03 October 2016
Das Hohe und das Menschliche: eine Anmerkung zur Affäre Schnizer
Was darf ein Verfassungsrichter öffentlich sagen, ohne die Unabhängigkeit des Verfassungsgerichts zu beschädigen? Die jüngste Affäre um den österreichischen Verfassungsgerichtshof und die Aufregung der FPÖ lehrt, die österreichische Verfassungskultur die Würde des Verfassungsgerichts bloß ästhetisch reflektiert. Verfassungsrichter müssen kein politisches Keuschheitsgelübde ablegen, um sich für ihr Amt zu qualifizieren. Sie müssen nicht auf ihr Wahlrecht verzichten. Sie müssen bloß in der Lage sein, die Unterscheidung zwischen Verfassungsinterpretation und Verfassungspolitik plausibel zu handhaben. Continue reading >>
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Theresa May’s Great Repeal Bill – a Scottish own goal?
Theresa May’s announcement of a Great Repeal Bill on Sunday has the hallmarks of a stroke of genius: It creates some momentum in the internal Brexit debate without substantively changing anything, it appeases the die-heart Brexiteers in her party, and it may kill off legal challenges pending in the courts of England and Northern Ireland demanding that Parliament be involved before Article 50 TEU is triggered. The Great Reform Bill however raises interesting constitutional questions with regard to the devolved nations of the UK, and in particular Scotland. Has Theresa May scored an own goal by allowing the Scots to block her first big step towards Brexit? Or is this part of an even more cunning plan to delay having to trigger Article 50 TEU for a very long time? Continue reading >>
02 October 2016
A really, really bad month for refugees
Reflecting on her party’s recent electoral losses, German Chancellor Angela Merkel conceded that voter anxiety about her decision to allow hundreds of thousands of refugees to enter her country was largely to blame. “If I could, I would turn back time by many, many years to better prepare myself and the whole German government for the situation that reached us unprepared in late summer 2015,” she said. Sadly, September’s refugee summits have done nothing to prepare us for the next refugee exodus. Continue reading >>
30 September 2016
Triggering Art. 50 TEU: Interpreting the UK’s ‘own constitutional requirements’
Can the British government initiate the process of leaving the European Union without consulting Parliament? On September 28th the government released its legal position that the only constitutional way to give effect to the Brexit referendum result is through the exercise of the executive power. Some of the government's arguments appear to be on shaky grounds. The mere fact that the process has been caught up in legal wrangling before it has even begun shows that there is still a long, long road ahead before any sense of stability will return to British (constitutional) politics as well as the relationship between the UK and the EU in whatever form that may eventually take. Continue reading >>
21 September 2016
ESM and Protection of Fundamental Rights: Towards the End of Impunity?
The CJEU has sent a strong signal to EU institutions: whether they act in the framework of EU law or at its margins, under the screen of international agreements, the Commission and the ECB should duly take fundamental rights into account, and be ready to be held liable if they fail to do so. Continue reading >>CJEU Opens Door to Legal Challenges to Euro Rescue Measures in Key Decision
The Ledra Advertising decision by the European Court of Justice breaks down the barrier between European institutions and international-treaty based structures that have sprang up to deal with the needs of euro-area crisis response. This opens the door to legal challenges to the bailout programmes of the EFSF/ESM offering an avenue to a plethora of claimants to unpick the questionable legal underpinnings of conditionality and austerity policies. Continue reading >>
14 September 2016
Fighting Judicial Corruption with Constitutional Measures: the Albanian Case
No state can thrive with corrupt political and legal elites. But if lawmakers and judges are corrupt themselves, fighting corruption with legal means is all but impossible. As a step towards membership in the European Union, Albania has embedded a comprehensive reform of its anti-corruption law directly into its constitution. Continue reading >>
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06 September 2016
E-Government upside down
The story of Joshua Bowden's legal chatbots that help people fight unjustified parking tickets and eviction orders challenges common assumptions about eGovernment: Automation can actually help to further the rule of law culture and to make the administration more humane. Continue reading >>
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03 September 2016
Constitutional justice in Handcuffs? Gloves are off in the Polish Constitutional Conflict
A high-ranking PiS politician has announced that those Constitutional Tribunal judges who will not bend to the will of the PiS majority will be removed from office. This marks a new step of escalation in the ongoing constitutional crisis in Poland. Continue reading >>
25 August 2016
Polish Constitutional Tribunal goes down with dignity
On 11 of August 2016 the Polish Constitutional Tribunal (“Tribunal”) decided case K 39/16 in which it disqualified, for the second time in the span of 5 months, court-packing provisions contained in the Law of 22 July, 2016 on the Constitutional Tribunal. Separation of powers, judicial independence and effective functioning of the constitutional court were again the keywords that informed the analysis. After this most recent case the clock is ticking on the Tribunal and this time the self-defense by way of courageous judicial pronouncements might not be enough to survive. Continue reading >>
24 August 2016
The TTIP Negotiations Innovations: On Legal Reasons for Cheer
After 36 months of talks, the developments in the EU’s proposals for TTIP are far from perfect or complete. However, they demonstrate a huge faith in the EU’s power to institutionally nudge global trade - and render it more legitimate and accountable, as a good global governance actor should. They arguably do provide important reasons for cheer about the evolution of global trade through law. Continue reading >>
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19 August 2016
Islam on the Beach – The Burkini Ban in France
In 1964, a young woman wearing a monokini played table tennis on the Croisette, the famous road along the shore in the city of Cannes. She was sentenced for outraging public decency. Half a century later, the mayor of Cannes just banned on his beaches the burkini, a full-body swimsuit weared by some Muslim women. Some other coastal cities followed, one administrative tribunal confirmed, and a new controversy around the keyword “laïcité” was born. It seems to me that the burkini-ban is a legal error and a political mistake. Continue reading >>
17 August 2016
Jein – eine fehlende Variante bei dem Brexit-Referendum
Großbritannien hat eine Schicksalsentscheidung getroffen. Zwar hat die Volksbefragung nach herrschender Meinung nur beratenden Charakter, doch hat die britische Regierung im Vorfeld ankündigte das Ergebnis zu befolgen und wird es daher kaum übergehen. „Brexit means Brexit“, sagte auch Theresa May, die neue britische Premierministerin und frühere Remain-Befürworterin. Was „Brexit“ bedeutet, bleibt aber unklar. Continue reading >>
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11 August 2016
Italian Constitutional Referendum: Voting for Structural Reform or Constitutional Transformation?
As the distance between political elites and the population in Europe increases, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi's plans of constitutional reform further impoverish political representation in Italy – both with respect to input and output of the process. That is why the opponents of the reform are gaining ever more traction among Italian voters and could in the end prevail. Continue reading >>
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08 August 2016
Erdogan in Köln – Zumutungen des Versammlungsrechts II
Letzte Woche habe ich die Entscheidungen zu der Pro-Erdogan Kundgebung in Köln kommentiert. Zum Zeitpunkt der Veröffentlichung lag mir der Auflagenbescheid des Polizeipräsidiums Köln nicht vor. Da es hierzu Fragen gab und der Bescheid mir nun zugänglich gemacht wurde, möchte ich meine bisherigen Ausführungen ergänzen. Continue reading >>
07 August 2016
Die „Dritte Option“ vor dem BGH – Zwischenstopp auf dem Weg zum Verfassungsgericht
Intergeschlechtlichen Menschen steht auf der Grundlage von § 22 Abs. 3 PStG kein Anspruch auf Eintragung der Kategorie „inter“ oder „divers“ im Personenstandsregister zu. Für die Kampagne „Dritte Option“, die die Klage inhaltlich vorbereitet und begleitet hat, nur ist diese Entscheidung des Bundesgerichtshofs ein Zwischenstopp auf dem Weg zum Verfassungsgericht. Continue reading >>
03 August 2016
Erdogan in Köln: Zumutungen des Versammlungsrechts
Das Verbot, den türkischen Staatspräsidenten Erdogan per Videoübertragung vor Kölner Demonstranten reden zu lassen, weckt versammlungsrechtliche Zweifel. Will sich die rechtsstaatliche Demokratie nicht angreifbar machen, muss sie ihre eigenen Standards einhalten. Dies betrifft auch den Umgang mit antidemokratischen und rechtsstaatswidrigen Anfeindungen. Continue reading >>
29 July 2016
INIS Free? Towards a Scots-Irish Union
A post Brexit union of Ireland, Northern Ireland and Scotland would be one way of achieving what the majority of the electors of Northern Ireland and Scotland who voted in the Brexit referendum sought to achieve, namely to remain within the EU and retain their EU citizenship. Historically, there is considerable precedent for such a Scotch-Irish Union. Continue reading >>
27 July 2016
“Vote Yes for a Safe Italy” or “Vote No to Defend the Constitution”: Italian Constitutional Politics between Majoritarianism and Civil Resistance
In the run-up to the constitutional referendum in October, the Italian government meets considerable resistance towards its plans for a comprehensive reform of the Constitution of 1948. Both Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and Constitutional Reform Minister Maria Elena Boschi regularly sustain that in case of a ‘No’ vote, chaos will rule. Public debate seems trapped in a Manichean game between yes-proponents that accuse the opposition of conservatism, and no-proponents that accuse the government of authoritarian leanings. Continue reading >>
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26 July 2016
BrEXIT AND BreUK-UP
How to balance the aim of the UK to leave the European Union with the complex independence and border issues this would cause in Scotland and Northern Ireland? One possible scenario could be for Scotland to broker a five-year EFTA-EEA "naughty step" membership for the United Kingdom, at the end of which Scotland could itself become an independent EFTA-EEA member state and thus be well positioned to re-enter the European Union. Continue reading >>
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25 July 2016
Statutory tinkering: on the Senate’s changes to the Law on the Polish Constitutional Tribunal
The infamous law on the Polish Constitutional Tribunal of July 7th has met with an outcry of criticism among constitutional scholars. Last week, the upper chamber of the Polish Parliament, the Senate, has introduced a number of changes to meet some of the concerns. On the whole the effort amounts to little more than statutory tinkering, though. The effect, the emasculation of constitutional control in Poland, remains unchanged. Continue reading >>
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Jetzt wird es ernst: Zur Rehabilitierung und Entschädigung von nach § 175 StGB verurteilten Männern
Das Gutachten von Martin Burgi und Daniel Wolff zur Rehabilitation strafrechtlich verurteilter Homosexueller war ein eklatanter politischer Erfolg: Nach einem Eckpunktepapier des Bundesjustizministeriums sollen Urteile auf Basis des früheren § 175 StGB rückwirkend aufgehoben werden. In zwei wichtigen Punkten geht das Papier sogar noch über das Gutachten hinaus: erstens in Fällen homosexueller Handlungen zwischen Erwachsenen und Heranwachsenden und zweitens bei der Umsetzung einer individuellen, zusätzlich zu einer kollektiven, materiellen Entschädigungsleistung. Continue reading >>
22 July 2016
10 (pro-EU) reasons to be cheerful after Brexit
As the dust continues to swirl around the momentous Brexit referendum result a month ago (and doesn’t show any signs of settling anytime soon) I suspect many EU sympathisers will be somewhere in the middle of the various stages of the Kübler-Ross Grief cycle: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance. So, somewhat incongruosly, are the ‘leavers’. Whereas there are almost as many emotions being experienced on all sides as there are potential options on what will happen next both in terms of the UK’s future relationship with the EU as well as the future of the EU itself, in this post I want to set out a number of (pro-EU) reasons – some obvious, some optimistic, others wildly speculative – to be cheerful amidst the uncertainty created by the Brexit vote. Continue reading >>
20 July 2016
AG Saugmandsgaard Øe on Mass Data Retention: No Clear Victory for Privacy Rights
The opinion of the CJEU Attorney General on mass data retention has been long awaited by anyone interested in privacy rights, and more generally the relationship between states and their citizens during this period of an extended “war on terror”. While some civil rights groups have already claimed victory, on closer look the opinion of the AG is not an unmitigated success for privacy activists: It gives considerable discretion to member states to enact data retention provisions providing they meet the Digital Rights Ireland standard. Continue reading >>
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19 July 2016
Can Greece lawfully extradite the eight Turkish soldiers to Turkey?
Turkey demands the extradition of eight Turkish soldiers who fled to Greece on Saturday 16 July after Friday’s failed coup, using an army helicopter. The key question is whether they would face a ‘real risk’ of ill-treatment contrary to Art. 3 ECHR. I tentatively conclude that such real risk is made out. Continue reading >>
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Weimar Turkey?
The current configuration of power in Turkey is a direct product of a deep-seated legacy of authoritarian politics, both military and “civilian”. Far from marking a rupture with the past, recent events can only be understood against the background of this tradition. Continue reading >>
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15 July 2016
“What is Going on in Poland is an Attack against Democracy”
"A constitutional coup d'état": Wojciech Sadurski, one of Poland's foremost jurisprudence scholars, dissects the strategy of the Polish government to disembowel the Polish Constitutional Tribunal. Continue reading >>
14 July 2016
After Brexit: Time for a further Decoupling of European and National Citizenship?
According to the President of the European Council, Donald Tusk, the issue of Scotland’s EU membership after Brexit is ‘a matter for the UK’. That statement is simply false: the future EU citizenship of UK nationals is not a domestic matter but an issue – perhaps the issue – for the Union as a whole to determine. Continue reading >>
13 July 2016
Like a Bargaining Chip: Enduring the Unsettled Status of EU Nationals Living in the UK
Yesterday, the UK Government has issued a statement to reassure EU nationals living in the UK as to their post-referendum status. While hundreds of EU nationals channel their relief through social media in welcoming the news and British businesses praise the Government for giving them the reassurance needed, to a more expert eye things seem much less reassuring. Continue reading >>
12 July 2016
Between the Scylla of Terrorism and the Charybdis of the Police State: on the new French Anti-Terrorist Legislation
One month ago, France has enacted a new anti-terror law to end the state of emergency that had been in place since the terror attacks of Nov 15 2015. The basic purpose of the law is quite clearly to empower the executive (police and prosecution services) with investigative tools formerly reserved to the judiciary. Whether such a transfer of powers is justified or not, the fact is that the “country of human rights” actually now has today the most authoritarian anti-terrorist legislation in the European Union. Continue reading >>
11 July 2016
Das Brexit-Referendum: Sieg für die Demokratie?
War das Referendum doch zumindest ein Sieg für die Demokratie? Im Ergebnis wohl nicht. Demokratietheoretisch darf die Kritik freilich nicht beim Ergebnis, sondern bei der Entscheidung für das Referendum ansetzen: War die Austrittsfrage eine für ein Referendum geeignete Frage, oder hätte diese dem Parlament vorbehalten sein müssen? Vieles spricht hier für Letzteres. Continue reading >>
09 July 2016
Farewell to the Polish Constitutional Court
The Law of July, 7th 2016 on the Polish Constitutional Court leaves no doubts that the parliamentary majority lead by Law and Justice party (PiS) is not holding back and is determined to see its plan through to make sure that Court is finally tamed and incapacitated. The Law signals the death knell for the Court. The institution once recognized as powerful, efficient and independent from whatever powers that be is left at the mercy of the politicians, and unable to effectively wield its power of judicial review. Most importantly, the Law will make it impossible for the Court to provide an effective check on the excesses of parliamentary majority. Continue reading >>
07 July 2016
Der österreichische VfGH zur Wahlanfechtung: eine rechtsrealistische Kritik
Das VfGH-Urteil stützt sich bei seiner Annullierung der Stichwahl des Bundespräsidenten auf zwei formale Argumente. Diese sind aus mehreren Gründen nicht überzeugend. Auch ethisch und politisch hält das Urteil einer Überprüfung nicht stand. Continue reading >>Passing Laws without a Vote: the French Labour Reform and Art. 49-3 of the Constitution
The French government has brought a hugely controversial piece of legislation through parliament without debate and without a vote. That move is seen as democratically dubious by many. But it is certainly constitutional under the stability-oriented French Constitution of 1958. Continue reading >>
06 July 2016
Calling Europe into Question: the British and the Greek referenda
On this day last year, Greeks woke up facing a referendum result that very few had expected. Almost a year later, on the 24th of June 2016, British and other Europeans woke up overwhelmingly surprised by the ‘Leave’ vote. Despite their significant differences, the Greek and the British referenda have some important things in common. Reading them together might have something to teach us about referenda on the EU—especially now that more people seem to be asking for one in their own country. Continue reading >>Brexit and Art. 50: the Key lies in Luxembourg
A large British law firm has announced legal steps to ensure that the Art. 50 TEU procedure leading to EUV will be triggered by the British parliament. This might lead to a referral to the European Court of Justice. Continue reading >>
05 July 2016
Political Reductionism at its Best: the EU Institutions’ Response to the Brexit Referendum
In their reaction to the Brexit referendum, some EU institutions have shown a troubling understanding of law – law as the mere crystallisation of power relationships, norms as just technicalities, annoying obstacles standing between the political actors and their legitimate goals. This is profoundly wrong and dangerous. Continue reading >>
04 July 2016
Gute und schlechte Gründe: zur Annullierung der Stichwahl in Österreich
Der österreichische Verfassungsgerichtshof hatte einen guten und einen schlechten Grund, die Stichwahl des Bundespräsidenten zu annullieren. Die vorzeitige Veröffentlichung der Wahlergebnisse war ein guter Grund. Die formelle Verletzung der Vorschriften zur Briefwahl dagegen wäre eher ein Anlass gewesen, seine Rechtsprechung zum Wahlrecht endlich zu korrigieren. Dass er das nicht getan hat, bringt das ganze System ohne Not in Misskredit. Continue reading >>Everything you need to know about Article 50 (but were afraid to ask)
After the Brexit referendum, the new prime minister cannot dodge the fact that Article 50 is the only legal way for the UK to secede and that he or she, therefore, has a duty to pull the trigger. Not to deploy Article 50 would result in an even more disorderly situation than we have now. Article 50 it is. And if it were done, it were best done quickly. Continue reading >>Flucht aus der Grundrechtsbindung: „Flüchtlinge fressen“ und das ausländerrechtliche Beförderungsverbot
Die Kunstaktion "Flüchtlinge fressen" hat die Praxis, die Kontrolle der Einreise von Ausländern ohne Aufenthaltstitel den Fluggesellschaften aufzubürden, in den Fokus der öffentlichen Aufmerksamkeit zurückgeholt. Was wenige wissen: seit 1992 steht der höchstrichterliche Vorwurf im Raum, dass die Rechtsgrundlage dieser Praxis in ihrer derzeitigen Form/in ihrem Umfang verfassungswidrig ist. Bis heute ist dieser Vorwurf in Karlsruhe ungeklärt geblieben. Continue reading >>
01 July 2016
A Lame Duck for a Member State? Thoughts on the UK’s Position in the EU after the Brexit Vote
Despite the fact that nothing has technically speaking happened in legal terms, the UK’s journey out of the European Union has already commenced and is starting to have tangible legal consequences. Continue reading >>
30 June 2016
Keine Ratifikation des CETA ohne den Deutschen Bundestag – so oder so …
EU-Kommissionspräsident Juncker will das umstrittene CETA-Freihandelsabkommen in alleiniger Kompetenz der EU behandeln lassen. Vor allem in Deutschland fürchten viele, dass CETA damit einer legitimationsstiftenden Kontrolle des Bundestages entzogen würde. Doch wie steht es tatsächlich um den Einfluss des Bundestages? Nach meinem Dafürhalten ergeben sich für CETA nicht nur im Falle der Behandlung als gemischtes Abkommen, sondern auch im Falle der Behandlung als Abkommen in alleiniger EU-Kompetenz entscheidende Einwirkungsmöglichkeit des Bundestages. Continue reading >>A Citizens’ Attempt to Solve the Polish Constitutional Crisis
Polish civil society groups have drafted a bill regarding the Act on the Constitutional Tribunal, expecting that the governing party PiS does not intend to legally solve the severe constitutional crisis it has created. We document the speech the representative of these groups, Jaroslaw Marciniak, gave in the Sejm on June 9th 2016. Continue reading >>Populists chairing the European Commission and Parliament
No, the title of this post does not refer to a dystopia to come after the next European elections in 2019. It refers to the two presidents of today – Jean-Claude Juncker and Martin Schulz. Now why can they be seen as populists in some plausible way? In my view, this is because of the way in which they see politics and the role of the “people” in it. Continue reading >>
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29 June 2016
Sovereign and misinformed: Brexit as an exercise in democracy?
Rather than criticising the Brexit referendum as a decision-making tool because ‘the people’ don’t have the necessary expertise to take decisions of this magnitude, we should question the conditions in which many UK voters were called to express their opinion. They, like many all over the world, have seen the progressive hollowing-out of those basic rights that make voting the expression of the right to individual and collective self-rule in the first place. Continue reading >>
28 June 2016
England’s Difficulty; Scotland’s Opportunity
Rather than arguing over when and how Article 50 TEU might be activated and by whom, or whether the two year clock ticking for exit can be stopped once started, we need as responsible citizens in a democracy to face up in good faith to what many of us regard as an appalling result, and coalesce around pressing for the quickest possible conclusion of the least worst option which still respects the actual referendum result. Continue reading >>
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United no more: Constitutional Headaches ahead for the United Kingdom
Those who voted Brexit are now celebrating and singing ‘Rule Britannia’ in the streets. They are still dreaming. When they will wake up, they will have to face the facts: there is no Empire, and Brexit will not solve their economic problems. Immigrants will not be deported, and if foreigners decide to leave, this will not solve their problems either. One day, they will wake up to discover that the Kingdom is dis-United. Continue reading >>
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Scotland Can Veto Brexit (sort of …).
Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has announced that she would veto any attempt by a future British government to effect the withdrawal of the UK from the EU following the referendum result. This has raised a flurry of questioning of whether this is actually constitutionally permissible. In this blogpost I will argue why I think it is; that is that the Scottish Parliament does, constitutionally, have the power to use the constitution to attempt to veto an attempt by a British government to take the United Kingdom out of the European Union. Continue reading >>
27 June 2016
Brexit im europäischen Verfassungsverbund
Wer jetzt auf den raschen Vollzug der „Entscheidung“ vom 23. Juni drängt, tut dies im besten Interesse der Stabilität und der Sicherheit. Wer dagegen Zeit gibt, zur Besinnung zu kommen und richtige Konsequenzen zu ziehen, könnte dem langfristigen Interesse Europas besser dienen. Continue reading >>A Disunited Kingdom: two Nations in, two Nations out
The United Kingdom is not a centralised state. It is a ‘family of nations’. There is a strong case for arguing that the referendum carries only if a majority of voters in all four nations respectively give their backing. England and Wales voted to leave, but Scotland and Northern Ireland voted to remain. Recognising that split is not a matter of shifting the goalposts after the fact. It is about respecting an established, indeed a compelling constitutional order. Continue reading >>
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