19 September 2017
Mit „Bayern zuerst“ in den Bundestag? – Gedankenspiele zur Sonderrolle der CSU in der Bundespolitik
Die CSU ist die einzige im Bundestag vertretene Partei, die nur in einem einzigen Bundesland wählbar und deren erklärtes Ziel es ist, in erster Linie Politik für eben dieses Bundesland zu machen. Mit diesem Versprechen gelingt es der CSU regelmäßig, in Bayern Rekordergebnisse zu erzielen. Muss eine erklärte „Bayern-Partei“ zur Bundestagswahl zugelassen werden? Continue reading >>
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17 September 2017
The Catalan Self-Determination Referendum Act: A New Legal Order in Europe
The Catalan Parliament is taking the secession process to the next level. By illegitimately passing two Acts that constitute a Catalan proto-constitution, a constitutional coup d'état and a new legal order are on their way. Continue reading >>15 September 2017
Das EU-Recht in der Krise – ein schwieriges Verhältnis
Seit Jahren wird darüber diskutiert, ob sich das EU-Primärrecht mit Blick auf die Euro-Krisenbewältigungsmaßnahmen angemessen biegungsfest zeigt. Nach der Entscheidung des Europäischen Gerichtshofs vom 6. September 2017, in der die Klagen der Slowakei und Ungarns gegen die vorläufige obligatorische Regelung zur Umsiedlung von Asylbewerbern abgewiesen wurde, stellt sich diese Frage im Bereich der Flüchtlingskrisenbewältigung nunmehr auch. In der Entscheidung nimmt der EuGH den Bindungsanspruch des Rechts weit – vielleicht zu weit – zurück. In dem Bemühen, der Politik effizientes und sicherlich auch weithin gefälliges Handeln zu ermöglichen, nimmt der EuGH schwere Legitimationsprobleme hin. Continue reading >>Kupierte Freihandelsabkommen: Verfassungsrechtliche Herausforderungen einer neuen Unionsstrategie
Bisher wurden die Mitgliedstaaten im Rahmen gemischter Abkommen bei allen Freihandelsverträgen der Union mit Drittstaaten eigenständige Vertragsparteien. Der Freihandel war damit keine ausschließliche Domäne der Union. Mit dieser Tradition wird die EU-Kommission unter ihrem Präsidenten Juncker nun brechen, wie sich aus unmissverständlichen Hinweisen in der Rede zur Lage der Union erkennen lässt. Was steht hinter diesem Paradigmenwechsel? Und ist er noch vereinbar mit dem Karlsruher Rechtsspruch, dass die mitgliedstaatliche Rechtssubjektivität nicht zu Gunsten einer staatsanalogen Union zurückweichen darf? Continue reading >>13 September 2017
Hat das Völkerrecht die (Atom-)Waffen gestreckt? Nordkorea und ein potentieller Militärschlag der USA
Der Konflikt um das nordkoreanische Atomprogramm spitzt sich immer weiter zu. Noch bietet das klassische Völkerrecht keine Möglichkeit für die Rechtfertigung eines Militärschlages, beispielsweise durch die USA. Doch die Staatenpraxis zu nuklearen Bedrohungslagen ist in Bewegung. Continue reading >>12 September 2017
Is the European Parliament Missing its Constitutional Moment?
Over the years, step by step, the European Parliament has won a share of real constitutional power. At times, Parliament has had a decisive influence on the constitutive development of the European Union. At other times, MEPs have found it just as difficult as the European Council has done to make constitutional sense of a Union which is an uneasy compromise between federal and confederal elements. If EU governance is congenitally weak it may be because its institutions are unable to manage the dichotomy between supranational and intergovernmental. Today, circumstances have thrown the European Parliament a golden opportunity to take a major step in the federal direction – but it looks as though MEPs are going to retreat again. Continue reading >>11 September 2017
Das Bundesverfassungsgericht und die „Direktionskraft“ der Normen?
Mit seiner Vorlage zum EuGH in Sachen Quantitative Easing zeigt das Bundesverfassungsgericht einmal mehr, dass es bei der Beurteilung ökonomischer Zusammenhänge fundamental schief liegt. Weiterbildung ist angesagt. Continue reading >>10 September 2017
Reconciling Religion: Lessons Learned from the Triple Talaq Case for Comparative Constitutional Governance
The recent case of Shayara Bano v Union of India heard before the Supreme Court of India provide helpful guidance for how a secular democratic regime with a multiplicity of religious, ethnic, and cultural communities can manage constitutional governance with an increasing number of seemingly irreconcilable tensions. Pluralist societies such as Canada and the United States grapple with a variety of delicate balancing acts: in such instance, the need to reconcile accommodation for religious and cultural minorities with the protection of gender rights on the other. Continue reading >>
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09 September 2017
The EU and the Catalan Crisis
The events of the past week in Catalunya (and of the weeks that will follow) are very serious and worrying. Catalunya is a region of a Member State of the EU that has begun a unilateral process of independence, disregarding the Constitution, its Statute of Autonomy and the opposition of half of the Catalan population. It’s a remarkable challenge for Spanish democracy. It’s a challenge for the EU as well. Continue reading >>08 September 2017
Hungarian Constitutional Identity and the ECJ Decision on Refugee Quota
The outcome of the lawsuit launched by the Hungarian Government against the EU Council’s decision on compulsory relocation of asylum seekers before the European Court of Justice (ECJ) took no-one by surprise, neither in Budapest nor elsewhere. Some may have hoped that the complaint would succeed legally, but nevertheless it has always been primarily a part of a well-devised political strategy based on the idea of national identity as a concept of constitutional and EU law. Continue reading >>07 September 2017
The EU as the Appropriate Locus of Power for Tackling Crises: Interpretation of Article 78(3) TFEU in the case Slovakia and Hungary v Council
The CJEU’s judgment in Slovakia and Hungary v Council of 6 September 2017 raises important instutional questions. As the Court implicitly recognises the EU as the appropriate forum for taking effective action to address the emergency situation created by a sudden inflow of third country nationals, it adopts its tendency towards purposive and effectiveness-oriented jurisprudence to asylum law. Continue reading >>06 September 2017
Demokratie als verfassungsfeindlicher Topos
Demokratie wird im Diskurs der Gegenwart von populistisch-autoritären Nationalisten gegen die Errungenschaften des offenen freiheitlich demokratischen Verfassungsstaats in Stellung gebracht. Im Zentrum steht dabei die pluralismusfeindliche Idee eines einheitlichen Volkswillens, der alleinige Grundlage politischer Legitimität sein soll. Diese Idee erklärt vier problematische anti-konstitutionelle Merkmale national-autoritärer Ideologien. Continue reading >>31 August 2017
Grenzenlose Freiheit – staatlich gefördert? Zum Verbot der Sonderung der Schülerinnen und Schüler an privaten Ersatzschulen
Das Grundgesetz fordert eine allgemeine Zugänglichkeit zu privaten Ersatzschulen unabhängig von den Besitzverhältnissen der Eltern. Doch der seit Jahren zu beobachtende Boom der Privatschulen geht an sozioökonomisch schwachen Familien vorbei. Ein wegweisender Gesetzesentwurf im baden-württembergischen Landtag könnte dies nun ändern. Continue reading >>30 August 2017
One Law, Two Justices
Poland’s rule of law crisis stems from the conviction that respect for institutions and the requirement to observe procedures are for the weak. The greatest risk arising from the crisis is that the recent disregard for both institutions and procedures will become a norm for future governments, whatever their political orientation. Continue reading >>
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28 August 2017
Privacy and the Indian Supreme Court
The Indian Supreme Court’s landmark ruling on the "Aadhar" biometric identification scheme is an important step to prepare India for the digital age and offers fresh impulses for a public debate on the legal contours of privacy. Continue reading >>25 August 2017
The Retro Style in Liberal Politics: A Review of Mark Lilla’s ,The Once and Future Liberal: After Identity Politics’
Columbia University’s Mark Lilla is an erudite and engaging historian of ideas, concentrating on political thought from the 18th century to the 20th. In his latest book "The Once and Future Liberal", Lilla attacks the current style of liberal politics, exemplified by professors, intellectuals and activists in social movements, as contemptuous of real-world electoral politics and of ordinary Americans. Continue reading >>
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24 August 2017
How not to Divorce Muslim Women in India
The Supreme Court of India has declared the Muslim practice of men divorcing their wife by repeating the word "talaq" three times unconstitutional. Continue reading >>Dispute Resolution after Brexit
When setting out her priorities for the Brexit negotiations in a speech at Lancaster House in January, Theresa May promised to ‘bring an end to the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice in Britain.’ This forcefully formulated ‘red line’ turned into a headache for the British negotiators as it was both somewhat misconceived – the ECJ’s preliminary reference procedure hardly results in jurisdiction ‘in Britain’ – and overly categorical ignoring both the likely content of the UK-EU withdrawal agreement and the shape of the future UK-EU relationship envisaged by her own government as a ‘new, deep and special partnership.’ Today’s paper on ‘enforcement and dispute resolution’ should therefore be welcomed as injecting a portion of realism and pragmatism in the debate over the ECJ. Continue reading >>Defenceless Formalists: on Abuse of Law and the Weakness of the Polish Judiciary
Poland’s constitutional crisis is caused by the power of those who attack the rule of law, but also by the weakness of those who defend it. This weakness derives from courts taking a traditional formalist approach, excluding purposive and functional argumentation and leaving themselves prone to attack by the abuse of power through the other branches of government. Continue reading >>
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23 August 2017
A Stress Test for Europe’s Judiciaries
The rule of law, judicial independence and separation of powers are values guaranteed in constitutions of member states of the Council of Europe. Nevertheless, in recent years, a number of challenges to these accepted values have emerged in different countries all over Europe. Events in countries like Hungary, Ukraine, Slovakia and Turkey should be mentioned in this context. Poland’s reforms of its judiciary (some of them still in draft stage) are the latest and gravest example of this European crisis. While such threats to judicial independence in individual states are a fundamental problem for European co-operation based on shared values of democracy, the rule of law and human rights, European states should not wait for remedies to be found on the European level. Rather, European states should learn from the challenges in Poland and other countries to critically review the constitutional and legal framework of their own national judiciaries. To facilitate this process, we suggest to stress test Europe's judiciaries. Continue reading >>21 August 2017
Venezuela: Lessons of a Crisis Written on the Wall
The current crisis in Venezuela is the culmination of a process that has been going on for a long time. For the past 18 years, Venezuela has been accumulating all the ingredients – in its society, the State, the economy and democracy– to create a perfect storm. Continue reading >>16 August 2017
Summer of Love: Karlsruhe Refers the QE Case to Luxembourg
It seems that the BVerfG has learned a lesson. Yesterday’s referral about the the European Central Bank’s policy of Quantitative Easing (QE) sets a completely different tone. It reads like a modest and balanced plea for judicial dialogue, rather than an indictment. Fifty years after the original event, a new Summer of Love seems to thrive between the highest judicial bodies. It shows no traces of the aplomb with which Karlsruhe presented its stance to Luxembourg three years ago. Continue reading >>Reviewing the recent Ban on Ritual Slaughter in Flanders
Flanders has adopted a ban of religious slaughter without stunning, following the Walloon region that had done the same earlier this year. In analysing the Flemish decree, three critical remarks need to be made in putting the new law into the right legal perspective. Continue reading >>14 August 2017
Linking Efficiency with Fundamental Rights in the Dublin System: the Case of Mengesteab
The recent CJEU decision "Mengesteab" has two significant consequences for Member States. First, applicants have a right to challenge the procedural steps by which Member States arrive at decisions regarding responsibility for protection applications to insure their fidelity to the rules prescribed in the Dublin Regulation. Second, the duty of Member States to begin assessing which state holds this responsibility engages as soon as the competent authority identified pursuant to article 35(1) of the regulation becomes aware of a request for international protection. Continue reading >>
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09 August 2017
The French Antiterrorist Bill: A Permanent State of Emergency
In July, a government bill against terrorism was adopted to replace the French state of emergency, which is in force since the terrorist attacks of November 2015. Critics have long complained about the lasting of the etat d'urgence. An analysis of the new bill however reveals that it is still a threat for human rights and in that matter rather a softened version of the state of emergency. Continue reading >>03 August 2017
„…den Mensch dem Menschen ähnlich machen“: Über Kooperationen zwischen Recht und Literatur
1. Wenn Rechtstexte auf literarische Texte treffen, dann treffen Wahrheitsformen […] Continue reading >>
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02 August 2017
The Opinion of Advocate General Bot in Taricco II: Seven “Deadly” Sins and a Modest Proposal
The wind of populism is blowing across Europe and courts (including constitutional and supreme courts) are not immune therefrom. Within this context, the enforcement of the constitutional identity clause to contrast the application and, sometimes, the primacy of EU law would be a powder keg waiting to be lit. In the latest act in the Taricco saga, Advocate General Bot in his opinion in Taricco II does nothing to defuse it – on the contrary. Continue reading >>01 August 2017