22 December 2016
From Greenland to Svalbard: Scotland’s quest for a differentiated Brexit
On 20 December 2016, the Scottish Government released its blueprint on how Scotland can remain in the European Single Market post-Brexit. From the governing SNP’s point of view, the paper can be seen as a compromise given that it does not advocate Scottish independence. Instead, it proposes that the best outcome for the UK as a whole is to remain in the European Economic Agreement following the ‘Norway model’. It recognises, however, that in the current political constellation this seems unlikely. So, it argues for the continued membership of Scotland in the European Single Market. Continue reading >>
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Wer ist Flüchtling? Zum Hin und Her der Entscheidungspraxis zu Asylsuchenden aus Syrien
Syrische Flüchtlinge sind die größte Gruppe von Asylsuchenden in Deutschland und erhalten hier Schutz – aber nicht unbedingt einen einheitlichen Status. Das erstaunt zunächst nicht, da Asylanträge individuell zu prüfen sind. Die Frage der Statusgewährung hängt jedoch nicht nur von der persönlichen Situation der Betroffenen ab, sondern maßgeblich von der rechtlichen Wertung, die daraus gezogen wird. Dabei wirft die verfassungsrechtlich nicht weiter spannende Entscheidung des Bundesverfassungsgerichts vom 14. November 2016 (2 BvR 31/14) ein Schlaglicht auf die bemerkenswerten Schlenker der Entscheidungspraxis zu syrischen Flüchtlingen. Continue reading >>21 December 2016
A Game of Values: Particular National Identities Awaken in Europe
The EU’s legitimacy is thin and this weakness is reflected in its impotence in the face of the drift towards authoritarianism in Central and Eastern Europe. It remains to be seen whether such an authoritarian turn as the Hungarian can happen in old democracies and if their institutions are strong enough to limit the effects of global processes which are shaping the national identities of societies and the impact of Member States on the shared EU framework. Continue reading >>Nur fragmentarischer Schutz: Asyl wegen sexueller Orientierung und Geschlechtsidentität
In vielen Staaten werden Menschen nach wie vor wegen ihrer sexuellen Orientierung oder Geschlechtsidentität verfolgt. In Deutschland haben sie Anspruch darauf, als Flüchtlinge anerkannt zu werden – so sehen es die Qualifikationsrichtlinie und das deutsche Asylrecht ausdrücklich vor. Dennoch ist die Situation von wegen ihrer sexuellen Orientierung oder Geschlechtsidentität verfolgten„SOGI-Flüchtlingen“ auch in Deutschland nicht rosig. Im Asylverfahren stehen sie vor besonderen Herausforderungen, während des Asylverfahrens werden ihre Rechte nicht immer gewährleistet, und der Zugang zum Schutz ist ohnehin schwer. Continue reading >>19 December 2016
Constitutional Capture in Poland 2016 and Beyond: What is Next?
2016 will go down in history as fundamental in the institutional history of Polish Constitutionalism. It began with an unprecedented attack on the Constitutional Tribunal, rule of law, checks and balances and judicial independence. It ends with full-blown constitutional crisis. The dramatic events in the Sejm and on the streets only corroborate that Poland is on the slippery slope towards autocracy. Continue reading >>17 December 2016
Der Blockupy-Polizeikessel vor dem Bundesverfassungsgericht: Mitgefangen, mitgehangen?
In seinem jüngsten Beschluss zum Frankfurter Blockupy-Kessel geht das Bundesverfassungsgericht davon aus, dass bereits die bloße Anwesenheit einer Person in einer Gruppe, in der ein Teil verdächtigt wird, Straftaten begangen zu haben, ausreiche, um einen Anfangsverdacht auch gegen sie zu begründen. Karlsruhe stutzt dabei seinen eigenen verfassungsrechtlichen Maßstab soweit herunter, dass nicht mehr die Demonstration in ihrer Gesamtheit betrachtet, sondern die Versammlung in genehme und nicht genehme Gruppen aufgespalten wird. Continue reading >>16 December 2016
Towards a Solution for the Ratification Conundrum of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement?
The ratification process of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement has been stalled following "No" victory in the Dutch referendum of 6 April 2016. Yesterday, the EU heads of states have adopted a decision addressing the Dutch concerns. The option which is currently on the table is by far the easiest to solve the ratification conundrum while responding to the arguments of the ‘no-camp’ in the referendum campaign. Any alternatives, such as the inclusion of formal reservations or a procedure leading to a Dutch withdrawal from the agreement, entail the risk of long-term legal uncertainty which would only be detrimental for the EU, the Netherlands and Ukraine. Continue reading >>Collective Expulsion and the Khlaifia Case: Two Steps Forward, One Step Back
The European Convention on Human Rights forbids member states to expulse foreign citizens collectively. Does this mean that they have to conduct individual interviews with refugees before they send them back? Last year, a chamber of the ECtHR, in a case concerning Tunisians landed in Lampedusa in 2011, had concluded that it does. Now, the Great Chamber has reviewed this decision, considerably narrowing the scope of the collective expulsion ban. Continue reading >>
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15 December 2016
Nothing left to do but vote – The (almost) untold story of the Italian constitutional reform and the aftermath of the referendum
A cloud of uncertainty hovers over the future of Italian politics after the failure of the constitutional referendum. The degree of uncertainty is increased by the pending proceeding before the Constitutional Court where the electoral law adopted in 2015 (Italicum) has been challenged as unconstitutional. Continue reading >>
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14 December 2016
Entweder Robe oder Kopftuch: gläserne Decke für muslimische Frauen?
Baden-Württemberg plant ein Kopftuchverbot für Robenträgerinnen im Gerichtssaal, andere Bundesländer werden bald folgen. Wäre es nicht gerade sinnvoll, den größtenteils hochqualifizierten Frauen, die von den Kopftuchgesetzgebungen betroffen sind, den von ihnen angestrebten Zugang zum Arbeitsmarkt umfassend zu gewähren? Stünde nicht gerade eine Kopftuch tragende Prädikatsjuristin, tätig als Staatsanwältin oder Richterin, für die oftmals als fehlend angeprangerte erfolgreiche Integration? Continue reading >>The End of the Grand Coalition and the Significance of Stable Majorities in the European Parliament
A few years ago, the German Constitutional Court had to rule on the significance of stable majorities in the European Parliament. Such majorities were not terribly significant, was the conclusion reached by the Court – at least not important enough to justify a three percent threshold for elections to the EP, laid down in German federal law. Under the constitutional conditions of the moment, the Court explained, the formation of a stable majority was not needed in the EU ‘for electing and continuously supporting a government capable of acting’. These past few weeks, a crisis has been unfolding in Brussels and Strasbourg that may turn out to be an interesting test case for the German Court’s analysis. Continue reading >>
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13 December 2016
Studiengebühren für Schwache: Baden-Württemberg und das Verfassungs- und Völkerrecht
Die baden-württembergische Landesregierung hat Anfang des Monats einen Gesetzentwurf für die Einführung von Studiengebühren für ausländische Studierende und für ein Zweitstudium vorgelegt. Der Vorstoß ist nicht nur wissenschafts- und sozialpolitisch problematisch, sondern wirft auch Fragen nach der Verfassungs- und Völkerrechtsmäßigkeit selektiver Studiengebühren auf. Continue reading >>12 December 2016
Brexit and the Single Market: You say Article 50, we say Article 127?
Hard on the heels of the Article 50 case heard last week by the UK Supreme Court, comes the announcement of another challenge to the UK Government’s Brexit plans, this time based on Article 127 of the EEA agreement. Much like Article 50 TEU, that provision allows contracting parties to the EEA agreement to withdraw from it. The claimants in the Article 127 challenge contend that withdrawal from the EU under Article 50 will not lead to withdrawal from the EEA, given that with Article 127 the EEA agreement contains its own termination clause. Hence their argument goes that unless the Government also triggers Article 127, the UK will stay in the EEA even after Brexit; and that would mean that the UK would remain in the single market. Much like the Article 50 case, the impending court case therefore seeks a declaration by the High Court that the Government cannot trigger Article 127 without prior approval of Parliament. The claimants’ hope is that while Parliament may feel politically bound by the EU referendum result to allow the Government to leave the EU, it may not vote in favour of leaving the EEA, viz. the single market, as this was not a question on the ballot paper. It is the aim of this blogpost to identify the three main hurdles the claimants are likely to be facing and discuss whether these can be overcome. Continue reading >>10 December 2016
Illegal Entry into the Federal Republic of Germany de lege lata et de lege ferenda – a Critical Interjection
Illegal entry into Germany has led to penal proceedings since the first influx of refugees in 2015. Police investigations are opened against anyone entering without a passport or valid entry documents. This means that refugees are liable to prosecution by entering Germany and filing a petition for asylum. The right of residence desperately needs to be reformed. De lege ferenda, it makes sense to eliminate the discriminating legal status provided under Art. 31 I GFK and “de-criminalize” affected refugees. Continue reading >>09 December 2016
After the Italian Referendum
So much was at stake for Italy, its political class and its economy, and for the European Union (EU) and its member states in the country’s failed referendum on constitutional reform. In the EU, Germany is a particularly sensitive case. The relations between Germany and Italy are a focal point in Europe. They used to be in an asymmetric, albeit comforting, equilibrium. Continue reading >>07 December 2016
Shared powers: the elephant in the room in the division of powers-debate
The saga surrounding the signing of the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) has again brought the issue of the division of foreign affairs powers between the EU and its Member States to the centre of attention of many an EU lawyer. How far do the EU’s exclusive powers to conduct a ‘common commercial policy’ reach? Do implied powers supplement the EU’s express exclusive powers in this area? Is it appropriate to apply a so-called ‘centre of gravity’ test when assessing the vires of a particular EU action on the international scene, or should a piecemeal approach be followed, whereby the inclusion of a single provision that reaches beyond the scope of the EU’s exclusive powers requires a proposed international agreement to be adopted as a ‘mixed’ agreement? Continue reading >>
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06 December 2016
Die Menschenwürde des Staatskonzerns Vattenfall: zum Atom-Urteil des Bundesverfassungsgerichts
Grundrechte leiten sich aus der Menschenwürde ab. Wie kann es sein, dass ein 100-prozentiger Staatskonzern wie Vattenfall sich in Karlsruhe sein Grundrecht auf Eigentum einklagen darf? Das Bundesverfassungsgericht hat auf diese Frage eine überraschend unakademische Antwort gefunden. Continue reading >>A Homeless Ghost? European Legal Integration in Search of a Polity
A member of the European Parliament recently compared the European Union to an Airbus on autopilot attempting to cross the Alps without taking off the ground. Be it the EU’s piecemeal approach to fixing its economic governance post-financial crisis or its inability to speak with one voice in matters of common concern from internal border management to external trade: there is a growing sense of urgency in reforming the EU legal architecture to steer European integration back on course. However, such functional necessities are unlikely to sway the peoples of Europe who – tired of the EU’s attempts at technocratic self-rule – increasingly retreat into the homeliness of their nation-states. From the early ‘no more’ war discourse to the ‘no choice’ rhetoric of late in governing a Union in crisis, European integration has often been presented as a political inevitability. Yet it appears that the most ambitious modern project of legal and political integration beyond the state has come to a halt – where from here? Continue reading >>03 December 2016
Zwischen pädagogischer Freiheit und Selektivität: Warum die Förderung der freien Schulen verfassungsrechtlich auf dem Spiel steht
Das Grundgesetz gebietet in Art. 7 Abs. 4, dass Privatschulen nur genehmigt werden dürfen, soweit sie keine Sonderung der Schüler nach den Besitzverhältnissen der Eltern fördern. Mit der Praxis in den meisten deutschen Bundesländern hat dies offensichtlich wenig zu tun. Wie kann es zu einem solchen Zustand kommen, der das Verfassungsgebot faktisch leerlaufen lässt? Continue reading >>02 December 2016
Italy before the Constitutional Referendum: “I do not see any Armageddon Scenario”
On Sunday, Italy will vote on the largest constitutional reform in recent history. Francesco Clementi, constitutional lawyer from the University of Perugia and one of the staunchest supporters of the reform, answers our questions about what will happen in case of a NO or a YES victory. Continue reading >>
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After Fragmentation: The Constitution of a Core European Citizenry?
Core European Citizenship as an individual choice: Europeans who were granted the embryonic status of ‘EU citizenship’ with the Treaty of Maastricht, and who rely on this status and these rights for their pursuit of fulfilment throughout the European Union’s territory, should be given the choice to establish themselves in a real European constitutional polity. Continue reading >>30 November 2016
Statement by the former presidents of the Constitutional Tribunal: Marek Safjan, Jerzy Stępień, Bohdan Zdziennicki and Andrzej Zoll
Four former presidents of the beleaguered Polish Constitutional Tribunal have issued a powerful statement calling on the legal community and the President to defend the Court and, indeed, the constitutional order of the Republic. Continue reading >>
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28 November 2016
Blowin’ against the Wind: the Future of EU trade Policy
U.S. President-elect Trump has announced his intention to stop the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement. In the EU too the wind seems to be blowing in a similar direction. There appears to be a widespread and growing anti-free-trade sentiment in some parts of the population. Should the EU, at this moment in time, continue to pursue a free trade agenda? If so, does the EU have the means to do that effectively? Continue reading >>
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25 November 2016
How the UK passed the most invasive surveillance law in democratic history
You might not have noticed thanks to world events, but the UK parliament recently approved the government’s so-called Snooper’s Charter and it will soon become law. This nickname for the Investigatory Powers Bill is well earned. It represents a new level and nature of surveillance that goes beyond anything previously set out in law in a democratic society. It is not a modernisation of existing law, but something qualitatively different, something that intrudes upon every UK citizen’s life in a way that would even a decade ago have been inconceivable. Continue reading >>24 November 2016
Selektoren-Beschluss des BVerfG: Wer Geheimdienstkontrolle fordert, soll sich die Mehrheit dafür erstreiten
Am 13. Oktober hat das Bundesverfassungsgericht einen Beschluss zum Beweiserhebungsrecht des NSA-Untersuchungsausschusses des Bundestages gefasst. Ich halte die Kritik an diesem Beschluss für falsch. Er schafft kein verfassungssystematisches Problem, sondern ist ein Signal zur Sensibilisierung der Parlamentarier und Wahlberechtigten für die Notwendigkeit einer BND-Reform. Das Gericht plädiert für mehr Demokratie. Insbesondere die Demokratie- und Gewaltenteilungsbegriffe des Grundgesetzes sind als Verfassungsprinzipien facettenreicher und im Ergebnis wohl auch sachgerechter, als sie auf den ersten Blick wirken. Continue reading >>Snowden-Entscheidung des BGH: Weltpolitik in Karlsruhe?
Berlin, Washington und nun zweimal Karlsruhe: die deutsch-amerikanischen Beziehungen beschäftigen derzeit nicht nur Spitzenpolitiker und Diplomaten in den Hauptstädten, sondern auch die höchsten deutschen Gerichte. Während der Beschluss des Bundesverfassungsgerichts zu den NSA-Selektorenlisten für Erleichterung bei der Bundesregierung sorgte, freute sich über eine am Montag bekannt gewordene BGH-Entscheidung in der causa Snowden vor allem die Opposition. Doch führt die BGH-Entscheidung tatsächlich dazu, dass Edward Snowden in Deutschland als Zeuge aussagen wird? Wie ist sie verfassungsrechtlich einzuordnen? Und in welchem Verhältnis stehen beide Entscheidungen zueinander? Continue reading >>23 November 2016
Catalonian Independentism, the Spanish Constitutional Court and the Perils of the Middle Way
The Spanish Law 15/2015 (Organic Law) was a key element of the last Government of Mariano Rajoy in his fight against Catalonian Independentism. It gives the Spanish Constitutional Court a new executive power to suspend temporally a democratic authority if it does not obey a Constitutional Court’s resolution. A recent decision of the Spanish Constitutional Court has validated the Bill on the idea that the Court must have special deference to the legislature whenever the judgment is on the statute that regulates the jurisdiction of Court. The Court solves the dispute without a deep discussion on the merits. Once again the Spanish Court leaves a feeling of intellectual fragility. Continue reading >>
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Scotland, Catalonia and the Constitutional Taboo of Secession
The UK constitution does not allow Scotland to unilaterally secede in the case of Brexit - in that respect its situation is not unlike Catalonia's. Given the political nature of the UK uncodified constitution, it is almost unthinkable that a similar judicialisation of politics will occur in the UK as it did in Spain. However, unless Westminster takes seriously into account the demands of the devolved administrations in the Brexit negotiations, there is a real danger that a serious constitutional stalemate will occur. Continue reading >>22 November 2016
South Africa and the ICC, or: Whose Rights Does the Constitution Protect?
When the South African government announced that it would withdraw from the International Criminal Court, a great number of commenters expressed shock and disappointment. Legal commentators have also weighed in, questioning the legality of withdrawing from the ICC (here) and a legal challenge on several terms seems inevitable. Here, I want to consider the possibility of challenging the withdrawal on the basis of the Bill of Rights. Continue reading >>
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21 November 2016
Selektoren-Urteil des BVerfG: Karlsruhe verzwergt das Parlament
In der vergangenen Woche hat das Bundesverfassungsgericht seinen Beschluss zum Beweiserhebungsrecht des NSA-Untersuchungsausschusses des Bundestages veröffentlicht. Er definiert die Maßstäbe, nach denen der Bundestag Auskunft über die Kooperation deutscher Nachrichtendienste mit ausländischen Diensten verlangen kann – mit weitreichenden Folgen für die demokratisch-rechtsstaatliche Kontrolle des außen- und sicherheitspolitischen Handelns der Bundesregierung insgesamt. In der Zusammenschau mit früheren Entscheidungen zeigt sich eine kritikwürdige Rechtsprechungslinie, die die exekutive Handlungsfähigkeit als verfassungsrechtliches Prinzip konstruiert, das sich von den demokratischen Prinzipien des Grundgesetzes verabschiedet. Continue reading >>Mercan v. Turkey: Waiting for the Last Word of the Turkish Constitutional Court
For the time being, the fallout of the attempted coup d’ètat of July 15th 2016 in Turkey will not reach Strasbourg. Victims of alleged human rights violations first have to exhaust domestic remedies before they can apply to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). This is the result of Mercan v. Turkey, the first of more than 3000 applications regarding alleged violations after the attempted coup and the declaration of a state of emergency. The Strasbourg court views the Turkish Constitutional Court (TCC) not as per se incapable of adjudicating in these cases in an effective way. If the TCC can live up to these expectations remains to be seen. Continue reading >>18 November 2016
Stabilität als Fluchtpunkt der italienischen Verfassungsreform – auf welchem Weg und um welchem Preis?
Die Wahlkarten sind versandt, die Fernsehanstalten haben Für und Wider in Dutzenden Debatten abgewogen, die staatliche Fluggesellschaft offeriert vergünstigte Tickets für die Anreise – alles scheint gerichtet für das Verfassungsreferendum in Italien am 4. Dezember dieses Jahres. Ministerratspräsident Matteo Renzi verspricht nicht weniger als den Wandel zum „stabilsten Land Europas.“ Wird das gelingen? Und wenn ja, um welchen Preis? Continue reading >>17 November 2016
Wahlkreisreform in UK: die Neuvermessung des Mehrheitswahlrechts
Wahlkreisreformen sind oft eine anrüchige Sache. Die Regierungsmehrheit gerät leicht in den Verdacht, sich die Wahlkreise zu ihrem eigenen Vorteil zurechtzuschneiden. Auch in Großbritannien gibt es laute Proteste der Opposition gegen die aktuellen Reformpläne der Tories. Doch wenn man genauer hinsieht, zeigt sich: die Demokratie im Vereinigten Königreich wird eher profitieren. Continue reading >>16 November 2016
Präsident Trump und der US Supreme Court
Wenn Donald Trump mehr als einen Richterposten am US Supreme Court besetzen kann, erhält er die Chance, die Gewichte in der amerikanischen Verfassungsjustiz auf lange Zeit hinaus nach rechts zu verschieben. Doch ob ihm das gelingt, ist keineswegs ausgemacht. Continue reading >>15 November 2016
Who are Today’s Polish Traitors? Of Politics of Paranoia and Resentment and Missed Lessons from the Past
The governing right-wing party in Poland is quick to call opponents "traitors". A look into Polish history explains how this "culture of treason" as part of politics of memory and resentment came about. Continue reading >>
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Die ‚Anderen‘ an den Tisch holen: Ein Vorschlag für ein inklusiveres Südtirol
Südtirol, eine autonome und vorwiegend deutschsprachige Provinz in Norditalien, gilt als eines der erfolgreichsten Beispiele der Konkordanzdemokratie – ein politisches System der Machtteilung, in dem die Bevölkerung aus ethnischen, sprachlichen oder anderen Gründen gespalten ist. Eines der Rechte, das deutschsprachige, italienischsprachige und ladinischsprachige Einwohner der Provinz genießen, ist ihre proportionale Repräsentation in Regierungen auf Provinz- und Gemeindeebene. Es ist an der Zeit, auch ‚anders Erklärende‘ zu berücksichtigen, also jene, die sich keiner Sprachgruppe angehörig fühlen, bzw. sich nur einer der drei offiziellen Sprachgruppen zuordnen. Dieser Schritt würde den Wandel von einem ‚corporate model‘ der Konkordanzdemokratie hin zu einem liberaleren Modell in der Provinz unterstützen. Continue reading >>The EU and Poland: Giving up on the Rule of Law?
With an off-hand remark in a Belgian newspaper, President Juncker has called off the EU Commission's effort to pressure Poland into following the rule of law. If he went through with this, he would not only pull the rug from under his own First Vice President Timmermans and spare the national governments the necessity to live up to their responsibilities. The Commission President deciding that the slide of a member state into authoritarianism is not his business, with a Trump Presidency in the US coming, forgoes the European Union's claim to be capable of fulfilling its leadership role in the world. Continue reading >>
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11 November 2016
Religious Installations in French City Halls: A Christmas Crib Story
Christmas, in certain circumstances, has its place in the Republic. Judges have agreed in a plenary session reviewing two different Court of Appeal cases (courtyard of Melun’s town hall and hall of the departmental council of Vendée) that a Christmas crib in a public building doesn’t a priori represent a threat to secularism. In fact, the installation is legal, says the Conseil d’Etat, provided that particular circumstances give it « a cultural, artistic or festive character ». The decision is questionable for two main reasons: its foundation is doubtful, and its outcome unsatisfactory. Continue reading >>
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National Constitutional Identity in the European Constitutional Project: A Recipe for Exposing Cover Ups and Masquerades
On November 8, 2016 the Hungarian Parliament did not adopt the Seventh Amendment of the Fundamental Law seeking to protect Hungarian constitutional identity in the face of European imposition. The Seventh Amendment was meant to cover up the minor scratch on the Government’s pride caused by lack of popular support for its relentless fight against the EU. Although the Amendment did not pass, supporters of European constitutional projects cannot afford to sit back and relax. Continue reading >>10 November 2016
Thirteen Theses on Trump and Liberal Democracy
No one wants to go down in the history books like those fools who said in the 1930s, "well, Hitler isn't such a bad chap really..." Protecting our egos from the imagined judgment of prosperity, the cautious course is to predict the worst for the Trump Presidency, the very destruction of the American constitutional regime, the collapse of liberal democratic values. I however am willing to risk being proven a fool, so here goes... Continue reading >>The Paradox of Liberal Constitutionalism: a Call for Communal Constitutionalism
We should be careful when we embrace the new transnational paradigm. If dialogue can take place, this must not forget that constitutionalism's soul must be looked for at the local level, not in the fluid transnational arena - beyond the seemingly neutral vocabulary of technocracy, and reaching out to a physical space where claims can be put forward, resources allocated, boundaries defined, and decisions contested, within touching distance. Continue reading >>The Big Picture
In Europe, UK, and USA constitutional structures are proving unfit to respond to the challenges of the XXI century. Now is the time to ride on the constitutional moment for the all three of them. Continue reading >>Die Geister der Vergangenheit ‒ Eine kritische Reflexion zur Kunduz-Entscheidung des BGH
Das Urteil des Bundesgerichtshofs zu der Frage, ob zivile Opfer von militärischen Einsätzen der Bundeswehr im Ausland Deutschland auf Schadensersatz verklagen können, hat viel Aufsehen erregt. Jetzt sind die Entscheidungsgründe einsehbar und erlauben eine detailliertere Auseinandersetzung, die vor dem Hintergrund der erheblichen Implikationen der betreffenden Entscheidung mehr denn geboten erscheint. Kritik an dem Urteil des BGH ist nicht nur aus völkerrechtlicher, sondern vor allem aus verfassungsrechtlicher Perspektive angebracht. Continue reading >>On the Slippery Slope to a ,People’s Court’
Writes Matej Avbelj in High time for popular constitutionalism!, ‘The majority in our societies seems to be increasingly disconnected with the liberal values that especially the legal academia, but also the ruling political class – at least on a declaratory level – have taken for granted…’ Living as I do in the country in which one sees an increasing distaste for the European Convention of Human Rights and regular media criticism of the ‘unelected judges’ in Strasbourg – and that despite the fact that the judges of the Court are, in fact, elected from a slate of three by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe – I cannot help wondering whether the disconnect is anything very new. Continue reading >>
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A Crisis of Representation
The failure to offer a serious alternative to the current maladies of capitalism should not be construed as a constitutional crisis. Continue reading >>09 November 2016
The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters
Part of the malaise surrounding our contemporary world is a tendency to view constitutional politics, to borrow Goethe’s metaphor, as architecture rather than music; as fixed and immutable rather than a dynamic phenomenon which requires the ongoing assertion and reassertion of the key values and terms of engagement of our mutual interaction with each other and with authority. Six practical suggestions how to defend our constitutional values. Continue reading >>High time for popular constitutionalism!
Not long ago the advent of illiberal democracy has been announced. It has been mocked, downplayed, but also seriously critically engaged with, including by the authors of this blog. However, since the idea has come from marginal countries in the European East, from Hungary, Poland, but also Slovenia and the likes, it has not been really perceived as an objective threat to the Western constitutional order. The election of Donald Trump, not for who he is, but what he has been standing for, must change this. Continue reading >>08 November 2016
Miller, Brexit and the (maybe not to so evil) Court of Justice
As strange as this might sound, hardcore Brexiteers have now their closest and most reliable ally not at home. But in what they have considered to be, all these years, the evil, monstrous, devilish, undemocratic, unelected, corrupt and dictatorial Court of Justice of the European Union. Continue reading >>The Article 50 Litigation and the Court of Justice: Why the Supreme Court must NOT refer
Is the UK Supreme Court in the current Brexit case obliged to refer to the Luxembourg Court? If that were the case, the conformity of any Member State’s EU exit with its own constitutional requirements would be open to review by the CJEU – and hence could no longer be qualified as an act of self-determination since a EU institution would have the final say on it. Continue reading >>07 November 2016
Geert Wilders’ “Incitement to Discriminate” Trial
Months before the parliamentary elections in the Netherlands, the leader of the far-right Freedom Party and election favorite Geert Wilders finds himself before a criminal court. He is charged with insulting and inciting discrimination against residents of Moroccan descent by promising his supporters "fewer Moroccans" in 2014. Wilders and his defence seem to invoke the theory of the ‘marketplace of ideas’, which is a common line of thinking in United States First Amendment law. The principal standard for Dutch courts however, the European Convention of Human Rights, takes a somewhat different stance. Continue reading >>
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