DEBATE

All Debates on Verfassungsblog

Verfassungsblog hosts online symposia on topical events and developments in legislation and jurisdiction and puts cutting-edge scholarship up for discussion. Our aim is to create a lively and multi-faceted constitutionalist public sphere in Europe and beyond. Since 2011 high-profile issues of public interest in constitutional law and politics have been at the center of controversial debates on Verfassungsblog on a regular basis, including the constitutional decline in EU member states like Hungary, the regional separatism in Scotland and Catalonia, European constitutional courts and their fraught relationships et.al.

October 2024
11 contributions

Europe’s Foundation and its Future: The EU Charter in Focus

On paper, the fundamental rights found in the EU Charter have undergone a remarkable journey, evolving from soft general principles of law into a transformative force shaping EU law. And while legal experts are well-aware of the foundational role the Charter plays within the EU, it has failed to become a document that European citizens have embraced as their own. This symposium, edited by Jakob Gašperin Wischhoff, is the first of several that aim to change this. Featuring legal scholars and practitioners examining the most pressing questions surrounding the Charter, we will show both its transformative force as well as areas where its potential is yet to be fully realized.

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12 contributions

Europe’s Geopolitical Coming of Age: Adapting Law and Governance to Harsh International Realities

This symposium explores transformative shifts in European security and defense law in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, examining the shift from a presumption of peace to confronting existential threats. It focuses on how this transition reshapes critical areas like judicial accountability, defense cooperation, migration, climate security, and disinformation, underscoring the urgent need for new legal frameworks to protect democracy, security, and fundamental rights in an evolving geopolitical landscape.

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10 contributions

Unmasking the Intractable: Exploring Anti-Racism and the Law

The joint symposium between Verfassungsblog and the africanlegalstudies.blog critically addresses the enduring challenges of racial inequality within international and national legal frameworks. It examines the effectiveness of anti-racism laws, questioning whether their shortcomings arise from unrealistic expectations or inherent design flaws.

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12 contributions

Law and Political Economy in Germany

The Law and Political Economy discourse has attracted widespread attention in US legal academia. Drawing from the conference „Law and Political Economy in Germany“ in June in Berlin, this blog symposium dives into a dialogue between the Law and Political Economy Discourse and German legal thinking. Convened by Andreas Engert, Eva Herzog, Anna-Bettina Kaiser, Bertram Lomfeld and Silvia von Steinsdorff, the symposium is supported by „The Laws of Social Cohesion“ and its collaborators.

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19 contributions

The 2024 ICJ Advisory Opinion on the Occupied Palestinian Territory

The Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on the “Legal Consequences arising from the Policies and Practices of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem” was a groundbreaking moment in international law. It has consequences not only for Israel, but also for third States, as well as international and regional organizations, in terms of non-recognition and non-cooperation. In this blog symposium, Palestinian, Israeli, and other scholars take stock of the Advisory Opinion and its regional and global impact.

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September 2024
14 contributions

Wen es trifft: Der Volksbegriff der AfD und Szenarien der Diskriminierung

Wenn diesen Sonntag Landtagswahlen in Thüringen und in Sachsen stattfinden, könnte eine autoritär-populistische Partei stärkste Kraft werden, die mit ihrem Volksbegriff gegen Menschenwürde und Demokratieprinzip verstößt und die rechtliche Gleichheit der Staatsangehörigen in Frage stellt. Welche Szenarien der Diskriminierung könnten auf uns zukommen, wenn die AfD in Regierungsverantwortung versuchen würde, diese politischen Bestrebungen umzusetzen? Diese Frage stellt das Online-Symposium „Wen es trifft“ des Thüringen-Projekts.

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14 contributions

Das Jurastudium in der Kritik

Die Rechtswissenschaft steht vor zahlreichen Herausforderungen. Ob dies die Gefahren durch autoritären Populismus oder die notwendige Transformation zur Bekämpfung der Klimakrise betrifft: Zahlreiche gesellschaftliche Probleme spiegeln sich noch nicht ausreichend in der juristischen Ausbildung. Dieses Symposium verortet die Diskussion um die Reformbedürftigkeit des Jurastudiums im größeren gesellschaftlichen Kontext und macht dabei auch marginalisierte Perspektiven sichtbar.

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July 2024
12 contributions

Never Again: The Holocaust, Trauma and Its Effect on Constitutional and International Law

Constitutions are shaped by historical narratives and collective memories. Historical traumas affect national and international laws and policies. The fears, anxieties, and aspirations of subsequent generations of both perpetrator and victim groups play a role in forming social and political perceptions of what a just and fair order requires. This blog symposium focuses on the constitutional and legal commitments, orientations, and arguments that the trauma of WWII and the Holocaust have given rise to and how they have changed over time.

Co-edited by Mattias Kumm and Liav Orgad

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7 contributions

Extraterritorial State Obligations in Migration Contexts

The proliferation of migratory movements has given rise to border and migration policies of states intended at keeping migrants away from their national territory, and thus the corresponding human rights obligations and responsibility – generally called ‘externalisation’ policies. This Symposium explores both existing and novel legal approaches that can counteract this evasion of obligations and responsibility.

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8 contributions

Unwritten Constitutional Norms

Unwritten Constitutional Rules are those elements of the constitution that are not fully contained in its text. Even though – or maybe precisely because – they are unwritten, they serve important functions within the constitutional system. This blog symposium examines the phenomenon of Unwritten Constitutionalism from a comparative perspective with contributions from Germany, Canada, and the United Kingdom, three jurisdictions in which unwritten constitutional rules play very different roles

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7 contributions

Media Freedom and Pluralism

What is ‘media’ in a digitalized society where boundaries between news, commercial and social content are increasingly blurred? How can we safeguard media pluralism against powerful state actors as well as powerful tech companies? This Symposium will explore these and other pressing questions concerning the state of the media.

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9 contributions

Friedfertige Proteste im Schmerzgriff der Polizei

Wie sind polizeiliche Schmerzgriffe, die Beamte bei friedlichen Versammlungen einsetzen, rechtlich zu beurteilen? Obwohl solche Grifftechniken extreme Schmerzen verursachen, wenden Polizeikräfte diese in einigen Bundesländern fast schon routinemäßig an. Diese Debatte leuchtet den Rechtsrahmen von Schmerzgriffen aus straf- und verfassungsrechtlicher Perspektive aus.

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May 2024
14 contributions

Unboxing the New EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive

There is much to unpack in the now final text of the EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive. In partnership with the German Institute for Human Rights, this blog symposium discusses the Directive’s scope on human and environmental rights, its extraterritorial reach, the role of National Human Rights Institutions, accompanying measures for corporations, and delves into critical issues such as access to justice for rightsholders, administrative oversight, and the underlying neo-colonial context of the law-making process.

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June 2024
9 contributions

The ITLOS Advisory Opinion on Climate Change

On May 21, 2024, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) delivered a long-awaited Advisory Opinion on climate change and international law. This joint blog symposium with the Sabin Center’s Climate Law Blog delves into specific aspects of the ITLOS opinion and situates it in the wider context of climate and environmental litigation.

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April 2024
17 contributions

The Transformation of European Climate Litigation

In a transformative moment for European and global climate litigation, the European Court of Human Rights has ruled for the first time in its history that inadequate climate mitigation measures violate human rights. The implications are far-reaching, both in Europe and beyond. This joint blog debate with the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law assesses the Court’s climate judgments from April 9 and discusses the implications for climate protection and climate litigation.

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13 contributions

Indian Constitutionalism in the Last Decade

Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has governed India for the past 10 years. During this time, many aspects of India’s democracy and constitutional system have come under attack. Whether it’s freedom of speech, religious freedom, or federalism: Indian constitutionalism has changed. This blog symposium explores these changes and assesses the state of constitutionalism in India.

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March 2024
16 contributions

Das Parteiverbot in Deutschland und Europa

Die bundesweiten Demonstrationen in Reaktion auf das Potsdamer “Remigrationstreffen” haben die Debatte über ein Verbot der AfD neu entfacht. Welchen rechtlichen und politischen Hürden begegnet ein solcher Schritt, auch in Anbetracht wirksamer Selbstviktimisierungsstrategien der AfD? Wie gehen andere Länder mit vergleichbaren Bedrohungen für die Demokratie um? In einem Blog-Symposium des Instituts für Deutsches und Internationales Parteienrecht und Parteienforschung (PRUF) und der Stiftung Wissenschaft und Demokratie (SW&D) in Kooperation mit dem Thüringen-Projekt versammeln wir Beiträge, die das Parteiverbot grundlegend und aus unterschiedlichen Perspektiven analysieren.

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April 2024