculates on how the Convention’s significance might evolve so that it can be celebrated again at its 100th anniversary.
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The European Convention on Human Rights at 75
In the 75 years of its existence, the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) has proven remarkable resilience as a safeguard for democracy, human rights and the rule of law. With this symposium, we aim to continue thoughtful, constructive and sometimes also critical dialogue between academia and practice, intended to deepen understanding of the impact and influence of the European Convention system on other international and national human rights protection systems – and vice versa.
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30 October 2025
Luxemburgs Lohnfrage
Am 11. November wird es in Luxemburg interessant: Der Europäische Gerichtshof (EuGH) wird sein lange erwartetes Urteil über die im Oktober 2022 verabschiedete Richtlinie über angemessene Mindestlöhne in der Europäischen Union verkünden. Der Fall gibt dem EuGH Gelegenheit, sich zu Umfang und Grenzen der Sozialkompetenzen des Unionsgesetzgebers zu äußern.
Continue reading >>17 September 2025
Learning From Oppressed Groups How to Resist Silently
"Let me put it bluntly, even at the risk of upsetting some colleagues. Although I do not underestimate the mightiness of the brutal, explicit and covert censorship practices at work in countries like France, Germany, and the United States, while also being aware that some colleagues have preferred to act than to speak out, I have been deeply disappointed by the great majority of my tenured peers who have disturbingly remained silent and passive, thus religiously abiding by the bans and suppression practices in place"
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12 September 2025
The Double Effect of “Double Standards”
Both Erosion and Strengthening of International Law
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Doppelfolge der „Double Standards“
Erosion und Stärkung des Völkerrechts zugleich
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08 September 2025
Introducing the Symposium “Knowledge Under Occupation: Academic Freedom and Palestine on the Global Stage”
Pressures on universities and scholars to conform to prevailing political orthodoxies appear to be intensifying, often under the guise of safeguarding neutrality or combating alleged bias. This symposium intends to make a small contribution to re-opening the ever more restricted space for academic freedom and seek to continue to push against closing channels.
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31 August 2025
Overcoming Objections to Overcome the Hungarian Veto
This June, we proposed ways to overcome a Hungarian veto on EU sanctions against Russia. Our proposal prompted Mark Dawson and Martijn van den Brink to write a sharp response, arguing that we had ventured beyond the confines of serious legal scholarship into the realm of the fantastical. Our critics and we seem to live in different realities. When reading Dawson’s and van den Brink’s piece, it feels like the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine does not exist. Yet, there lies an uncomfortable truth at the heart of our proposal, one that our critics fail to recognize: the Russian war might grow into an existential threat to the European Union.
Continue reading >>22 August 2025
„Hass und Hetze bekämpfen“
Äußerungsdelikte rücken zunehmend ins Zentrum von Politik und Justiz, getragen vom Ruf nach härterem Vorgehen gegen „Hass und Hetze“. Die Strafbarkeit wird stetig ausgeweitet – von Volksverhetzung bis zu satirischen Memes mit NS-Bezug. Kritiker sehen darin moralische Tabuisierung und eine Erosion des ultima-ratio-Prinzips. Gefordert sind klare Grenzen strafbarer Rede und stärkere nichtstrafrechtliche Mittel zur Zivilisierung von Kommunikation.
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11 August 2025
Wer ist eigentlich Verfassungsfeind?
In mehreren Bundesländern steht eine Reform der Verfassungsschutzgesetze an – und damit auch die Chance, die Definition der „freiheitlichen demokratischen Grundordnung“ zu modernisieren. Statt an überholten Formulierungen aus den 1950er-Jahren festzuhalten, könnten die Legaldefinitionen enger an den Kernelementen Menschenwürde, Demokratie und Rechtsstaatlichkeit ausgerichtet werden. Doch die Reformansätze der Länder gehen auseinander.
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25 July 2025
Weg frei für „Berlin autofrei“
Nach dem Erfolg von „Deutsche Wohnen enteignen“ dürfte Berlin bald über das nächste Volksbegehren abstimmen, das die Stadt lebenswerter machen soll: „Berlin autofrei“ will den individuellen Kfz-Verkehr innerhalb des S-Bahn-Rings weitgehend verbieten. Nachdem die Senatsverwaltung das Volksbegehren zunächst gestoppt hatte, hält der VerfGH Berlin es nun für vollumfänglich zulässig. Der Gerichtshof erkennt an, dass es zwar kein „Grundrecht auf Autofahren“ gibt, doch besondere Mobilitätsbedürfnisse durchaus grundrechtlichen Schutz genießen. Dies hätte er allerdings bruchloser argumentieren können, wenn er die Eingriffsqualität anerkannt hätte.
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13 June 2025
Overcoming the Hungarian Veto
A Russian victory over Ukraine would make a military confrontation with Europe more likely. To prevent this, the Union must prolong the Russian sanctions, including the freezing of 200 billion EUR in central bank assets. The prolongation of these sanctions requires a unanimous decision pursuant to Article 31(1) TEU. Hungary threatens to obstruct this decision. We propose a way to end Hungary's obstruction. It requires no grand actions, only a few interpretative steps and a narrow political consensus.
Continue reading >>06 June 2025
Migrant “Instrumentalisation” before the ICJ
On 19 May, Lithuania introduced proceedings against Belarus before the International Court of Justice for the alleged smuggling of migrants. Lithuania claims that Belarus violated provisions of the Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air, which supplements the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime. This blog will detail several difficulties with Lithuania’s argument which seeks to collapse key differences between migrant smuggling and the practice of migrant “instrumentalisation”.
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02 June 2025
What Are Human Rights For?
The Danish-Italian public letter to the European Court of Human Rights from 22 May 2025 must be understood in the context of two decades of “crises” in the European human rights regime. None of it is new or unprecedented. What makes it truly troubling, however, is the changed geopolitical context and the focus on migrants and asylum seekers as the most vulnerable.
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14 May 2025
Academic Vertigo
What is therefore needed is a much thicker description of the current phase of semantic destabilization. This implies to build a new questionnaire able to grasp the dynamics of contemporary legal controversies allowing to bring historical depth and socio-legal […] While there is certainly a large variety of methodologies able to address this questionnaire, […] I contend however that a socio-genetic approach is better equipped when it comes to unpack the notion of “context” and reconstitute the complex “hermeneutic space” of legal concepts that continuously move back and forth from the legal and the political fields.
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13 March 2025
The Heidelberg Declaration on Transforming Global Meat Governance
Meat is at the center of interrelated environmental and public health crises: climate change, biodiversity loss, deforestation, pandemics, food insecurity, unhealthy and unsustainable diets, and institutionalized animal suffering. While eating or not eating meat has traditionally been seen as a private choice, it is increasingly becoming a public and political issue, as the social, ecological, and ethical costs of industrialized meat production are becoming more visible and prominent. Scientific evidence is piling indicating the need for a sustainable food system and dietary transitions away from animal-based foods.
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27 January 2025
Elon Musk’s Wake-up Call for Europe
Viewing Elon Musk’s recent forays into (electoral) politics in Europe primarily as a geopolitical wake-up call to European leaders, our analysis focuses on the promise and relative weaknesses of law and policy solutions as well as institutional arrangements the EU has put in place to protect European democracies from foreign interference. The EU and its Member States must adapt quickly to the new international realities if they do not want to be norm-takers rather than norm-shapers on major international dossiers.
Continue reading >>24 January 2025
Sri Lanka’s Constitutional Council Comes Into Its Own
2024 was full of landmark decisions, and the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka ended the year with another one for the history books. In Pathirathne v Abeywardena and others, the court dealt with the controversial issue of the constitutional council’s refusal to approve the president’s nomination of a judge to the Supreme Court. This was the first case seeking review of a decision of the constitutional council. I argue that the decision is significant because the court affirms the council’s role in securing judicial independence, overrules (by implication) previous remarks on the council’s purpose, and strengthens the culture of inter-branch accountability.
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16 January 2025
Steht die Mindestlohnrichtlinie vor dem Aus?
Die im Oktober 2022 verabschiedete Richtlinie über angemessene Mindestlöhne in der EU sticht vor allem durch ihren hohen Symbolwert hervor. Dänemark sah die Richtlinie außerhalb der Kompetenzen des Unionsgesetzgebers und klagte, unterstützt von Schweden, vor dem Europäischen Gerichtshof. Am 14. Januar 2025 legte Generalanwalt Emiliou seine Schlussanträge vor. Niemand fällt aus allen Wolken, wenn der Generalanwalt bestätigt, dass sich der Unionsgesetzgeber mit der Mindestlohn-RL auf äußerst dünnes Eis begeben hat. Gleichwohl hätte man die Anträge so nicht erwartet. Der GA empfiehlt, die Richtlinie in vollem Umfang für nichtig zu erklären.
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06 January 2025
Territorial Concessions to the Aggressor
How can Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine be brought to an end? With recent proposals by the Trump transition team, a possible peace treaty with Ukraine and Russia is gaining renewed attention. Gregory Fox predicts that “territorial transfers […] would likely be at the heart of any agreement”. The rule on coerced treaties (Art. 52 VCLT) poses a major legal obstacle to territorial concessions to an aggressor state. Under that rule, a treaty is void if its conclusion has been procured by an unlawful threat or use of force. That notwithstanding, a treaty invalid under Art. 52 VCLT can be validated by the UN Security Council (UNSC), a solution that is also compatible with jus cogens.
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