Art. 21 DSA Has Come to Life

Art. 21 DSA is a new, unusual and interesting framework to settle disputes over online content moderation decisions. By now, the first four online dispute settlement bodies (ODS-bodies) have been certified, and most of them have already started taking cases. In this article, based on recent interviews with representatives from all certified bodies, I will explore how these very first ODS-bodies are set up and which very first experiences they have made.

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Flagging Trusted Flaggers

Nachdem die Bundesnetzagentur den ersten vertrauenswürdigen Hinweisgeber (Trusted Flagger) benannt hat, werden Vorwürfe der Zensur, übermäßigen Einschränkung der Meinungsfreiheit und fehlenden Erforderlichkeit solcher Stellen laut. Dabei ist das Konzept der Trusted Flagger keinesfalls neu oder eine Idee das DSA und das Vorgehen gegen illegale Inhalte im Netz weiterhin eine große Herausforderung in demokratischen Gesellschaften. Der DSA schafft klare Vorgaben für Trusted Flagger und transparente Verfahren.

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Managing Migration the Italian Way

The Italy-Albania deal provides a new, some say innovative, approach to externalization in migration procedures. It differs from the current EU toolbox, raising issues related to these differences and the treatment of procedural rights. Where these issues arise and how they will be litigated nationally and/or in front of the ECJ is unclear but will shape migration discourses beyond Italy.

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The Missing Chapter

The European Commission’s Annual Rule of Law Report aims to prevent further rule of law backsliding within the EU by examining the rule of law situation in Member States. However, the report is missing an important chapter: the EU itself. On 28 October 2024, the Rule of Law Clinic (CEU Democracy Institute, Budapest), together with experts from across Europe, began bridging this gap by publishing the first report on EU adherence to rule of law standards. Without a meaningful self-assessment of its own compliance with rule of law principles, the EU weakens its credibility, particularly when addressing systemic non-compliance with EU law by Member States.

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Wie die Grundrechte-Charta unbegleitete Minderjährige vor dem europäischen Verschiebebahnhof schützt

Die Anfang Juni 2024 im Amtsblatt veröffentlichten neuen Regelungen über das Gemeinsame Europäische Asylsystem finden ab 2026 Anwendung. Weiterhin zentral bleibt dabei die Frage, welcher Mitgliedstaat für die Bearbeitung des Asylantrags zuständig ist. In Hinblick auf unbegleitete Minderjährige verstößt ein Zuständigkeitsbestimmungsverfahren, das regelhaft die Möglichkeit der Überstellung in den Erstregistrierungsstaat prüft, gegen die kinderrechtlichen Garantien der EU-Grundrechtecharta.

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Taking Back Control?

This week, the Polish government unveiled its new migration strategy which lays out a proposal that, “in the event of a threat to destabilize the country by an influx of immigrants, it should be possible to temporarily and territorially suspend the right to accept asylum applications.” This blog argues that the proposal is not only unlawful but also poses a threat to the common European asylum system. This is so especially in light of the upcoming implementation of the New Pact on Migration and Asylum, a set of new rules managing migration and establishing a common asylum system at EU level.

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Unleashing Horizontal State Liability

The Common European Asylum System (CEAS) is under attack. In a recent Judgment against Hungary, the European Court of Justice has unambiguously stated that non-compliance with the rules of the CEAS undermines solidarity between Member States and strikes at the very heart of EU law. Traditional means of enforcement, however, seem insufficient to foster compliance with these rules. Against this backdrop, this blogpost argues for the unexplored avenue for enforcing the CEAS via horizontal state liability.

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Admissibility Revisited

In an effort to force the European Union to adopt more ambitious climate targets, two environmental NGOs initiated a proceeding before the EU General Court, invoking the rarely used mechanism of “internal review” under the EU’s Aarhus Regulation. The reason for this unusual approach lies within a reoccurring issue of climate litigation: overcoming restrictive admissibility requirements. This new approach follows a path that had not yet been considered by legal scholarship or practice. While the line of argument is rather innovative, it goes beyond the boundaries of the Aarhus Regulation and is therefore likely to fail.

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Taking Locus Standing of International Actors Seriously

On October 4th 2024 the Court of Justice issued its judgement in Front Polisario II upholding the judgement in which GC annulled Council’s decision on the conclusion of the trade agreement between European Union and Morocco. In its landmark judgement the Court acknowledged the legal standing of Front Polisario – the liberation movement representing rights of the people of Western Sahara. The Court’s findings advance the flexible and adequate approach on access to EU’s courts – and for that are worth applauding.

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Sale of Nationality as a Violation of Human Dignity

On 21 March 2023, the European Commission brought action against Republic of Malta for establishing and maintaining a policy and a practice of naturalisation despite “the absence of a genuine link of the applicants with the country, in exchange for pre-determined payments or investments”. In this blog, I argue that the Court is fully competent because Malta violated article 1 of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. Specifically, I argue that selling nationality violates human dignity because nationality confers legal subjecthood, which is a central condition for guaranteeing the human dignity of European citizens.

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Rethinking EU Law Beyond the Liberal Feminist Paradigm

In K,L v Staatssecretaris van Justitie en Veiligheid (‘K,L’), the CJEU decided that a belief in the value of gender equality associated with the lifestyle of the westernized woman be regarded as a reason for persecution. While the decision contributes to a gender-sensitive EU asylum law, I argue that the CJEU’s classification of the young women’s belief in the value of gender equality as ‘identificatory’ (as opposed to ‘religious’ or ‘political’) perpetuates a long-standing criticism of the liberal feminist paradigm.

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Auf Europablindflug in der Asyldebatte

Eine Viertelmilliarde Euro. Das war das letzte Mal am Ende der Preis, als deutsche Politiker und Verfassungsrechtsprofessoren im Brustton der Überzeugung Europarecht erklärten und alles rechtmäßig fanden. Dabei war die von der CSU durchgesetzte und von der Großen Koalition aus Union und SPD verabschiedete PKW-Maut für Ausländer – von vornherein absehbar – europarechtswidrig und kostete den deutschen Steuerzahler nach der Klarstellung durch den EuGH viele Millionen Euro Vertragsstrafen. Der Umgang mit dem Recht in der aktuellen Flüchtlingsdebatte könnte Deutschland, also uns alle, am Ende viel mehr kosten – nicht so sehr an Euro, aber an Vertrauen in die Verlässlichkeit Deutschlands und die deutsche Europapolitik, und allgemeiner in die Verlässlichkeit des Rechts.

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The Future of the European Green Deal

With the European Green Deal, the Commission has successfully presented a concept for improving climate, biodiversity, and environmental protection in line with Art. 11 TFEU. Most measures proposed by the Commission since 2019 have been adopted by the European Parliament (EP) and Council. However, the focus now shifts to implementation and application, where member states bear primary responsibility. "Law in the books" must become "law in action".

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Brave New World

The exhilaration and enthusiasm which followed the passing of the Digital Services Act (DSA) is long over. No matter one’s perspective on the DSA, it seems clear that the party is over and the work begins. One of the perhaps oddest provisions of the DSA is Article 21. It calls for the creation of private quasi-courts that are supposed to adjudicate content moderation disputes. User Rights, based in Berlin, is one of the first organisations to assume this role.

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Kein EU-Geld für Thüringen?

In Deutschland wird die Regierungsbeteiligung einer rechtsextremen Partei zumindest auf Landesebene ein immer realistischeres Szenario. In so einem Fall könnte die EU mit fast allen ihren Instrumenten auch gegen die autoritäre Regierung eines Bundeslandes vorgehen – selbst wenn sich die Bundesregierung weiter an EU-Recht hielte. Das Zurückhalten von EU-Fördergeldern wäre das effektivste Mittel der EU, um die Rechtstaatlichkeit auf regionaler Ebene zu schützen.

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Nun also doch? Zurückweisungen von Asylbewerbern aufgrund einer „Notlage“

Die Dublin-Regeln verlieren nicht deshalb ihre rechtliche Bindungswirkung, weil sie praktisch schlecht funktionieren. Im Europarecht gilt nicht das völkerrechtliche Prinzip eines „Auge um Auge, Zahn um Zahn“, wonach ein Land eine Verpflichtung missachten darf, weil andere Länder dasselbe machen. Zahlreiche Urteile des EuGH bekräftigen seit Jahren, dass die Dublin-Regeln trotz aller Defizite verbindlich sind. Die Politik muss Gesetze ändern, die ihr nicht gefallen.

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Auditing Platforms under the Digital Services Act

Taming the power of online platforms has become one of the central areas of the European Union's policy in the digital age. The DSA increases the accountability of very large online platforms and very large search engines by introducing an auditing system. The audit process as defined by the DSA risks producing counterproductive consequences for the European policy objectives. From a constitutional perspective, the outsourcing of competence and decision-making from public to private actors articulates a system of compliance and enforcement based on multiple centres of power.

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Prove Your Integrity or Resign

In May 2024, in the case of Bala, the ECtHR issued another decision concerning the vetting of the judiciary in Albania. This time, the Court decided that the state’s ban on a judicial advisor, who resigned instead of undergoing the integrity vetting process, from entering high public offices for fifteen years does not violate the ECHR. While the ECHR does not explicitly articulate the right to free choice of occupation or the right to equal access to public offices, this article demonstrates that even under these two rights, the limitation in question is likely proportionate. However, legislators would be wise to consider less intrusive options as well.

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Could Hungary be suspended from Schengen?

In early July, the Orbán government announced that it would extend a program that grants third country nationals simplified access and stay to work in Hungary to Russian and Belarussian nationals. This blog maps the ways in which Hungary’s policy might undermine the security of the Schengen area and surveys the tools Member States and EU institutions have at their disposal to counter it. Should the Hungarian government fail to dispel the concerns raised by its extension of the national card system, these mechanisms should be activated to safeguard the security of the Schengen area.

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Recht für rechts

SLAPP – dieses Kürzel steht für strategic lawsuits against public participation und befasst sich mit einem Phänomen, das sich steigender Beliebtheit erfreut: Klagen, die in erster Linie erhoben werden, um unliebsame Kritik zu unterdrücken. Insbesondere bei rechten Akteuren sind SLAPPs zuletzt immer beliebter geworden. Anfang des Jahres hat die EU eine Richtlinie gegen SLAPPs erlassen, die allerdings gerade gegen SLAPPs von rechts nicht viel ausrichten können wird.

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A Network in Defense of the Rule of European Constitutional Law

In face of the erosion of the role of the judiciary, which is undermining the power and independence of many courts worldwide, European national courts stand in a stronger position. They benefit from the support of a robust network of actors committed to defending shared European values.

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A Union of Equality?

Last Thursday, Ursula von der Leyen, the new – and former – President of the EU Commission presented the ‘Political Guidelines for the next European Commission 2024-2029’, her ideas and priorities for the coming mandate. This blogpost will examine whether the Guidelines are living up to the scale of the gender-related concerns and challenges that are facing the Union, as Ursula von der Leyen promises. It identifies a shift in tone in the Commission’s pledges to promoting gender equality and outlines some proposals that the German Women Lawyers Association (djb) has advanced in order to help tackle these challenges.

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Why and How the Hungarian Presidency Must Be Stopped

It took less than a week for Viktor Orbán to make the worst predictions about the Hungarian Presidency of the Council become true. Yet with a twist. If many had warned about the danger that such a Presidency would have paralysed the internal operation of the EU, nobody expected this could also cause confusion and damage to the Union’s foreign policy. How the EU Member States will react to it may define the overall credibility of the Union on the international stage, particularly at a time when it increasingly faces significant challenges both from within and the outside.

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Hate Speech on and off the Field

During the EURO 2024 in Germany, the UEFA has imposed a series of sanctions on fans and two players for inappropriate comments and gestures. Albania's player Mirlind Daku was suspended by UEFA's Control, Ethics and Disciplinary Body (CEDB) for two UEFA representative team competition matches after chanting nationalist slogans. Turkey's Merih Demiral was suspended for two matches for celebrating his second goal against Austria with a "wolf salute". These sanctions can be considered justified under the standards of the European Convention on Human Rights ("ECHR"). However, in order to have an effective preventive effect, they should be accompanied by criminal investigations under national law.

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How Viktor Orbán Challenges the EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy

Since the start of the Hungarian Presidency of the Council of the European Union (EU), the Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán pursued an active foreign policy. He went to Kyiv for a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, made a surprise visit to Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, attended an informal summit of the Organisation of Turkic States hosted by Ilham Aliyev, President of Azerbaijan, and then flew to Beijing for a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Orbán’s self-declared ‘peace diplomacy’ illustrates – once more – the challenges surrounding the EU’s external representation. His visits are nothing else than an expression of Hungarian national foreign policy. Also in that capacity, however, his actions are problematic in view of Hungary’s obligations under the EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy.

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Einstimmig für alle, alle für einstimmig?

Angesichts der Bestrebungen, das Bundesverfassungsgericht besser zu schützen, drängt sich unweigerlich die Frage auf, ob auf europäischer Ebene ähnliche Maßnahmen erforderlich sind. Derzeit sind rechtspopulistische und potenziell unionsfeindliche Parteien europaweit im Aufwind. Insbesondere das Verfahren zur Ernennung von Richter*innen des EuGH und des EuG weist Schwachstellen auf, die Feind*innen einer unabhängigen Gerichtsbarkeit ausnutzen könnten.

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Elektroautos, „Strafzölle“ und Klimaschutz

Internationale Wirtschaftsbeziehungen stehen selten im Zentrum öffentlicher Berichterstattung. Zwei Entscheidungen in den USA und der EU innerhalb von wenigen Wochen haben indes weitreichende Aufmerksamkeit gefunden. Es geht um die Erhebung von Zusatzzöllen auf Elektroautos aus China. Die Maßnahmen der USA verstoßen gegen das Recht der Welthandelsorganisation (WTO) und sind völkerrechtswidrig; bei den Maßnahmen der EU ist fraglich, ob Klimaschutz durch Verfügbarkeit günstiger Elektroautos hinreichend berücksichtigt wird.

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Im „Westen“ viel Neues

Der EuGH hat in seinem Urteil vom 11. Juni 2024 einen geschlechtsspezifischen Asylgrund bestätigt: Frauen, die jahrelang in einem Umfeld der Gleichberechtigung zwischen Frauen und Männern gelebt haben, können unter Umständen einen Anspruch auf Asyl haben, wenn sie diese Lebensweise in ihrem Heimatland aufgeben müssten. Das Urteil stärkt damit nicht nur die Stellung von Frauen in Asylfragen. Es könnte sich auch auf den Schutzstatus von sogenannten „Klimaflüchtlingen“ auswirken.

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Aufgeschoben ist nicht aufgehoben

Der Versuch der belgischen Ratspräsidentschaft, ein Verhandlungsmandat für die Umsetzung der umstrittenen Chatkontrolle-Verordnung zu erzielen, ist letzte Woche unter anderem am Widerstand Deutschlands gescheitert. Das sind gute Nachrichten für die Grundrechte, doch trotz der Umwälzungen durch die Europawahl ist es noch zu früh für eine Entwarnung.

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Ist der Green Deal der EU nach der Wahl des Europaparlaments verzichtbar?

Im Zuge der Wahlen zum Europäischen Parlament (EP) im Juni 2024 ist der Europäische Green Deal (EGD) in die Defensive geraten. Die Stimmungslage, die noch im Umfeld der Wahlen von 2019 herrschte, hat sich verändert. Damals wurde das Ergebnis der Wahlen als Plädoyer der Unionsbürger für eine ambitioniertere Klima- und Umweltpolitik verstanden und aufgegriffen. Aktuell sind andere berechtigte politische Anliegen wie Migration, Sicherheit und wirtschaftliche Stabilität in den Vordergrund gerückt. Nicht verändert hat sich demgegenüber die Klimalage. Nach wie vor drohen die von der Wissenschaft ermittelten planetaren Belastungsgrenzen überschritten zu werden, die nicht zuletzt durch das im internationalen Übereinkommen von Paris rechtsverbindlich verankerte 1,5 bis 2 Grad-Ziel verstärkt politische Relevanz entfaltet haben.

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Between Continuity and a Perforated ‘Cordon Sanitaire’

Fears of a radical right-wing wave dominated the debates leading up to the European Parliament (EP) elections. As the final votes are tallied across the 27 EU Member States, it has become evident that the predictions of pre-election polls have partially come true: Far-right parties secured about a quarter of the popular vote. What are the implications? While the current results likely indicate by-and-large continuity in the European Parliament, including an ongoing shift to the right on contested issues such as migration or climate policy, they had heavily disruptive consequences on the national level, which in France has resulted in snap parliamentary elections. This will have pronounced impact on the balance of power in the (European) Council and on the EU as a whole.

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Militant Public Administration

An unprecedented scandal surrounding a Polish governmental fund established to aid crime victims highlights the role of civil servants in authoritarian state capture. The revelations surrounding the Justice Fund show broad levels of bureaucratic acquiescence with shocking abuses of power, and only belated effort to document and report these abuses. The Polish case shows it is time for a democratically militant public administration – the new vision of civil service better prepared to fend off authoritarian encroachment from elected politicians.

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Unionsfeindlichkeit und Obstruktion

Am 9. Juni ist Europawahl. Mit dem zu erwartenden, starken Ergebnis der potenziell unionsfeindlichen Parteien bei der Europawahl wächst vor allem auch das Risiko für Angriffe aus dem Inneren des Europäischen Parlaments selbst. Ein Blick in die aktuelle Geschäftsordnung des EU-Parlaments (GOEP) zeigt bereits heute ein EU-Parlament, das sich im Bewusstsein dieser Obstruktionsgefahren selbst organisiert hat.

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Rechtsaußen in Europa

Die Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) ist nicht die einzige Rechtsaußen-Partei, die vor einem möglichen Wahlerfolg steht. In vielen europäischen Ländern erleben Parteien die sich vehement gegen Einwanderung, die vermeintliche „Elite“ und die Europäische Union (EU) wenden einen Popularitätsschub. Meinungsumfragen deuten darauf hin, dass sie bei den kommenden Europawahlen im Juni 2024 bis zu einem Viertel der Sitze gewinnen könnten. Bei näherer Betrachtung wird jedoch deutlich, dass es trotz ihrer augenscheinlichen Kameradschaft und gemeinsamen Ideologie bemerkenswerte Unterschiede zwischen diesen Kräften in den 27 EU-Mitgliedstaaten gibt.

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Litigating the EU-Turkey Deal

Earlier this year three Dutch NGOs sued the Netherlands for approving and carrying out the EU-Turkey deal. They argue that the Dutch government should be held responsible for the dire conditions under which asylum seekers have been held under on Greek islands since the deal has been concluded, which have repeatedly been found to violate human rights. In this blog, I sketch the context of litigation surrounding the EU-Turkey deal which has driven the NGOs to sue in the Dutch national legal system and explain the promise and pitfalls of the rise of strategic litigation in the sphere of migration and asylum law.

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Unboxing the EU Body for Ethical Standards

The creation of a dedicated EU Body for Ethical Standards carries the potential to mark a qualitative difference in the development of the EU ethics system as we know it. The contributions shows the strengths and looming pitfalls of the new Body.

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Why Europe Needs a Harmonised Access to Information Act

May the 3rd marks press freedom day around the world. Today, many articles and editorials will be published across Europe, highlighting the need to put an end to threats faced by journalists in Member States. While all these pan-European threats certainly need to be tackled, one fundamental pan-European crisis faced by journalists across the continent remains widely ignored: the difficulties to access information held by public authorities and the disparities among Member States when requesting data. This article aims to review the current situation of the right to request information from public bodies in EU Member States and offers a proposal that opens the door to discussing the possibility of harmonising such a right through the internal market competence.

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Who is afraid of actio popularis?

If, as the German experience suggests, the actio popularis exclusion serves to bar individuals from invoking objective illegality that does not concern rights, while standing of associations is a way to enforce objective legality despite the actio popularis exclusion, it is hard to see why this should have any relevance for the European Convention of Human Rights. Human rights are, after all, rights.

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The Ball is in the Game

In 2017 strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs) became an important topic on the EU level. As a result, the EU adopted the anti-SLAPP Directive, which shall protect journalists from abusive lawsuits that do not serve justice but only the sinister aim of silencing free press. However, there is important litigation as well. In 2024 the Real Madrid Club de Fútbol vs Le Monde case addressed the problem of exorbitant damages targeting press and introducing a deterrent effect on freedom of speech in transnational cases. From a rule of law and, especially, freedom of the press angle, the case is of paramount importance as it forwards a simple but groundbreaking argument: two of EU law’s most fundamental principles, mutual recognition and freedom of speech, are a strong basis to fight SLAPPs.

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“Very Tight Control”

In 2020, at the height of the Covid crisis, the EU had its 'Hamiltonian Moment'. To overcome the pandemic's economic shock, Member States agreed to back an unprecedented, capital markets-based 750 billion Euro funding scheme to kickstart the European economy. However, since then, it proved surprisingly hard to make sense of where all the money went. Apparently, one main oversight body is a rather informal committee of Member States. Now, internal documents paint a picture of peer scrutiny that remains at a general level, is conducted under tight deadlines, and is strongly limited by scarce resources. They also reveal an evolution of the process to a point what looks much like a mere formality.

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Gemischte Signale für das nationale Klimarecht

Die Klima-Entscheidungen der Großen Kammer des Europäischen Gerichtshofs für Menschenrechte (EGMR) sind wegweisend. Auf den ersten Blick ist jedoch nicht vollkommen klar, wie sie sich auf das nationale Klimarecht der Vertragsstaaten der Europäischen Menschenrechtskonvention (EMRK) auswirken werden. Haben die strategischen Klimaklagen den von ihnen erwünschten Durchbruch erzielt, der das nationale Klimarecht revolutionieren wird?

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Menschenrecht auf Klimaschutz als „lebensrettende Behandlung“?

Manuela Niehaus verteidigt die menschenrechtsgestützte Klimarechtsprechung – insbesondere des EGMR – gegen meine Kritik. Es handele sich nicht um „Globuli für Umweltjuristen“, sondern um ein potentiell lebensrettendes Medikament, das – im Zusammenspiel mit anderen Mitteln – einen wesentlichen Beitrag zum Klimaschutz leisten könne. Das sehen sicher viele ähnlich und darum bin ich dankbar für Niehaus Argumente und für ihren sanften Spott. Ihr Spott trifft mich zu Recht, ihre Argumente aber überzeugen mich nur sehr teilweise.

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Homeopathic Globules for Environmental Lawyers

Are courts, as institutions aimed at individual justice, suitable institutions for dealing with the climate crisis? Could they guide the social and global transformation processes that are certainly necessary? Bernhard Wegener takes a clear stand against the “sweet illusion of climate justice“.

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Globuli für Umweltjuristen

Sind Gerichte als Institutionen des einzelfallbezogenen Rechtsschutzes geeignete Einrichtungen zur Bewältigung der Klimakrise? Könnten sie die sicherlich notwendigen gesamtgesellschaftlichen und globalen Transformationsprozesse anleiten? Bernhard Wegener bezieht klar Stellung gegen die „zuckersüße Illusion von Climate Justice“. 

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Enforcement of the Digital Markets Act

Since March 2024, the undertakings Alphabet/Google, Amazon, Apple, Byte-Dance/TikTok, Meta, and Microsoft must comply with the obligations of the Digital Markets Act (DMA). Within the first month after the 6-months implementation period has ended, the European Commission opened investigations against Alphabet/Google, Apple, and Meta for non-compliance with the obligations in the DMA. All proceedings can be traced back to related competition law cases. However, only two proceedings follow the same reasoning as their competition law role models, while the case against Meta reveals that the approaches under the DMA can and will deviate significantly to those under competition law and data protection law.

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To Define Is Just to Define

Social media allows users to share content worldwide. This also enables users to distribute illegal content. The laws of the EU Member States vary greatly when it comes to what content they consider to be illegal, especially regarding hate speech. Thus, it is important which national law applies in cross-border cases concerning online content. Ultimately, this question is closely linked to the broader reshuffling of power in the digital sphere: will it be actual ‘law’ that platforms enforce online or norms made by platforms themselves? So far, the law of 27 Member States plus the EU itself remains utterly chaotic compared to the more uniform Terms of Service (ToS) of the internet giants.

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Strengthening the Resilience of the Rule of Law through Democracy

For almost a decade now, the European Union (EU) has been struggling with the erosion of the rule of law in some of its Member States. The IEP explored the various pillars of the rule of law resilience, culminating in the recent RESILIO report. Unsurprisingly, the independent judiciary and effective public administration prove to be key for the functioning of the rule of law. To remain resilient, the rule of law needs a solid democratic political culture anchored in a robust civil society, independent media, and a sound public debate. Henceforth, a long-term investment in democracy is the best way to strengthen the resilience of the rule of law.

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Moderation Made in Europe

The EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA) has been fully applicable for a little more than a month now. The conditions are thus in place for the emergence of the out-of-court dispute settlement (ODS) ecosystem envisaged in Article 21 DSA, arguably the DSA’s most original contribution to securing digital platform users’ rights. In this post, we try to envision the shape such an ecosystem might take over the next few years in the key area of social media content moderation (SMCM). We argue that the DSA may create an adjudication system dominated by a few ODS providers backed by public-private partnerships and ready to work in concert with the complaint-handling mechanisms set up by the platforms themselves.

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The Kovačević Case Revisited

On 20 March 2023 the Council of the European Union gave Bosnia and Hercegovina green light to start accession negotiations. However, despite this political endorsement, BiH must fulfill the conditionality criteria, including a series of six judgments by the ECtHR relating to the predetermined ethnic keys. The last case, Kovačević v. BiH, was referred to the Grand Chamber in December 2023. If the Court follows its previous case law, this should force the mono-ethnic political parties and their leaders as well as the EU institutions to insist on de-blocking the constitutional impasse for any realistic steps towards European integration.

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The Spanish Amnesty, the Conflict with Catalonia, and the Rule of Law

The Spanish amnesty for the Catalan independence movement is a victory for the rule of law, rather than a defeat. It is not an exemption from punishment otherwise due, but instead a reflection of the fact that the acts now amnestied should never have been subject to criminal prosecution in the first place. It is thus also a way for Spain to return to compliance with its obligations under European and international human rights law.

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Shortcomings of the AI Act

After the much-awaited vote of the 13th March 2024 by the European Parliament, it is time to begin evaluating the state of fundamental rights in light of the AI Act. In this blog post, three areas of potential inconsistencies and risks are examined: differentiation of provider and deployer, biometrics used in real-time and post-factum, and the standards of biometric recognition in the areas of immigration.

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A Constitutional Dignitary Conceived in the Orbán-Regime

On 26 February, Tamás Sulyok, the former President of the Hungarian Constitutional Court, was elected Head of State by the Parliament. The election of Tamás Sulyok as a member of the Constitutional Court and then as its president was part of the process during which Fidesz took over the Constitutional Court. Sulyok’s presidency (2016-2024) was a testimony to the fact that the Constitutional Court has become subservient to the Fidesz-dominated political branches, and there is no sign that he has actively tried to do anything against it. Based on what we have seen so far, therefore, Tamás Sulyok is part of the Orbán-regime, and nothing suggests that he will exercise greater autonomy and independence in his role as Head of State.

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Ecocide à la Bruxelloise

Belgium's new ecocide provision has been hailed as a resounding victory for environmental activists, particularly so for the burgeoning Stop Ecocide campaign. But is the widespread excitement justified? Can the new law deliver on the lofty expectations? And how does it fit within the soon-to-be adopted revision of the Environmental Crime Directive at the EU level? Despite constituting a highly symbolic step, I argue that the Belgian law’s constrained scope makes it a toothless tool to punish environmental outlaws in practice.

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Ein stabiles Parlament (auch) für Europa

Die (Wieder-)Einführung der Sperrklausel bei den Wahlen des Europäischen Parlaments (EP) in Deutschland hat eine wichtige Hürde genommen: Das Bundesverfassungsgericht steht einer unionsrechtlich verbindlich vorgegebenen Zwei-Prozent-Sperrklausel nicht im Weg. Anträge der Partei DIE PARTEI und ihres Vorsitzenden gegen die Zustimmung Deutschlands zu einer verbindlichen Sperrklausel im EU-Direktwahlakt (DWA) verwarf das Gericht in seinem Beschluss vom 6.2.24 mangels hinreichender Begründung eines Eingriffs in die deutsche Verfassungsidentität als unzulässig. Und das lag nicht nur am begrenzten Prüfungsmaßstab des Gerichts. Der von der Zustimmung der Mitgliedstaaten abhängigen Reform des DWA sollte nun von deutscher Seite nichts mehr in die Quere kommen.

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Autocratic (Il)legalism

It is a common myth that since the Fidesz-KDNP coalition has almost always had a two-thirds parliamentary majority since 2010, the Orbán-government could pass its illiberal legislative reforms in a legally correct manner. In reality, however, many laws that constitute the pillars of Orbán’s illiberal regime were enacted in violation of the procedural requirements of the rule of law. The European Commission’s country visit to Hungary provides an opportunity to remind the EU bodies of their responsibility to enforce all requirements of the rule of law without compromise.

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The CJEU’s Feminist Turn?

In Case C-621/21, the Grand Chamber of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) held that women in general and women facing domestic violence in their country of origin in particular, qualify as a protected ‘social group’ under EU Directive 2011/95 and thus avail themselves for refugee status or subsidiary protection in the Common European Asylum System. This contribution applies the perspective of feminist approaches to international law to critically analyze what this decision means for women and victims of gender-based violence – in- and outside of the European Union.

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Polish Re-Democratisation as “Building Back Better”

Since the new Polish government took power, it has taken first steps to restore the rule of law. These have been quite different in nature, from the soft appeals to comply with the case law of the CJEU to more uncompromising and confrontational measures, like taking control of the public broadcasting TVP. It is clear that restoring a damaged liberal democracy requires a different mindset than fighting its demise. While the latter aims to strategically delay the anticipated undemocratic endeavours, the former must constructively rebuild. I call this ‘Building Back Better’, akin to the UN risk-reduction approach employed to avoid future disasters.

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Das Bundeskriminalamt als überdimsensionierte Plattformpolizei

Das von der Bundesregierung vorgeschlagene Digitale-Dienste-Gesetz (DDG-E) soll im Bundestag bis zum März abschließend verhandelt werden und dann schon im April in Kraft treten. Ein wichtiger Aspekt des Gesetzentwurfs erhält bisher zu wenig Aufmerksamkeit: Was genau soll eigentlich das Bundeskriminalamt (BKA) nach § 13 DDG-E - der nationalen „Begleitgesetzgebung” zu Art. 18 Digital Services Act (DSA) - machen? Ist diese Rolle im gegenwärtigen Entwurf hinreichend abgesichert? Und bedarf es dafür wirklich - wie geplant - 450 Stellen?

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Warum der Konflikt um das EU-Lieferkettengesetz eines haftungsrechtlichen Mittelwegs bedarf

Die Abstimmung im Rat der Europäischen Union um ein EU-Lieferkettengesetz ist auf ungewisse Zeit aufgeschoben. Nach Deutschlands Enthaltung kamen wie erwartet auch andere Staaten ins Zweifeln. Auslöser für die plötzliche – und für viele Mitgliedstaaten überraschende – Kehrtwende der Bundesrepublik ist eine Blockade durch die FDP. Die Minister Buschmann und Lindner fürchteten, „dass Unternehmen für Pflichtverletzungen in der Lieferkette in erheblicher Weise zivilrechtlich haften würden.“  Die sich unter anderem am Thema Haftung entzündende Kontroverse – so die These dieses Textes – ist jedoch auflösbar.

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Nachhaltig nicht-nachhaltig

Im Rahmen der Energiewende wächst der europäische Bedarf nach Rohstoffen. Zahlreiche der für die Energiewende benötigten Rohstoffe befinden sich auf den Gebieten indigener Völker, was häufig zu Konflikten führt. Vor diesem Hintergrund ist es erstaunlich, dass das geplante Abkommen zwischen der EU und den Mercosur-Staaten keine Vorschriften bezüglich Beteiligung und Schutz indigener Völker beinhaltet. Ein Verweis auf solche Vorschriften, insbesondere aus der ILO-Konvention 169, wäre völkerrechtlich geboten und trüge dazu bei, die Konflikte und Widersprüche des Nachhaltigkeitsbegriffs aushandelbar zu machen.

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Examining the EU’s Artificial Intelligence Act

Finally, consensus on the EU Artificial Intelligence Act. The academic community is thus finally in a position to provide a (slightly) more definitive evaluation of the Act’s potential to protect individuals and societies from AI systems’ harms. This blog post attempts to contribute to this discussion by illustrating and commenting on the final compromises regarding some of the most controversial and talked-about aspects of the AI Act, namely its rules on high-risk systems, its stance on General Purpose AI, and finally its system of governance and enforcement.

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Zur notwendigen Annahme der CSDDD durch den EU-Rat

In unterschiedlichen Disziplinen forschen, lehren und beraten wir zu Fragen der nachhaltigen Transformation der Wirtschaft. Die aktuellen Pläne gegen eine Annahme der im Trilog abgestimmten EU-Lieferkettenregulierung (Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive – CSDDD) durch den EU-Rat, initiiert von den FDP-geführten Ministerien für Finanzen und Justiz (Christian Lindner und Dr. Marco Buschmann), nehmen wir mit großer Sorge wahr. Sie stellen nicht nur das Gelingen der CSDDD, sondern auch die Nachhaltigkeitstransformation der Wirtschaft in der EU nach dem EU-Green-Deal-Projekt in Frage. Wir finden: die CSDDD bedeutet nicht nur Aufwand, sondern sorgt für Rechtssicherheit für Unternehmen mit internationalen Lieferketten.

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Vater-in-waiting

Kommt ein Kind auf die Welt, ist das schön – macht aber Arbeit. Das hat der Unionsgesetzgeber erkannt und den sogenannten Vaterschaftsurlaub zur Entlastung nach der Geburt normiert. Den nationalen Gesetzgeber konnte das bislang – trotz abgelaufener Umsetzungsfrist und Vertragsverletzungsverfahren – nicht zum Handeln bewegen. Das ist nicht nur ärgerlich für Eltern und unionsrechtswidrig, sondern offenbart auch ein tiefergreifendes Unvermögen, Zeitinteressen von Eltern normativ angemessen zu berücksichtigen. Es ist daher dringend an der Zeit, dass der Gesetzgeber sein Handeln an einem verfassungsrechtlichen zeitlichen Existenzminimum misst – gerade wenn es um einen so überschaubaren Zeitraum wie zehn Tage geht.

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Keine Blockade, sondern eine Frage der Kompetenz

Ein „Offener Brief“ an den Bundesjustizminister vom 29. Januar, den „über 100 namhafte Frauen aus Politik, Kultur und Wirtschaft“ unterzeichnet haben, fordert diesen auf, seine „Blockade-Haltung“ gegenüber einem Vorhaben der Europäischen Kommission aufzugeben. Die Kommission setzt sich für eine Richtlinie ein, die der Bekämpfung von Gewalt gegen Frauen und häuslicher Gewalt dienen soll. Unter anderem ist eine Vereinheitlichung im Sexualstrafrecht vorgesehen, nämlich beim Tatbestand der Vergewaltigung (Art. 5). Die zentrale Frage ist, inwieweit die Gestaltung von Strafrecht in die Kompetenz der EU fällt. Die Verfasserinnen des „Offenen Briefs“ scheinen davon auszugehen, dass die EU alles könne und dürfe und nur der widerborstige Bundesjustizminister ein Hindernis sei. Die Rechtslage sieht anders aus.

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Shielding Frontex 2.0

In Hamoudi v Frontex, the General Court dismissed another action that could have clarified if, when, and how independent or joint human rights responsibility would arise when Frontex is engaged in shared operational conduct with the Member States. This time not on the basis of an obscure re-interpretation of the Applicant’s claim, but instead, on the basis of an unattainably high and unrealistic burden, standard and method of proof. In doing so, the General Court again eschews from clarifying the nature, conditions and consequences of both independent and joint human rights responsibility of Frontex. Taken together, these cases raise the question whether there are any viable forms of judicial recourse for fundamental rights violations committed or contributed to by the EU’s Border and Coastguard Agency.

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A Way Forward?

While included in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights (CFR), academic and scientific freedom were for years hardly a focus for the EU. This no longer holds true. On 29 November 2023, the European Parliament invited stakeholders to discuss the state of academic freedom in Europe (STOA conference), including the role of the EU in its legal protection. The conference intertwines with two important developments, both driven by the EP. First, on 22 November 2023, the EP adopted its proposals for the amendment of the Treaties, with some relevant for academic freedom protection. Earlier this month, on 17 January 2024, the EP approved the Report calling on the Commission to initiate a legislative proposal on the promotion of the freedom of scientific research in the EU and providing recommendations on its content. In this blog post, we briefly discuss these two EP calls aimed at enhanced protection of academic and scientific freedom to assess to what extent they address the concerns raised by various stakeholders.

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Too Little, Too Late

All signs indicate that the various procedures and instruments invented and used by the European Commission to improve the situation of the rule of law in Hungary have so far not been successful. In fact, apart from a few sham measures, democracy and rule of law, in their simplest definitions (the possibility to overthrow the incumbent government through free and fair elections, and the limitation of political power by law) are in a worse situation in Hungary today than when the various mechanisms for protecting the rule of law were launched or payments were suspended. Why have the tools used by the European Union so far proven ineffective? Finding the causes of a complex phenomenon is never easy, but the experience of recent years makes it possible to identify some that can explain this failure.

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Orwell’sche Gleichgültigkeit und Europäische Demokratie

Stolz wurde am 9. Dezember 2023 verkündet, dass „der KI-Deal steht“ – so ließe sich die damalige Pressemeldung des Rates paraphrasieren. Mittlerweile ist allerdings Besorgnis im Hinblick auf die weitere Ausformung des erzielten Kompromisses angebracht. Nachdem die Institutionen bei einem langwierigen letzten Treffen innerhalb der Trilog-Verhandlungen zwischen Parlament, Rat und Kommission zu einem „provisional agreement“ fanden, das den langen wie gewundenen Weg der (angeblich) „weltweit ersten“ KI-Regulierung zu einem Ende bringen könnte, scheint sich der für Ende Januar erwartete konkrete Textentwurf des AI Acts in mehrerlei Hinsicht von den dortigen Festlegungen zu entfernen. In der Sache lassen sich gewichtige rechtliche Einwände gegen den konkreten Regulierungsansatz vorbringen; noch schwerwiegender lastet allerdings das bedeutsame wie kritische Defizit der demokratischen Legitimierung dieser wichtigen regulatorischen Entscheidung auf den aktuellen Entwicklungen des AI Acts.

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Datenschutzgrundverordnung gilt für parlamentarische Untersuchungsausschüsse

Der EuGH hat sich in einer lange erwarteten Entscheidung mit der Frage auseinandergesetzt, ob die DSGVO auf parlamentarische Untersuchungsausschüsse anwendbar ist. In der Rs C-33/22 (Österreichische Datenschutzbehörde) hat der EuGH am 16. Jänner 2024 in einem österreichischen Fall entschieden, dass die DSGVO auf parlamentarische Untersuchungsausschüsse grundsätzlich anwendbar ist. Dadurch haben Untersuchungsausschüsse in Ausübung ihrer parlamentarischen Kontrollrechte auch das Recht auf Datenschutz von Auskunftspersonen zu achten. Dies betrifft essenzielle verfassungsrechtliche Fragen zum Umgang mit diesem zentralen demokratischen Kontrollinstrument bzw Kontrollrechten allgemein und dem Verhältnis zum Datenschutz  und geht weit über den Ausgangssachverhalt hinaus. Die österreichische Judikatur und Praxis, wonach die Gesetzgebung von der Anwendbarkeit der Datenschutz-Grundverordnung (DSGVO) ausgenommen ist, wird nach diesem EuGH-Urteil nicht aufrechterhalten werden können.

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Private Rechtsetzung und fragile Staatlichkeit

Mit der Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) will die EU europäische Unternehmen für die Auswirkungen ihrer Tätigkeit auf Umwelt und Menschenrechte in die Pflicht nehmen und so vor allem die Lebens- und Arbeitsbedingungen im globalen Süden verbessern. Wo staatliche Rechtsetzung und -durchsetzung nicht effektiv genug sind, um Umwelt, Menschen- und Arbeitnehmerrechte zu schützen, sollen private Unternehmen mit eigenen Regelwerken Mindeststandards setzen. Die Praxis zeigt jedoch, dass sie kein Ersatz für eine funktionierende Staatlichkeit sind. Die CSDDD übersieht, dass die tatsächlichen Rahmenbedingungen gerade in jenen Ländern des globalen Südens, in denen eine Verbesserung der Lebens- und Arbeitsbedingungen besonders nötig wäre, auch die Wirksamkeit von Lieferkettenregulierung mindern.

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Legislating fiction

Members of Parliament in the UK will on 16 and 17 January 2024 debate the Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill, which ‘gives effect to the judgement of Parliament that the Republic of Rwanda is a safe country’ for asylum-seekers. The Supreme Court unanimously ruled in November 2023 that Rwanda was manifestly not safe as asylum seekers sent to the country would face a real risk of ill-treatment due to insufficient guarantees against refoulement. The Bill thus aims to use law to determine a factual situation for as long as the law is in force. This blog discusses the risks inherent in creating such a ‘legal fiction’ and how the Bill could be revised to mitigate this risk, before assessing the chances of it becoming law in the currently turbulent political context.

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Ein Blockierer als Vorsitzender

Ungarn übernimmt am 1. Juli 2024 den Vorsitz im Rat der EU. Das stößt auf Widerstand, denn zentrale Teile von Ungarns Verfassungspolitik stehen mit rechtsstaatlichen Grundsätzen nicht im Einklang. Das Land gilt in Europa als Außenseiter und Quertreiber, es betreibt eine Blockadepolitik. Zuletzt hat Ungarns Ministerpräsident auf dem Dezember-Gipfel des Europäischen Rates erneut seine Fähigkeiten als Veto-Spezialist unter Beweis gestellt. Und solch ein Land soll den Ratsvorsitz übernehmen? Rechtlich lässt sich das kaum verhindern, denn der Vorsitz ist gemäß dem Primärrecht festgelegt und kann Ungarn ohne Rechtsverstöße nicht entzogen werden. Politisch wäre ein Entzug unklug, weil Ungarn ihn zum Anlass nähme, weniger kompromissbereit zu sein.

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Time to talk about academics’ role in Qatargate

Two years ago, we discussed the problems associated with revolving doors at the European level on this platform. One year ago, Qatargate was on the agenda. Confronted with a slew of ‘gates’ that challenge the legitimacy of EU decision-making and the ethics of its politicians and staff, EU institutions rushed to propose a series of reforms to prevent future scandals. We could discuss in detail the causes and consequences of these scandals, what they teach us about the state of European democracy, and the inadequacy of the reforms undertaken. Instead, we have chosen to redirect our focus inward, contemplating the broader scholarly community. We believe this introspective analysis is what EU institutions should have done, rather than hastily shifting to the technicalities of reform proposals.

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Putting X’s Community Notes to the Test

All of the biggest social media platforms have a problem with disinformation. In particular, a flood of false information was found on X, formerly Twitter, following the terrorist attack by Hamas on 7 October 2023 and the start of the war in Ukraine. The EU Commission therefore recently initiated formal proceedings against X under Art. 66 para. 1 of the Digital Services Act (DSA). One of the subjects of the investigation is whether the platform is taking sufficient action against disinformation. Despite these stakes, X takes an approach different to all other platforms: As can be inferred from the X Transparency Report dated 03.11.2023 posted information is not subject to content moderation, but solely regulated through a new tool: The Community Notes.

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The European Game

The long-awaited judgement of the Court of Justice of the European Union in Case C-333/21 - European Super League Company has finally arrived. There is a lot to unpack, especially with respect to developments in competition law. Constitutional lawyers will, however, find particular interest in how the Grand Chamber dismissed Advocate General Rantos’ pitch for a constitutional recognition of the European sports model based on Article 165 TFEU. This post focuses on this aspect of the European Super League judgment. It argues that while the Advocate General’s construction was rejected, the Court still used this judgement to further define its own constitutional understanding of the European sports model, as well as to solidify its role as the primary interpreter of that model.

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Same, Same but Different?

The Commission’s decision to release a significant amount of EU money is a testament to some serious pitfalls in the mechanism, which governs the unblocking of frozen EU funds. To recall, Hungary’s endowments are blocked via two different channels, based on two different conditionality criteria, which have some overlapping points. Both prescribe reforms to preserve the independence of the judiciary, which according to the Commission’s justification has been successfully accomplished by Hungary.  The Commission has, however, never published a detailed plan that would attach a specific amount to be released to every sufficiently satisfied conditionality criterion. In this blog post, I showcase that the overlap between the two conditionality mechanisms and the absence of a robust ex-ante blueprint for releasing frozen funds make the unblocking process highly obscure. This lack of transparency both decreases the efficiency and robustness of conditionality, and increases the tendency for inter-institutional conflicts.

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Militant Rule of Law

To protect the rule of law based legal system against abusive use of the loopholes, imperfections, contradictions of the law, to avoid legal inertia legal positivist arguments are needed to convince and mobilize the legal mind. The same applies when the blind fortune of democracy provides the opportunity to erase the legally enthroned injustice and domination of illiberal regimes. When it comes to legal enactments that serve legal cheating the rule of law must respond to systemic abuse of the law, and that requires and justifies a rule of law based exceptionalism and a systemic remedy.

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The EU’s Pacing Problem

The EU regulators face a pacing problem. This has been demonstrated several times during the legislative process of the AI Act itself: for example, the initial Commission proposal from 2021 did not include a definition of General Purpose AI (GPAI). The proposal did not anticipate the rise of Large Language Models like ChatGPT and GPT-4 but only addressed AI systems designed for specific purposes. This lacuna in the original proposal has haunted the EU Parliament, Council and Commission in the past final weeks of the trilogue negotiations, where the inclusion of so-called Frontier Models has been hotly contested. This blog post explores potential boosters for the EU's capacity to regulate AI: delegated legislation, soft law, and a centralized AI office.

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The EU’s Faustian Bargain

Twelve years into the EU’s rule of law crisis, this week has demonstrated that EU leaders are still unwilling to confront their own complicity in Orbán’s rise and to do something about it. Is this sad spectacle a price worth paying in exchange for a symbolic gesture of goodwill to Ukraine? That is the wrong question to ask. The right question to ask is this: if the EU continues to treat the rule of law as a bargaining chip and to make promises it won’t keep, for how much longer will our Union remain a club worth joining?

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Orbán’s Veto Play – The Subsidiarity Card

Viktor Orbán is known to use veto threats in the European Council to get his way. This time, he was keen to see that after months of tense exchanges with the Commission, Hungary gets access to EU funds that had been blocked in order to achieve compliance with the rule of law and fundamental rights conditionality. So, PM Orbán saw it fit to loudly contest Ukraine’s accession and the financial aid package of 50 billion Euros. This may be PM Orbán’s strongest veto play to date.

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To Score Is to Decide

Can the act of assigning a score to someone constitute a decision? This, in essence, is the question the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) had to answer in Case C-634/21. And the Court’s answer is yes, following in the footsteps of the Advocate General’s opinion on the case. Rendered on 7 December, this ruling was eagerly awaited as it was the first time the Court had the opportunity to interpret the notorious Article 22 of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) prohibiting decisions “based solely on automated processing".

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What’s Missing from the EU AI Act

The AI Act negotiators may still have been recovering from the political deal that was struck during the night of December 8 to 9 when two days later Mistral AI, the French startup, open sourced its potent new large language model, Mixtral 8x7B. Though much smaller in size, it rivals and even surpasses GPT 3.5 on many benchmarks thanks to a cunning architecture combining eight different expert models. While a notable technical feat, this new release epitomizes the most pressing challenges in AI policy today, and starkly highlights the gaps left unaddressed by the AI Act: mandatory basic AI safety standards; the conundrum of open-source models; the environmental impact of AI; and the need to accompany the AI Act with far more substantial public investment in AI.

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Why Poland Should Join the European Public Prosecutor

After the Polish parliamentary elections, the question of rebuilding the rule of law in Poland has been frequently raised in academic debate. The discourse is largely dominated by the status of the so-called neo-judges and the legal effects of rulings of the politically appropriated Constitutional Tribunal. We would like to highlight another problem that the new government will have to deal with – the functioning of the public prosecutor's office occupied by people associated with the Law and Justice party. There is a great risk that high-level prosecutors may effectively block or obstruct investigations into the irregularities committed under the PiS government. We believe that a partial solution to this problem might come from Poland's quick accession to the European Public Prosecutor’s Office planned by the democratic opposition.

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Protecting the Fairness of European Parliament Elections via Preliminary Ruling

Supreme or constitutional courts regularly step in to protect the democratic process by deciding election disputes. It is remarkable that the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has so far barely been engaged concerning the European Parliament (EP) elections. Using Hungary as an example, I will argue in the following that the CJEU is institutionally well-positioned to help protect the integrity of the 2024 EP elections via preliminary ruling procedures. Hungarian democracy has been in decline, according to the EP, the Commission and various democracy indices. The problems include the lack of a level playing field, targeted action by authorities against opposition parties, overlaps between the activities of the government and the governing party, state funding of campaigning and party financing in general, lack of media pluralism, and the different means of voting for citizens living abroad (postal vote for some and not for others). I argue that the CJEU could and should be engaged to protect the fairness of the EP elections in Hungary.

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Daten und Werte

Grundsätzliche Fragen zum Verhältnis von Künstlicher Intelligenz und Datenschutz sind noch immer ungeklärt. Die geplante KI-Verordnung wird diese Probleme nicht lösen, sondern weiter vertiefen. Denn der europäische Gesetzgeber hat bislang davon abgesehen, das Verhältnis von KI- und Datenschutz-Grundverordnung eindeutig zu regeln. Die dort formulierten Pflichten für die Entwicklung und den Einsatz sogenannter Hochrisiko-KI-Systeme sollen bereits bestehende Regelungen ergänzen, nicht ersetzen. Nun zeichnet sich - paradoxerweise im Rahmen unionaler Bemühungen Recht zu setzen - ein Trend weg von positiv gesetzten, bestimmbaren Recht an. Regulatoren, Wissenschaft und Lobby reden stattdessen naturrechtlichen Ideen und einer 'KI-Ethik' das Wort, die letztlich vor allem auf eines hinausläuft: bloß keine strengen Regeln.

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Europe and the Global Race to Regulate AI

The EU wants to set the global rule book for AI. This blog explains the complex “risk hierarchy” that pervades the proposed AI Act, currently in the final stages of trilogue negotiation. This contrasts with the US focus on “national security risks”. We point out shortcomings of the EU approach requiring comprehensive risk assessments (ex ante), at the level of technology development. Using economic analysis, we distinguish exogenous and endogenous sources of potential AI harm arising from input data. We are sceptical that legislators can anticipate the future of a general purpose technology, such as AI. We propose that from the perspective of encouraging ongoing innovation, (ex post) liability rules can provide the right incentives to improve data quality and AI safety.

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We Don’t Need No Education?

Artificial Intelligence doesn't know what's 'true'. Especially, generative AI models like chatbots veer from the truth, i.e. “hallucinate”, quite regularly. Chatbots simply invent information at least 3 percent of the time and sometimes as high as 27 percent. Given the (future) use of such systems in nearly all domains, we might want such systems to follow more stringent rules of accuracy. And those truth-related rules are not the only rules for AI systems that warrant societal scrutiny. How those systems are trained will be crucial. In this blog post, we argue that a new perspective is key to tackle this challenge: “Hybrid Speech Governance”.

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Defusing an Atomic Bomb

The sigh of relief was audible throughout Europe. In Brussels and other European capitals, the victory of the opposition bloc in the Polish elections sparked hope that the imminent change in government would end the illiberal course of the past. While years of democratic backsliding have left lasting marks on Poland’s political and legal landscape, the newly elected government is clearly committed to leading Poland back onto the path of democracy and the rule of law. However, one pertinent institutional issue remains to be resolved: the still pending procedure against Poland under Art 7 TEU.

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Strasburg Weighs In On Political Persecution In Turkey

In a pivotal judgment delivered by the Grand Chamber, the European Court of Human Rights held that the conviction of a former teacher Yüksel Yalcinkaya violated Articles 6,7 and 11 of the Convention. The applicant Yalcinkaya was a teacher who was dismissed with an emergency decree enacted during the state of emergency rule between 2016 and 2018 and was subsequently prosecuted and convicted for his use of the ByLock app and for his membership in a teachers’ union and an association which were also closed down with an emergency decree. In Erdogan’s ever more repressive Turkey, usage of said app or membership in organizations and unions may lead to arrest. Especially anything that appears remotely related to the oppositional Gulen movement carries the risk of persecution.

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To Hell, on a White Horse

Slovakia voted on the final day of September 2023. The electoral rhetoric, results and subsequent coalition-building give grounds to expect illiberal constitutional changes. More attention is needed towards the Constitutional Court’s capacity to resist such illiberalization, as Slovakia may join Hungary in a revamped illiberal Visegrad alliance.

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Politisches Microtargeting vs. Rechtsaufsicht

In der letzten Woche ist bekannt geworden, dass die EU-Kommission, konkret der amtliche Account der Kommissarin für Inneres, Microtargeting auf X (vormals Twitter) nutzte, um Schwung in ein festgefahrenes Gesetzgebungsvorhaben zu bringen. Es handelt sich um eine gezielte Beeinflussung der gesellschaftlichen Debatte rund um die sogenannte „Kinderschutzverordnung“, auch bekannt als „Chatkontrolle“ durch datenbasierte Zielgruppenansprache (zur Berichterstattung und Analyse). Diese Posts sollten Druck auf mitgliedsstaatliche Regierungen ausüben, um doch noch eine Mehrheit für das Vorhaben zu beschaffen. Dieser Vorgang ist auch abseits der inhaltlichen Debatte um die „Chatkontrolle“ bemerkenswert, schließlich zeigt er neben den systemischen Risiken von Plattformen und dem Bedürfnis nach effektiver Durchsetzung von Plattformregulierung auf, dass die Kommission sich in einem Spannungsverhältnis der Funktionen als Aufsichtsbehörde und als politische Akteurin befindet und somit das systeminhärente Risiko besteht, dass sie ihre Funktion als Aufsichtsbehörde zugunsten politischer Ziele vernachlässigt.

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Who Speaks on Behalf of the European Union?

“It’s a cacophony. It’s ridiculous”. This is how an EU diplomat described the flow of EU statements following the outbreak of the war between Israel and Hamas. The divergent reactions reveal the existence of institutional tensions about the Union’s external representation, which undermine the coherence and credibility of the EU’s external action. The war between Israel and Hamas concerns issues of foreign and security policy. Whether one likes it or not, this is an area where the Commission has a more limited role – also with respect to external representation. A certain restraint or, at the very least, closer coordination with the Member States and the European External Action Service could have been expected.

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Post-populist Populism

Good news for democracy from Poland? It appears that in the recent general elections, the right-wing populist Law and Justice party (PiS), won most seats but not enough to allow it to form a coalition. Donald Tusk's Civic Coalition has a better chance of forming a coalition, which might put an end to PiS' eight years of rule. This, prima facie, seems like a victory of democracy over populism. While this is certainly true, in this post we wish to flag certain warning signs that this possible democratic rotation is not the end of the struggle for democracy but merely the beginning of this process. This is because even when populists are voted out of office, their legacy - at least partially - persists.

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At a Snail’s Pace

By 1 April 2018, member states had to transpose an EU Directive on ‘the strengthening of certain aspects of the presumption of innocence and of the right to be present at the trial in criminal proceedings’. Bulgaria has not fully transposed it to this day, and consistently undermines it. Now, finally, the Commission has launched infringement proceecings. Preceding the announcement, the Commission rejected Rasosveta Vassileva's reasoned complaints on the same issue, as late as 2022. Her odyssey is a concerning tale on how EU institutions handle citizen alerts.

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The Great Yes or the Great No

As we gear up for the most consequential elections in Poland since 1989, the situation on the ground after 8 years of the paranoid polarizing and no-holds-barred politics, forces all those concerned about the future, to ask where Poland is heading. On 14 October 2023, we must understand that POLEXIT is much more than a mere dispute over institutions, rule of law, judicial independence, etc. What is at stake now is incomparably greater. It is the defense of a certain way of life, values and belonging to a community of law and values, a civic Poland in Europe and Europe in civic Poland and finally of “Me and You” as part of Europe.

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Automated Decision-Making and the Challenge of Implementing Existing Laws

Who loves the latest shiny thing? Children maybe? Depends on the kid. Cats and dogs perhaps? Again, probably depends. What about funders, publishers, and researchers? Now that is an easier question to answer. Whether in talks provided by the tax-exempt ‘cult of TED’, or in open letters calling for a moratorium, the attention digital technologies receive today is extensive, especially those that are labelled ‘artificial intelligence’. This noise comes with calls for a new ad hoc human right against being subject to automated decision-making (ADM). While there is merit in adopting new laws dedicated to so-called AI, the procedural mechanisms that can implement existing law require strengthening. The perceived need for new substantive rules to govern new technology is questionable at best, and distracting at worst. Here we would like to emphasise the importance of implementing existing law more effectively in order to better regulate ADM. Improving procedural capacities across the legal frameworks on data protection, non-discrimination, and human rights is imperative in this regard.

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The Comeback of the Mixed Chamber

Three years ago, in the wake of the Weiss judgment of the German Federal Constitutional Court, we proposed the creation of a “Mixed Chamber” in the Court of Justice of the European Union, to rule in last instance on judicial disputes on points of Union competence. The rationale of a Chamber so composed is not obvious. After all, in a Union in which EU Law has primacy over national law, in which the autonomy of EU law is all-pervasive and where the Court of Justice is the ultimate interpreter of EU law, why should a Mixed Chamber be needed? We believe there are at least three good reasons that make a Mixed Chamber as salient as ever.

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Europe’s Faustian Bargain

On Thursday, news broke that the German government had agreed to incorporating the previously rejected Crisis Regulation into the EU’s new asylum and migration pact. The decision was a radical change of course since Germany had previously consistently opposed its inclusion. Framed as allowing for more ‘flexibility’ in case of migratory surges, the Crisis Regulation’s adoption will, in effect, suspend the EU asylum system as we know it for the time being, given that recorded sea arrivals are currently nearing the 2015 levels. A crisis in need of regulation, if you will. In this blogpost, I highlight the dangerous fallacy that underpins our tolerance for the illegality that has come to characterize contemporary border control. In particular, our failure to oppose the constant expansion of the limits of the law that occurs in the name of crisis and political necessity rests on the mistaken assumption that we have nothing to lose in this race to the bottom. 

1

Für einen Menschenrechtspakt in der Flüchtlingspolitik

Als Wissenschaftler*innen aus dem Asylrecht und der Fluchtforschung, die seit Jahren die Flüchtlingspolitik untersuchen und kommentieren, sehen wir die jüngsten politischen Debatten und Forderungen mit großer Sorge. Die Debatte über Flucht und Asyl wird weitestgehend faktenfrei geführt. Dadurch werden Ängste geschürt und gesellschaftliche Probleme Schutzsuchenden angelastet. Zudem werden kurzerhand rechtsstaatliche und menschenrechtliche Minimalstandards für populistische Überschriften geopfert.

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Act Three for Climate Litigation in Strasbourg

Yesterday, on 27 September 2023, a historic hearing took place before the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights. The Court heard the Duarte Agostinho case, brought by six Portuguese children and young people against a whopping 33 Member States of the Council of Europe. Having heard two other climate cases this past March (the KlimaSeniorinnen v. Switzerland and Carême v. France cases, respectively), this was the Court’s final hearing before it issues its first-ever findings on climate change. It was also the Court’s first youth climate case. For several reasons, yesterday’s hearing was a historic one: Duarte Agostinho is the Grand Chamber’s biggest-yet climate case, both in terms of the substantive rights invoked and the number of States involved.

0

Verwaltung ohne Verantwortung

Mit Urteil vom 6. September 2023 hat das Gericht der Europäischen Union (EuG) in erster Instanz erstmalig über eine Schadensersatzklage geflüchteter Personen gegen die Europäische Agentur für die Grenz- und Küstenwache (Frontex) entschieden und die Klage abgewiesen. Politische und zivilgesellschaftliche Vereinigungen sowie die Wissenschaft weisen schon länger auf systemische Mängel bei der Geltendmachung von Rechtsverletzungen gegenüber Frontex hin. Die Entscheidung des EuG perpetuiert diese Mängel, weil sie Bewertungsmaßstäbe nicht berücksichtigt, die aus menschenrechtlicher Sicht geboten sind. Eine dogmatisch überzeugende Integration dieser Maßstäbe in das Unionsrecht würde die Rechte geflüchteter Personen wahren und so das unionale Recht auf effektiven Rechtsschutz stärken.

0

Be Careful What You Wish For

The European Court of Human Rights has issued some troubling statements on how it imagines content moderation. In May, the Court stated in Sanchez that “there can be little doubt that a minimum degree of subsequent moderation or automatic filtering would be desirable in order to identify clearly unlawful comments as quickly as possible”. Recently, it reiterated this position. This shows not only a surprising lack of knowledge on the controversial discussions surrounding the use of filter systems (in fact, there’s quite a lot of doubt), but also an uncritical and alarming approach towards AI based decision-making in complex human issues.

0

A Leap Towards Federalisation?

On September 13th, co-rapporteurs Guy Verhofstadt (Renew, BE), Sven Simon (EPP, DE), Gabriele Bischoff (S&D, DE), Daniel Freund (Greens/EFA, DE) and Helmut Scholz (The Left, DE) presented in the Committee on Constitutional Affairs of the European Parliament (AFCO) a wide and ambitious project of Treaty change. This short contribution will highlight and evaluate the most important proposals of AFCO's project and argue that, if adopted, the reform would further the Union’s federalisation, thus potentially changing its legal nature.

1

The Legal Art of Judging Art

In another round of the case "Metall auf Metall", the German Federal Court of Justice is asking the Court of Justice of the European Union how to define the concept of pastiche. The CJEU response will not only be crucial for the rules of artistic imitation, but also set the legal frame for the digital reference culture of millions, as expressed in Memes and GIFs every day. This Article takes the referral to the CJEU as an opportunity to recapitulate the proceedings with a sideways glance at the Supreme Court’s  Warhol case. Its discussion of transformative use addresses the questions the CJEU will have to answer when defining “pastiche”. How should we deal with the art of imitation?

0

Sex Workers in Strassburg

A few years ago, France banned buying sex. In M.A. and Others v. France the European Court on Human Rights (ECtHR) now held that a motion of sex workers against that ban is admissible. The Court did not rule on the merits at this stage – this will follow in a subsequent judgement. Nevertheless, this admissibility decision marks a milestone as, for the first time, the Court will examine whether a sex purchase ban violates the rights of sex workers as guaranteed in the European Convention on Human Rights. The ruling appears eagerly anticipated due to its legal precedent within Member States that have passed similar legislation.

1

Shielding Frontex

In a landmark case, the EU General Court ruled this week on liability claims against Frontex for human rights violations - and rejected the damage claims. The case was the first of its kind concerning human rights responsibility of Frontex and had all the ingredients to prompt the General Court to finally clarify a number of pervasive and urgent questions concerning Frontex responsibility for complicity in unlawful human rights conduct. Instead, by conflating the wrongful conduct under scrutiny, the Court prevents a critical examination of Frontex’s conduct altogether. The significance of the case thus lies in the adopted approach by the Court, which, in effect, contributes to the systematic shielding of Frontex from any responsibility for contributions to human rights harms.

3

An Interdisciplinary Toolbox for Researching the AI-Act

The proposed AI-act (AIA) will fundamentally transform the production, distribution, and use of AI-systems across the EU. Legal research has an important role to play in both clarifying and evaluating the AIA. To this end, legal researchers may employ a legal-doctrinal method, and focus on the AIA’s provisions and recitals to describe or evaluate its obligations. However, legal-doctrinal research is not a panacea that can fully operationalize or evaluate the AIA on its own. Rather, with the support of interdisciplinary research, we can better understand the AIA’s vague provisions, test its real-life application, and create practical design requirements for the developers of AI-systems. This blogpost gives a short glimpse into the methodological toolbox for researching the AI-act.

0

Europe’s Digital Constitution

In the United States, European reforms of the digital economy are often met with criticism. Repeatedely, eminent American voices called for an end to Europe’s “techno-nationalism.” However, this common argument focusing on digital protectionism is plausible, yet overly simplistic. Instead, this blog post argues that European digital regulations reflect a host of values that are consistent with the broader European economic and political project. The EU’s digital agenda reflects its manifest commitment to fundamental rights, democracy, fairness, and redistribution, as well as its respect for the rule of law. These normative commitments, and the laws implementing those commitments, can be viewed in aggregate as Europe’s digital constitution.

0

Reinventing a Broken Wheel

On 16 July, the European Commission and the Tunisian government signed a new strategic partnership on migration, sparking outrage by European parliamentarians, researchers and civil society actors given Tunisia’s autocratic turn since 2021 and the recent flaring up of racial and xenophobic violence. The deal is emblematic of the blind spots of trans-Mediterranean migration cooperation over the past decades: First, a growing reliance on informality and symbolic politics at the expense of accountability; and second, a persistently Euro-centrist perspective that overlooks the dynamics South of the Mediterranean, with dire policy consequences.

0

Not With a Bang But a Whimper

The European Union’s smallest Member State saw a significant decree delivered on primacy last month. Yet, even domestically, this bomb exploded in the middle of a desert; little to no noise came of it nationally or at the EU level. On the face of it, this is undoubtedly a major legal development – the first of its kind since Malta’s EU accession in 2004. The flawed interpretation offered by the Court says much about the fundamental importance of constitutional reform and is not, as such, a sign of institutional anti-EU sentiment… yet. However, as the main (and practically only) media report on the case concluded, what happens next is anyone’s guess. Constitutional reform in Malta must be put squarely back on the table before it’s too late.

3

Team Europe’s Deal

On 16 July 2023, the European Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement and Tunisia’s Secretary of State of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Migration and Tunisians Abroad signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on a ‘strategic and global partnership’ between the European Union (EU) and Tunisia. The signing followed a meeting in Tunisia between Tunisian President Kais Saied and ‘Team Europe’ (European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte). The deal is part of the growing trend to externalise migration control. Against this background, this blog post first clarifies what was agreed before explaining why the agreement is problematic both in terms of substance and form.

0

One Act to Rule Them All

Soon Brussels' newest big thing - the Artificial Intelligence Act - will enter the Trilogues. In order to better understand what’s at stake, who are the main actors and their motivations, and how to make one’s mind about all the conflicting claims we need to dive into the legal, economic and political aspects of the AI Act. The aim of this piece is to contextualize major milestones in the negotiations, showcase some of its critical features and flaws, and present challenges it may in the near future pose to people affected by “smart” models and systems.

0

The Strasbourg Court Goes Astray

On 1 June 2023, the Grand Chamber of the ECtHR concluded a saga that even experts of the Strasbourg Court might have overlooked. In the Grosam case, the alleged shortcomings in the disciplinary procedure involving a Czech enforcement officer (bailiff) have been addressed. The Grosam chamber judgment was certainly not a routine case. The chamber judgment went to the core of the role of the ECtHR and, if it would have been allowed to stand, it could have seriously undermined the legitimacy of the whole system of the Strasbourg protection.

0

How to Respond to the Far Right

Across the European continent, far-right parties are soaring in opinion polls. As the far right continues establishing its presence on the mainstream political stage, the urgency to address its rise and normalisation cannot be overstated. But which strategies are effective when and why?

4

Widerspruchsresponsive Nachhaltigkeit

Am 09. Juli 2023 haben die Europäische Union und Aotearoa Neuseeland ein umfangreiches Freihandelsabkommen abgeschlossen, das die Europäische Kommission mit Blick auf Nachhaltigkeitsfragen als ambitioniertestes Abkommen aller Zeiten bezeichnet. Bei genauerem Hinsehen zeigt sich, dass der Regelungsumfang in vielerlei Hinsicht umfassender und progressiver ist als in anderen Abkommen. Dennoch sind Defizite bei der Ausgestaltung des Streitbeilegungsverfahrens auszumachen, die auch darin begründet liegen, dass das Nachhaltigkeitskapitel es nicht vermag, einen für seine Widersprüche sensibilisierten, kritischen Nachhaltigkeitsbegriff zu etablieren.

2

Out of the Woods?

Large-scale deforestation not only accelerates climate change and biodiversity loss, it is also a serious threat to human rights. While the EU has pursued strategies to combat illegal logging since the early 2000s, it has mostly turned a blind eye to the adverse human rights effects of deforestation. The new EU Regulation on Deforestation (EUDR) acknowledges that human rights and the protection of forests are inextricably linked, but is this really a “major step for ‘deforestation-free’ trade”? This post provides a brief introduction to the EUDR, its most salient features, and critically, its weak points.

0

A Scandal on AI in Administration, Again

After the infamous Dutch benefits scandal, the Netherlands are yet again the scene of wrongful application of an algorithm by the government. This time, the main actor is the Dienst Uitvoering Onderwijs (DUO), the Dutch agency responsible for the allocation and payment of student loans to those enrolled in Dutch higher education. Specifically, DUO used an algorithm in their enforcement task, namely to verify whether the student loans have been rightfully allocated. In 2012, DUO commenced the use of this ‘in-house’ algorithm, which the Minister of Education – under whose responsibility DUO falls – halted on 23 June. The developments in the Netherlands epitomize the promises and pitfalls of further integrating automated decision-making (ADM) into public administration. On the one hand, ADM – sometimes labelled ‘artificial intelligence’ – is cheap and promises efficiency gains. On the other hand, ADM systems may be error-prone when facing the complex realities of societal life and legal ambiguity.

0

Rechtsgut Datenschutz?

Während materielle Schadensersatzansprüche für Datenschutzverletzungen in der Praxis eine untergeordnete Rolle zu spielen scheinen und verhältnismäßig einfach festzustellen und zu beziffern sind, bereitet die in Art. 82 DSGVO vorgesehene Ersatzfähigkeit immaterieller Schäden den Gerichten Kopfzerbrechen. Eine richtungsweise Entscheidung zu immateriellen Schadensersatzansprüchen für DSGVO-Verletzungen fällte der EuGH Anfang Mai 2023 in der Rechtssache C‑300/21. Es ist das erste Urteil aus einer langen Reihe an Vorabentscheidungsersuchen zur Auslegung des Art. 82 DSGVO. Nach wie vor interpretationsbedürftig bleibt jedoch, wie ein immaterieller Schaden nun konkret festzustellen und zu bemessen ist. Nach einer kurzen Zusammenfassung der Kernaussagen des EuGH befasst sich dieser Beitrag daher mit diesem praxisrelevanten Problem und möchte – insbesondere unter Berücksichtigung etablierter Instrumentarien der deutschen und österreichischen Rechtspraxis – Lösungswege für die mitgliedstaatlichen Gerichte aufzeigen.

2

Securitizing the Economy

In June 2023, the European Commission presented the European Union’s first Economic Security Strategy. Its publication is in itself a Zeitenwende  in the EU’s foreign and economic policy, despite undeniable shortcomings, in particular the lack of a clear definition which opens the door for overly protectionist measures under the guise of security concerns. To succeed, however, it is critical to view economic security as a public good which can benefit the EU, its Member States, and its citizens.

0

Vorzeichenwechsel im Europawahlrecht

Der Bundestag hat am 15. Juni einer Sperrklausel für die Wahlen zum Europäischen Parlament zugestimmt. Kurz vor der Sommerpause schloss sich auch der Bundesrat an. Der deutsche Gesetzgeber unternimmt auf ein Neues, womit er schon zweimal vor dem Bundesverfassungsgericht gescheitert ist. Dieses Mal hat der deutsche Gesetzgeber bei der Einführung der Sperrklausel einen verbindlichen EU-Rechtsakt im Rücken. Damit geht allerdings einher, dass die Sperrklausel nun (auch verfassungsgerichtlich) mit allen Konsequenzen als determiniertes Unionsrecht behandelt werden muss. Doch auch eine 2 %-Hürde ist nicht zu 100% sicher vor dem BVerfG.

1

Competition law as a powerful tool for effective enforcement of the GDPR

It looks like a good week for data protection. On Tuesday, the Commission presented a new proposal for a Regulation on additional procedural rules for the GDPR, and a few hours later, the ECJ published its decision C-252/21 on Meta Platforms v Bundeskartellamt (Federal Cartel Office). While the Commission's proposal to improve enforcement in cross-border cases should probably be taken with a pinch of salt, the ECJ ruled on some things with remarkable clarity. The first reactions to the ruling were quite surprising; few had expected the ECJ to take such a clear stance against Meta's targeted advertising business model. It does however represent a consistent interpretation of the GDPR in the tradition and understanding of power-limiting data protection.

0

Reform the European Union for Enlargement!

External shocks such as the financial and migration crises, the Coronavirus pandemic, as well as internal and external security threats from terrorism as well as Russia's war against Ukraine emphasise that the EU, which has developed to be more heterogeneous, has become increasingly fragile. In line with a reduced willingness and ability of Member States to integrate further, the EU is becoming incapable of action and therefore is in danger of losing the trust of its citizens. Against this background, it is important not to gloss over the problems and to develop constructive solutions. This blogpost offers several possible solutions.

1

A Taxonomy of Standing

On June 21, the General Court handed down its order in T-628/22 René Repasi v the European Commission. Repasi had challenged the validity of the Commission Delegated Regulation 2022/1214, a complementary taxonomy regulation on nuclear energy and natural gas. The General Court dismissed the action due to lack of standing.  To surmount the notoriously strict standing requirements before the CJEU, Repasi relied on his position as a Member of Parliament (MEP) and argued that a claim of a wrong choice of the legal basis that leads to deviation from the ordinary legislative procedure (OLP) gives an MEP standing before the EU courts. The difficulties that MEPs encounter while fulfilling their legislative responsibilities make Repasi’s argument appealing. However, creating a new semi-privileged standing category through the Union courts could also present its own set of difficulties.

0

Politicians don’t dance? AI doesn’t either!

“Why don’t politicians ever dance? – Because they have too many steps to backtrack on!” Chat-GPT answered this when we asked the program to tell a political joke. While this example is somewhat worrying since the underlying assumption might perpetuate existing stereotypes about politics and politicians, the joke also highlights that AI has become witty and incredibly good at behaving in a way we perceive as human. Thus, we take the recent advancements of generative AI as a motivation to analyze its potential effects on political campaigns and democratic elections.

0

Digitale Beweise im EU-/US-Datenschutzkonflikt

In der vergangenen Woche hat das Europäische Parlament nach fünfjährigen Verhandlungen der E-Evidence-Verordnung zugestimmt. Hierdurch erhalten die Ermittlungsbehörden der Mitgliedstaaten das Recht, die US-Unternehmen auch zur Herausgabe von Daten, die in den USA gespeichert sind, zu verpflichten. Kann die Europäische Kommission bei den derzeitigen Verhandlungen um ein EU-/US-Abkommen über digitale Beweise verhindern, dass die US-Ermittler:innen umgekehrt ungehinderten Zugriff auf Daten in der Europäischen Union erhalten?

0

Human Rights Violations to Deflect Refugees

The Council of the European Union (EU) recently reached a negotiating position (‘mandate’) on two significant elements of the ‘reform’ of the Common European Asylum System (CEAS). The vision hailed as a ‘historic’ agreement by national governments is a direct threat to the right to asylum. The Council not only maintains all structural flaws of the CEAS intact but proposes a quagmire of asylum procedures marred by unworkable, unnecessarily complex rules, that are in clear violation of key human rights standards.

1

Can the Hungarian Council Presidency be Postponed – Legally?

By now, it is commonly agreed that Hungary is no longer a democracy. I will offer in this blogpost some legal underpinnings to the argument that occupying the Council presidency must rotate only among those states that are in compliance with Article 2 TEU values including the rule of law, those that are fully fledged representative democracies in line with Article 10 TEU, that have been in line with Article 49 TEU at the time of accession and never regressed.

0

On the Pylos Shipwreck  

Only 104 out of the 750 passengers who travelled on the fishing boat, which capsized on June 14 and sank in the Ionian Sea, were rescued. The bodies of 80 have been recovered so far and the remaining passengers, an estimated total of as many as 500 people, including large numbers of women and children, remain missing. The boat had departed from Libya the previous Friday and was heading towards Italy. The tragic shipwreck, which immediately became yet another icon of the never-ending catastrophe of asylum seeking in the Mediterranean, occurred on the high seas, 87 kilometres from the Greek Coast. As long as the overarching policy aim is to deter racialized migrants from entering the EU, tragedies like the one in Pylos are bound to continue.

0

EU-Recht bricht Völkerrecht? Der Trugschluss der europäischen Calvo-Doktrin

Am 27. Juli 2023 wird der BGH drei Urteile in Rechtssachen verkünden, die alle um eine Frage kreisen: geht EU-Recht in internationalen Schiedsgerichtsverfahren zwischen EU-Investoren und EU-Mitgliedstaaten immer vor, selbst wenn dadurch ein multilateraler völkerrechtlicher Vertrag, der immer und auf alle Vertragsparteien bezogen Rechte begündet, berührt wird? Diese scheinbar rein rechtsdogmatische Frage hat völkerrechtshistorisch, wirtschaftspolitisch und rechtspolitisch weitreichende Folgen. Es geht um nicht weniger als um die Frage, ob die Bundesrepublik Deutschland sowie die EU und alle ihre Mitgliedstaaten weiterhin bereit sind das Völkerrecht zu achten, und zwar gerade in einer Zeit, in der die Notwendigkeit der Wirksamkeit völkerrechtlicher Rechtsbindungen nicht hoch genug gewertet werden kann.

3

Walking A Democratic Tightrope

That was fast. On 8 June, only 11 days after the Polish so-called ‘Lex Tusk’ was signed into force, the Commission launched an infringement procedure against Poland. For the first time, the Commission is relying on the principle of democracy in Art. 10 TEU as an autonomous plea, dropping another bombshell shortly after the first direct invocation of Art. 2 TEU in infringement proceedings against Hungary earlier this year. This contribution discusses both the perks and potential perils of the direct enforcement of the principle of democracy in Art. 10 TEU. On the one hand, a shift from what is arguably better called ‘militant rule of law’ towards more literally EU militant democracy is a positive development, as it better captures the nature and range of the principles which are de facto under threat in several EU Member States. On the other hand, the present infringement action illustrates the principled challenge of militant democracy to preserve the possibility of democratic regime change, all whilst not lapsing into a form of institutional conservatism.

0

Enforcing Democracy

On the 8th of June, the Commission announced the opening of an infringement procedure against Poland in relation to the so-called ‘Lex Tusk’ or ‘anti-Tusk’ law. The principle of democracy is the first alleged violation specified by the Commission, based on Articles 2 and 10 TEU. Although proposed back in 2020 by observers of the Rule of Law crisis (see here and here), using this combination of articles to protect democracy is an unprecedented step by the institution. In a way, this follows the successful actions brought against Poland based on Articles 2 and 19 TEU (with ‘successful’ referring to the Court upholding the Commission’s complaints). It also recalls similarities with the Commission’s decision to invoke Article 2 TEU as a stand-alone provision in the infringement proceedings against Hungary’s ‘anti-LGBTQ’ law. The Commission is now testing out the legal waters to see if Article 10 TEU can be the trigger for ‘democracy’ in the same way Article 19 TEU is the trigger for ‘rule of law’.

0

Doing Justice to Poland’s Muzzle Law

On 5 June 2023, the Court of Justice issued its fourth infringement judgment in relation to yet another Polish piece of legislation – informally known as the muzzle law – which aimed to dissuade or punish Polish judges for applying and upholding EU rule of law requirements. As anyone with any basic understanding of EU law could have predicted, the law rushed into force by Poland’s ruling coalition in December 2019 did not survive judicial scrutiny in Luxembourg. As long as the Commission fails to demand full compliance with CJEU case law and decisively address the issue of judicial usurpers, however, just chipping away at the arbitrary disciplinary changes Polish authorities have made will always fail to solve Poland’s fundamental and systemic issues.

1

Regulating the Sustainability Transition

The European Parliament’s adoption of its position on the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) last week marks a breakthrough for transnational corporate regulation. At a moment when the EU Green Deal was facing open opposition from within the European People’s Party Group (EPP), rapporteur Lara Wolters (S&P) withstood lobbying efforts until the final minute and secured a majority for her report. With a strong mandate for the Parliament in the upcoming Trilogue, the EU has come a big step closer to passing the most ambitious due diligence legislation worldwide.

0

YouTube Updates its Policy on Election Misinformation

Last Friday, YouTube announced that it ‘will stop removing content that advances false claims that widespread fraud, errors, or glitches occurred in the 2020 and other past US Presidential elections’. This development has upsides and downsides, a few of which are worth sketching out, and all of which further accentuate why the US constitutional framework regarding online platform regulation requires updating. The nature of this update requires transcending a governance approach of overreliance on expecting good faith self-regulation by companies providing these intermediaries.  

3

An Inconvenient Constraint

On 1 July 2024, Hungary is set to take over the Presidency of the Council of Ministers. The European Parliament and the Meijers Committee issued reports questioning whether Hungary should be blocked from doing that. These proposals raise questions of political feasibility, however, especially as one may doubt if a Hungarian Council Presidency can do much practical damage to the EU. In addition, they also raise questions of legal feasibility. A logical prerequisite for preventing Hungary from holding the Presidency as long as it breaches the rule of law is that doing so is consistent with the EU’s own rule of law. I doubt it is.

1

Strasbourg’s Coming Out

On June 1st, in Maymulakhin and Markiv v. Ukraine, the ECtHR determined for the first time in clear terms that the general absence of legal recognition for same-sex couples is discriminatory and violates Article 14 of the European Convention of Human Rights. This marks a significant addition to the Court’s case-law concerning the rights of same-sex couples with implications for future litigation on this subject.

0

Institutional Corsets and the Question of Timing

There has been a lot of noise around whether Hungary should, and legally could, be blocked from taking over the Council presidency in the second half of 2024, considering the state of the rule of law in the country. On 1 June, the European Parliament adopted a resolution, questioning Hungary’s ability to “credibly fulfill” the tasks of a Council presidency and asking the Council to “find a proper solution as soon as possible”, else Parliament could take “appropriate measures”. Such concerns are legitimate, but another question seems to be sidelined in the debate: How much practical damage can the upcoming Council presidency under Hungary actually do in the EU?

3

An Honest Broker?

A characteristic of the functioning of the EU is that the Presidency of the Council of Ministers rotates between Member States every six months according to a previously agreed order. The EU Presidency is responsible for driving forward the Council’s work on EU legislation. In the second half of 2024, Hungary will take over the Presidency, followed by Poland in the first half of 2025. Given their rule of law record, it is highly questionable whether they will act in the Council’s general interest. In order to avoid damage, there are three avenues available to the Council and the Member States.

0

Durchschlagskraft für Sorgfaltspflichten

Die bevorstehende Verabschiedung der EU-Richtlinie über die Sorgfaltspflichten von Unternehmen im Hinblick auf Nachhaltigkeit (Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive, CSDDD) könnte die Regulierung der Waffen- und Rüstungsindustrie in Europa drastisch verändern. Während sich das EU-Parlament, die Kommission und der Rat darauf vorbereiten, in den so genannten „Trilog“ einzutreten, um einen endgültigen Text zu verabschieden, ist noch offen, ob sie auch den Waffenhandel in den Geltungsbereich der Richtlinie einbeziehen werden. In diesem Beitrag beleuchten wir einige Accountability-Defizite in derzeitigen europäischen Regelungen über die Ausfuhr von Feuerwaffen. Die CSDDD könnte dazu beitragen, jene Defizite zu beheben und gleichzeitig den illegalen Handel und die Umleitung von Waffen zu verhindern.

0

Media Pluralism in KRRiT-ical Condition

In April 2023, the Polish National Broadcasting Council, the so-called KRRiT, imposed a high fine on an indipendent media outlet. It was not the first fine of this kind to independent media organisations. The growing number of KRRiT decisions targeting independent media in Poland is the result of the political nature of the procedure for appointing members of the KRRiT and the broad, unclear legal basis for imposing fines. Since 2005, the decisive voice in the composition of the KRRiT was that of the ruling political majority. This blogpost analyzes and criticizes the vague legal framework for KRRiT and the institution's apparent political capture in recent years.

2

The National Case for Reforming the EU Treaties

Four arguments of either explicit or implicit importance in encouraging states to engage in Treaty reform in this ‘reform period’ are of decisive importance again now. Many of these arguments have already found their way into political discourse (for example into the cautious opening of the German government to Treaty reform) while others have not. The key to making the national case for Treaty reform may therefore lie in demonstrating to the Member States that these factors make opening-up the Treaties in their national interest.

0

Trading Rights for Responsibility

The newly published compromise text of the Asylum Procedures Regulation (APR) suggests to render border procedures mandatory in some cases, while also permitting first-entry states to derogate from them once their “adequate capacity” is reached. This adaptable approach to the use of border procedures seeks to resolve a long-standing disagreement between central EU countries and first-entry states. While the former consider the obligatory use of border procedures necessary to prevent onwards or  ‘secondary’ movement of asylum-seekers, southern EU states argue that their mandatory use would place a further strain on their resources and overburden their capacities for processing asylum claims. This blogpost first explains the problems with border procedures, reviews their role in increasing responsibility of first-entry states, and explains why the new compromise Draft is unlikely to resolve the disagreement between first-entry states and other Members States.

0

Betrayal

Various EU bodies have started to appreciate the threat the anti-constitutional challenge poses to fundamental rights and the entire EU. The Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA), the body primarily tasked with watching over fundamental rights, chose a different path and committed to collaboration and to legitimizing an illiberal regime. As earlier contributors to FRA reports on Hungary, we felt the responsibility to call attention to this unfortunate development: The FRA recently committed to rely on reporting from two governmental-controlled institutions, the National University of Public Service and the Hungarian ombudsperson.

0

The Ukrainian Grain Imports Saga

Poland and Hungary, later joined by Bulgaria, Slovakia and Romania, decided to unilaterally halt the imports of grain and other food products from Ukraine to protect their domestic farmers. The European Commission quickly announced that “trade policy is of EU exclusive competence and, therefore, unilateral actions are not acceptable”. At the same, however, the Commission’s spokesperson also considered that it was “too early” to comment on the legal implications of the Member States’ actions. Instead, the Commission adopted a pragmatic approach. It quickly announced a new support package for EU farmers affected by the increased supply of Ukrainian agricultural products and proposed additional measures to ensure the transit of Ukrainian grain exports to destinations outside of the Union. Significantly, it also added that this package “is subject to Member States lifting their unilateral measures”. This creates a very cynical situation, in the sense that an infringement of EU law may be instrumental to reach a better deal.

0

Flexible Responsibility or the End of Asylum Law as We Know It?

On March 21 2023, the Council released a revised draft proposal for an Asylum and Migration Management Regulation (AMMR). It reintroduces the concept of ‘flexible responsibility’ — or ‘adaptable responsibility’ — into the EU’s migration management. Already included in the controversial Instrumentalisation Regulation of 14 December 2021, flexible responsibility is the idea that Member States should be allowed to derogate from normally applicable asylum standards when faced with sudden migratory pressures. While the Instrumentalisation Regulation was rejected in December 2022, this post will detail how the new AMMR draft threatens to reintroduce the idea of flexible/adaptable derogations — including, potentially, those originally foreseen in the Instrumentalisation Regulation — into the EU’s asylum framework and why we should reject it.

0

Investing Immobilized Russian Assets, Monetarizing the Common Foreign and Security Policy

Again, the Commission and EU Member States are talking about new sanctions against Russia. The focus, according to Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, should be on tackling sanctions circumvention and loopholes. In a scoop, however, it was also uncovered that the Commission has drawn up a non-paper “on the generation of resources to support Ukraine from immobilized Russian assets”. The idea behind this non-paper is to invest the immobilized assets of the Russian Central Bank in EU Member States’ bonds and bills and use the proceeds to support the reconstruction of Ukraine. The plan, as the non-paper indicates, is fraught with a number of legal and technical issues. These do not only relate to the question of whether or not such an investment of immobilized assets is compatible with international law and EU law, but also to the question of who should undertake and oversee these investments.

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Intersectionality in Climate Litigation

The ECtHR held a hearing in the case KlimaSeniorinnen v Switzerland. It is one of the first gender-based climate cases worldwide. The case offers novel perspectives on a range of issues. Crucially, it highlights new potential avenues for standing in human rights cases and pinpoints how age, health, gender, and climate change intersect.

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Achmea Goes to Washington

Recently, a US District Court trashed a Dutch company's arbitral award against Spain. Why? Because investor-state arbitration within the EU violates European law. Yet, many tribunals keep issuing arbitral awards - especially under the infamous Energy Charta Treaty. Challenging those awards in domestic courts outside the EU, like here in Washington D.C., might work as corrective to the continuing illegal assumption of jurisdiction and blatant disregard for the EU Treaties by arbitral tribunals.

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New Digital Gates for Fortress Europe?

On March 29th, the Permanent Representatives Committee approved the EU Council's negotiating mandate for a Regulatory proposal to digitalize the Visa procedure. Proponents argue that this move will improve security and reduce administrative costs for both EU Member States and interested travellers. However, I argue that the Draft Regulation raises many concerns about the effective protection of the fundamental rights of Schengen visa applicants. If adopted, it threatens to perpetuate the subordination of fundamental rights to security and efficiency concerns that characterizes the increasing digitalization and datafication of EU migration management operations.

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Attention Is All You Need

Das Verbot ChatGPTs durch die italienische Datenschutzbehörde bietet Gelegenheit einen Klassiker neu aufzulegen: Eine bahnbrechende, Technologie aus dem Silicon Valley zerschellt am harten Beton des Brüsseler Datenschutzregimes. Während einige technikkritische Stimmen laut applaudieren, prügeln andere auf das vermeintlich innovationsfeindliche Datenschutzrecht ein. Doch gibt ChatGPT tatsächlich Anlass für derart fundamentale datenschutzrechtliche Bedenken im Hinblick auf generative KIs?

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Short Detention, Long Shadow

Several videos show the arrest of Clara Ponsatí last Tuesday in the streets of Barcelona, a Member of the European Parliament (MEP). Separatist politicians have forcefully condemned the arrest as an ‘attack on democracy’, ‘political violence’, ‘repression’ and ‘abuse of power’, while also asserting an egregious violation of an MEP’s immunity. This piece argues that the arrest warrant issued by the Tribunal Supremo on 28 March 2023 does not hold up against established constitutional principles.

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Die private Durchsetzung des Unionsrechts

Welche Ansprüche bestehen bei Verstoß gegen unionsrechtlich fundierte Normen, die keine eigenen Rechtsfolgenanordnungen vorsehen – diese Frage ist seit einigen Jahren zu einem zentralen Thema (auch) des Privatrechts geworden. Im Kern geht es um ein Problem, das sich in allen föderal organisierten oder supranational beeinflussten Rechtsordnungen stellt: Wie kann trotz der Ebenentrennung von (unionalen) Rechten („rights“) und (nationaler) Rechtsdurchsetzung („remedies“) eine wirksame Durchsetzung der Regeln der höheren Ebene durch die niedrigere Ebene gewährleistet werden – und welche Rolle spielt in diesem System das Privatrecht? Die Diesel-Entscheidung C-100/21 der Großen Kammer des EuGH gibt neue Impulse für eine Debatte, die das Privatrecht noch lange beschäftigen wird.

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Limitations of the Transnational ne bis in idem Principle in EU Law

No-one shall be tried or punished twice for the same offence. This principle is part of the fundamental law protection in the EU, but can be limited under certain conditions. In Case C-365/21, decided on 23 March 2023, the ECJ has confirmed the validity of an important limitation of the transnational ne bis in idem guarantee. Another case which arose in the context of the Diesel scandal involving German automobile producer Volkswagen and is still pending before the European Court of Justice gives the Court a new opportunity to set new standards regarding limitations of the ne bis in idem principle in cases involving different Member States and to strengthen this principle which is of great importance for the completion of a genuine area of freedom, security and justice.

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Political Advertising and Disinformation

Over a year ago, the European Commission presented its Proposal for a Regulation on the transparency and targeting of political advertising (COM(2021) 731 final). Recently, the Council presented its General Approach, followed by the position of the European Parliament (EP). While stakeholders are waiting for the trilogue negotiations to shape the final text of the legislation, critical voices are raising concerns. Concerns are that under the future regulation online platforms might have to de-amplify such independent content

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Too Much for Others, too Little for Us

The draft of the European Media Freedom Act (EMFA) published last September appears to constitute, in part, an attempt to respond to the systematic erosion of media freedom in Hungary since 2010. The European Commission seems to be aware of how unsuccessful it has been in addressing the problem. Thus, even though the rule of law proceedings against Hungary found a serious violation of media freedom, the conditionality procedure and the Charter of Fundamental Rights eligibility criteria inquiry failed to address the issue. Against this backdrop, this blogpost will analyse the draft EMFA’s capacity to respond to the unique challenges posed by the Hungarian media freedom landscape.

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Inter* Personen im menschenrechtlichen Warteraum

Bei Fällen aus dem LGBTIQ*-Themenkreis vor dem Europäischen Gerichtshof für Menschenrechte (EGMR) lässt sich ein gewisses Muster erkennen: In dem jeweils ersten Beschwerdefall (sei es das Adoptionsrecht für homosexuelle Personen, sei es die Frage der Anerkennung der Geschlechtsidentität von trans* Personen), erkennt der EGMR zunächst keine Verletzung eines Konventionsrechts an. Häufig erklärt er aber auch, dass diese Einschätzung sich ändern kann. So könnte es auch bei der Frage des Personenstatus von inter* Personen kommen.

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Politische Werbung und Desinformation

Zum Verordnungs-Entwurf der Europäischen Kommission über die Transparenz und das Targeting politischer Werbung (COM(2021) 731 final) liegt inzwischen die Gemeinsame Ausrichtung des Rats der Europäischen Union als auch die gemeinsame Position des Europäischen Parlaments vor. Nun beginnen die abschließenden Trilog-Verhandlungen. Dem VO-Entwurf geht es um die Eindämmung von Gefahren durch politische Online-Desinformationskampagnen. Aufhorchen lassen Stimmen aus der Zivilgesellschaft, die eine zu weitgehende Erfassung auch privater oder unabhängiger politischer Meinungskundgabe fürchten.

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Feminist Foreign Trade Policy is a Demand of the EU Treaties

there is a strong basis for feminist trade policy in EU primary law. Arguably, any external action of the EU ought to be in compliance with basic considerations of feminist foreign policy. The key question is not if EU external action should comply with feminist foreign policy, but rather, how.

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Georgia’s Bill on Foreign Agents and the Limits of the EU’s Soft Power

On February 20, 2023, the Parliament of Georgia registered the bill "On the transparency of foreign influence" that introduces the category of an "agent of foreign influence" – any private legal entity which gets more than 20% of its entire budget from a "foreign force". These facially innocent "monitoring" functions harbour a potentially totalitarian instrument of control. In Georgia, which underwent Stalinist purges of the 1930s, where family members (anonymously) denounced each other to the NKVD (secret police) and innocent people were rounded and summarily executed on charges of being a "foreign agent", this rings a much louder alarm bell, than elsewhere. 

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Action Recommended

The DSA will have a say in what measures social media platforms will have to implement with regard to the recommendation engines they deploy to curate people’s feeds and timelines. It is a departure from the previous narrow view of content moderation, and pays closer attention to risks stemming from the amplification of harmful content and the underlying design choices. But it is too early to celebrate.

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A Unique Identification Number for Every European Citizen

On 3 June 2021, the European Commission issued a proposal for a European Digital Identity Regulation, which seems to not have raised much discussion among legal scholars, even though digital identity raises several fundamental rights implications. The introduction of a unique and persistent identifier may be understandable from a practical point of view, but cannot be accepted due to its risks and the fact that it potentially infringes the German prohibition on general unique identifiers.

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Departing from Hostile Refugee Landscapes

In December 2022, the Swedish Migration Agency estimated that the Taliban’s conquest of Afghanistan has made the lives of Afghan women and girls so difficult that it counts as persecution based on gender. Against this background, the Migration Agency announced that all women and girls from Afghanistan are eligible to refugee status and a three-year residence permit in Sweden. These policies represent a major departure from the wide range of restrictive amendments that Denmark and Sweden, over the past decades, have introduced to their asylum laws with the aim of becoming less attractive target countries for asylum seekers.

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Der Brüsseler Testballon

Über das Amtsblatt der Europäischen Union vom 13. Februar 2023 eröffnete die Kommission den Blick auf eine gegen Ungarn eingereichte Klageschrift. Im Vertragsverletzungsverfahren begehrt sie die Feststellung eines Unionsrechtsverstoßes durch das vom ungarischen Parlament in 2021 verabschiedete Gesetz über ein strengeres Vorgehen gegen pädophile Straftäter und die Änderung bestimmter Gesetze zum Schutz von Kindern. Die Kommission schlägt mit der Klageschrift einen neuen Weg ein, da sie den vorgebrachten Verstoß in einem Punkt auf Art. 2 EUV als solchen, das heißt auf die isolierte Bestimmung, stützt.

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A Dormant Struggle Reaches Critical Mass

Developments in Europe and beyond mark a changing landscape of (constitutional) space law – an unsustainable upsurge in the numbers of satellites and resulting light and debris pollution, the entry into the market of new actors with conflicting interests, and the fragmentation of domestic systems’ approach to space law mean that the current quasi-constitutional system is under the immense risk of being entirely disregarded. For the sake of the future, there are good reasons to keep a constitutional basis to space endeavours. We have to discuss ways of doing so now. Europe appears willing, and I would argue should, lead the way.

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Allister and Peeples

The ruling in Allister and Peeples of 8 February 2023 serves as a potent reminder that the UK has yet to fully say goodbye to Brexit. The matter being scrutinised was the Northern Ireland Protocol and questions surrounding its constitutionality within the famously uncodified UK constitution. Critically, the UK Supreme Court appears to have poured cold water on the idea that certain Acts of the UK Parliament have a constitutional character (the constitutional statutes doctrine). It is my suggestion, however, that the doctrine has not entirely been consigned to history.

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The platform-media relationship in the European Media Freedom Act

The European Media Freedom Act proposal takes aim at very large online platforms’ gatekeeping power over access to media content and aims to reshape the relationship between media and platforms. By providing media organisations a special position on platforms, however, the EMFA risks changing the media’s role and relationships with other actors in ways that run counter to its overall objective to secure media freedom.

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Kompetenzausschuss statt Kompetenzgericht

Der Konflikt um die Kompetenzverteilung zwischen der Europäischen Union und ihren Mitgliedstaaten sowie der Entscheidungsmacht darüber hat bereits diverse Reformvorschläge hervorgebracht. Diese reichen von einem separaten Europäischen Kompetenzgericht über eine gemischte Kammer am EuGH mit Beteiligung nationaler Richterinnen und Richtern hin zu einem umgekehrten Vorlageverfahren. Während bislang vor allem gerichtliche Lösungen diskutiert wurden, eruiert dieser Beitrag das Potenzial einer Lösung im politischen Prozess durch einen neu zu schaffenden, parlamentarisch besetzten Kompetenzvermittlungsausschuss.

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Die Störerhaftung ist tot, lang lebe die Störerhaftung

In der rechtswissenschaftlichen Debatte melden sich erste Stimmen, die den Urteilen in den Verfahren YouTube II und Uploaded III entnehmen, dass der BGH die Störerhaftung für sämtliche Vermittlungsdienste abgeschafft habe. Mit anderen Worten könnten nun etwa auch Access Provider, Domain Registrare oder DNS-Dienste als Täter von Urheberrechtsverletzungen ihrer Nutzer haften. Diese Lesart der beiden Urteile zur Haftung von Sharing-Plattformen ist nicht nur rechtlich fernliegend, die Ausweitung der Haftung neutraler Diensteanbieter droht die Grundrechtseinschränkungen, die bereits an der Störerhaftung kritisiert wurden, zu potenzieren.

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Es war einmal in Straßburg

Ein Märchenbuch für Kinder, in dem gleichgeschlechtliche Beziehungen dargestellt werden, (vorübergehend) aus dem Verkehr zu ziehen und es anschließend als „schädlich für Kinder unter 14 Jahre“ zu kennzeichnen, verstößt gegen das in Art. 10 EMRK gewährleistete Recht auf freie Meinungsäußerung. Dies hat die Große Kammer des Europäischen Gerichtshofs für Menschenrechte (EGMR) in ihrer richtungsweisenden Entscheidung Macatė v. Lithuania festgestellt. Der Gerichtshof betonte außerdem, dass die gleiche und gegenseitige Anerkennung von Personen unterschiedlicher sexueller Orientierungen der gesamten Konvention inhärent ist.

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Separatisten vor dem EuGH

Mit dem Urteil vom 31.01.2023 hat der EuGH der bisherigen Geschichte zur Auslieferung der führenden Politiker:innen der katalanischen Autonomiebewegung nach Spanien ein weiteres Kapitel hinzugefügt. Gleichzeitig entwickelt der Gerichtshof seine Rechtsprechung zu den Ausnahmen des gegenseitigen Vertrauens bei Gefahren für ein faires Verfahren fort, die dem Betroffenen nach der Vollstreckung eines Europäischen Haftbefehls im Ausstellungsstaat drohen – mit noch offenen Folgen für den Auslieferung der katalanischen Politiker:innen.

1

Why Declaring the Iranian Revolutionary Guards a Terrorist Group is a Trickier Business Than One May Think

The EU did not follow the European Parliament’s call to designate Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist group on the EU’s recent sanctions list. The High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, justified this decision with the lack of a court decision finding that the IRGC is indeed a terrorist group. Is an EU court decision a pre-condition for sanctioning terrorist groups? Not necessarily. Nevertheless, Borrell does have a point.

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The rise of Article 122 TFEU

The last decade, and especially the past year, saw a marked increase in the EU’s reliance on Article 122 TFEU. This legal basis was used to adopt a series of measures aimed to address the health and energy crises following the COVID pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. At least two of those measures are now subject to direct challenges before the General Court and the Court of Justice. From a constitutional perspective, however, it is unfortunate that these two cases will probably not invite the Courts to address the more fundamental constitutional questions raised by the Council’s recent recourse to Article 122 TFEU.

1

Adapt or Die?

The year 2022 will be remembered as one of ‘terrible violence and seismic change in Europe’, in the words of the High Level Reflection Group established by the Council of Europe to consider the organisation’s future. The Council of Europe has issued a public call for ideas, inviting input from international organisations, national human rights institutions, civil society organisations, academics, human rights defenders and others. The deadline for submissions is imminent – 20 February – and the need for radical thinking has never been greater.

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No New Rights in Fedotova

In Fedotova and others v Russia issued on 17 January 2023, the ECtHR held that Russia had breached its positive obligation to secure the applicants’ right to respect for their private and family life under Article 8 of the Convention by failing to provide any form of legal recognition and protection for same sex couples. The ground-breaking aspect of the judgment is the clear rejection by the Court of the justifications advanced by the Contracting State.

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The many troubles of the Fedotova judgment

On 17 January 2023, the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights ruled in Fedotova v Russia that the absence of any legal recognition and protection for same-sex couples amounts to a violation of Art. 8 of the Convention. For 30 Member States of the Council of Europe (CoE), this judgment changes nothing since their legal orders already allow same-sex couples to enter into marriage or into other forms of legally recognised relationships. For the remaining countries, however, the Fedotova judgment amounts to an external judicial pressure to change their legal landscape in a politically very sensitive area of LGBT+ rights. Fedotova is probably the most political judgment of all times.

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Understanding and Regulating ChatGPT, and Other Large Generative AI Models

Large generative AI models are shaking up the research community and society at large, rapidly changing the way we communicate, illustrate, and create. What has rarely been noticed, however, is that the EU, since the spring of 2022, has quietly been preparing far-reaching rules to explicitly regulate these models. We make three concrete proposals.

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Internet collapse made in Europe

Nothing has changed since the last time there was a debate regarding the relationship between telecommunication providers and online content providers. Nevertheless, the European Commission is willing to take a massive gamble and entertain the possibility of regulation to oblige online services to pay their "fair share" towards increased bandwidth consumption. This regulatory shift could risk an Internet collapse in Europe.

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Tougher Integrity Rules for the European Parliament

The current scandal at the European Parliament might trigger an overdue discussion: Foreign officials should be either prohibited to lobby on legislation or be subject to rigorous disclosure rules.

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Das Postfaktische über Korruption in der Europäischen Union

Auch wenn es dem Europäischen Parlament in den letzten Jahren gelungen ist, eine Mehrheit zu finden, um die Mitgliedstaaten Ungarn, Polen, Rumänien, die Slowakei, Bulgarien und Malta wegen Korruption zu schelten, ist es weitaus schwieriger, seine eigenen Mitglieder zu kontrollieren. Das Europäische Parlament ist der absolute Herrscher über seine eigene Integrität. Wenn es seine Möglichkeiten einschränken will, indem es volle Transparenz bei Sitzungen, Zugang, Ausgaben und Reisen bietet, kann es das tun - gute Vorschläge liegen schon seit Jahren vor.

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The Dutch Asylum Policy for Russian Draft Evaders

In a one page letter of 13 December, the Dutch state secretary for immigration Eric van der Burg explained to Dutch parliament how asylum claims made by Russian draft evaders will be dealt with. The new Dutch policy makes a distinction between Russian conscripts and Russians reservists who attempt to evade the mobilisation which the Russian president announced last September. Conscripts will continue to enjoy a form of temporary protection in the Netherlands. Asylum claims of Russians who evade mobilisation will, however, be decided on an individual basis. Importantly – and controversially – the state secretary suggests that claims of the latter category may now be denied because the Russian mobilisation has been completed.

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Preserving Procedural Fairness in The AI Era

AI systems have been used and challenged by individuals affected by their output. In the absence of a regulatory framework, national courts in Europe have been called upon to address claimants’ demands for fairness and legal protection. While they have been activists in preserving individuals’ procedural rights by setting requirements for AI systems, the courts' role is, however, doomed to change when the AI Act enters into force.

0

Much Ado About Nothing

On 15 December, the European Commission adopted a European Declaration on Digital Rights and Principles for the Digital Decade. It builds upon primary EU law instruments, and the question inevitably arises of what additional value and effect the Declaration may have.

0

The Qatar Scandal and Third Country Lobbying

The EU was given the worst kind of early Christmas present: a corruption scandal that has rocked the Union to its core giving ammunition to anti-EU populist actors and drawing attention and schadenfreude from outside the EU. The facts of the case remain under investigation, but the case has already been approached from many angles.Qatar has been given the role of an international villain in this story, and the EU has used the opportunities to frame the case as malign third country efforts to corrupt the EU. While there is no denying the corrupting role of a third country, the EU’s framing enables it to pose as a victim, which, as I argue in this blogpost, is intellectually dishonest and harmful.

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Twitter – Wie der Digital Services Act willkürlichen (Ent-)Sperrungen und der „Generalamnestie“ eine Absage erteilt

Die Willkür Elon Musks auf Twitter sorgt für Entsetzen. Er hat durch willkürliche (Ent-)Sperrungen von Nutzer*innen zur Unsicherheit und Polarisierung des Online-Diskurses beigetragen. Derartiger Willkür bei der Mitgliedermoderation wird der neue Digital Services Act der EU einen Riegel vorschieben.

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Schutz vor Verletzung von Persönlichkeitsrechten und „Desinformation“ in sozialen Medien unter Bedingungen der politischen Polarisierung

Für den Schutz vor Persönlichkeitsverletzungen in Medien wie Twitter und Facebook gilt im Wesentlichen und kaum verändert das auf den Schutz des Individuums eingestellte Äußerungsrecht, wie es seit vielen Jahrzehnten besteht. Das deutsche NetzDG und der europäische Digital Services Act (DSA) ergänzen dies um eine quantitative kollektive Dimension: Für den Schutz gegen die große Zahl der rechtswidrigen Äußerungen im Internet wird eine Art Rasenmäher-Prinzip entwickelt, das vor allem schnelle Löschungen durch Provider erzwingen soll. Dies ist nicht der richtige Ansatz.

0

An early Christmas Gift from Karlsruhe?

The 6 December Karlsruhe ruling on the constitutional complaints against the ‘Act Ratifying the EU Own Resources Decision’ will be received by many as a Saint Nicholas present. This time, the Federal Constitutional Court avoided the head-on collision with the EU it caused with its PSPP judgment two and a half years ago. Instead, it opted for a seemingly constructive assessment of the EU’s pandemic recovery instrument. In particular, it found that the ORD did not manifestly exceed the competences conferred on the EU – i.e., it was not ultra vires – and did not affect the constitutional identity of the Basic Law. While the ruling is not as constraining as some might have feared, it does not give card blanche for a more permanent EU fiscal capacity.

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The Hungary Files

The battle over the rule of law in Hungary is coming to a head. Two separate but related dossiers landed on the EU Council’s agenda on Tuesday, 6 December: firstly, whether to suspend 7.5 billion Euros in funds under the EU’s cohesion policy under the new rule of law conditionality mechanism; and secondly, whether to approve the Hungarian national recovery and resilience plan. Both files are currently stuck in a political limbo as the member states cannot agree on a common course of action, complicated by the fact that Orbán is holding his veto over Brussel’s head on an aid package for Ukraine and a global corporate tax, both of which require unanimity in the Council. Now the question is: Who will move first, Orbán or the other member states?

1

The Commission’s missed opportunity to reclaim competition law for the Rechtsstaat

On 30 November 2022, the European Commission took two important decisions to protect the EU budget against possible breaches of the rule of law in Hungary. First, the Commission concluded that the conditions for applying the Conditionality mechanism in Hungary remain and Hungary needs to take further and more credible action to eliminate the remaining risks for the EU budget. Second, the Commission has assessed Hungary’s Recovery and Resilience Plan and froze the disbursement of the RRF until the full and effective implementation of 27 ”super milestones” has taken place. Unfortunately, with these measures, missed opportunity to reclaim the importance of competition law in the Rechtsstaat.

1

The Autonomy of Sport and the Degeneration of an Ideal

The Football World Cup in Qatar is but the tip of the iceberg of the mounting problems for UEFA/FIFA. Scandals. Corruption. Cozying up to the autocrats and feeling right at home in their company. Arrogance bordering on ignorance coming from the very top of the governing bodies. The list of serious ailments that beset the system of football governance goes on. As a result, one might argue that not much of substance can be added to the topic. Yet, as will be argued here, there is still a constitutional and discursive potential to push forward the discourse on the broken system of football governance. There is important space for constitutionalists to fill by offering a voice of critical reflection, insights and by pointing out signposts for the future.

0

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

The Commission needs to get its message out to Hungarians loud and clear that it is trying to fight corruption in Hungary so that EU money can be used to benefit the Hungarian people and not just Orbán’s circle of cronies. Hungarians would definitely appreciate that if they knew it. But the Commission’s press release today has been drowned out by Orbán’s use of state funds to flood the zone with his message that the Commission doesn’t care about the Hungarian people and is responsible for all of the economic pain they feel.

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The Pitfalls of Enhanced Cooperation

There has been a public debate among academics and politicians on whether Hungary should be required to join the European Public Prosecutor’s Office as a condition to receive EU funds according to the different milestones. Joining the EPPO would send a clear message that Hungary takes ending public corruption seriously and a more general sign that it wishes to be a part of the European family. However, this proposal will not be legally possible to implement, thus illustrating the key problem with enhanced cooperation as a form of European integration.

0

Weder Festung Europa, noch Gefängnis Europa

Werden in der Europäischen Union bald nicht nur ausländische Direktinvestitionen in die EU (inbound), sondern auch Investitionen europäischer Unternehmen in Drittstaaten (outbound) einer hoheitlichen Investitionskontrolle unterzogen? Während die EU-Kommission erste Andeutungen hierzu macht, läuft in den USA die Diskussion bereits heiß – bis ins Weiße Haus.

2

In Hungary, the Law Changes Every Day but It Doesn’t Get Better

The EU Commission has agreed with us that the laws that we have analyzed in our series of four blogposts did not in fact constitute an effective anti-corruption plan. And the Commission has attached a €13.3 billion price tag to non-compliance. Now the Hungarian government is scrambling to unlock this cash by introducing two additional laws that attempt to address the Commission’s concerns. But these new laws repeat the errors of the prior laws. They create the appearance of an independent corruption-fighting system while digging in political allies at all of the chokepoints and tying up whistleblowers and anti-corruption fighters in red tape. The new laws do not make things better and they may even make things worse.

0

Trojan Horses and Constitutional Identity

In Costello v Ireland the Irish Supreme Court upheld a constitutional challenge by a Green Party MP to the Government’s proposed ratification of the CETA. By a majority of 4:3, the Court held that ratification would breach Irish juridical sovereignty. Beyond CETA, the greater significance of Costello may lie in its endorsement of constitutional identity as a doctrinal device that controls Ireland’s domestic legal engagement with its international law obligations. The new status accorded to constitutional identity, however, may provide future Irish courts with the doctrinal tools to recalibrate the relationship between the Irish and EU legal orders.

0

The Reform That Isn’t

As states are set to vote on the reform of the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT) at a Conference in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, on 22 November, concerns regarding the treaty's impact on states' climate policies remain significant. In our assessment, the proposed reform fails to provide the treaty’s contracting parties with the necessary regulatory freedom to implement their climate commitments. Scheduled for the week after COP27, the vote comes at a crucial time, as scientists agree that this is the decisive decade to limit global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. Meanwhile, several EU Member States, including Germany, France, Spain, Poland, the Netherlands, and Slovenia have announced unilateral withdrawals from the treaty, stating that the proposed reform fails to meet their expectations.

0

Picking Primacy over Procedural Autonomy

On 8 November, the Grand Chamber of the Court of Justice of the European Union (‘the Court’) decided that national courts are required to ascertain of their own motion whether detention of an illegally staying foreign national or asylum seeker is lawful. This judgment is an example of the ever-growing impact of EU law on national procedural rules, especially in the migration law area. The judgment is also noteworthy because of the difference in approach between, on the one hand, the Court and, on the other hand, the Dutch referring courts and AG Richard de la Tour.

0

Der Energiecharta-Vertrag im Kreuzfeuer der Kritik

Kaum ein anderer völkerrechtlicher Vertrag aus dem Bereich des internationalen Wirtschaftsrechts hat in den letzten Jahren so sehr die politischen Gemüter bewegt, wie der Energiecharta-Vertrag (Energy Charter Treaty – ECT). Am 11. November 2022 hat auch die Bundesregierung erklärt, aus dem Energiecharta-Vertrag auszutreten. Zur Debatte steht jedoch, ob die Gründe dafür überzeugen können. Denn ob man es politisch will oder nicht, mit einem Rücktritt vom Energiecharta-Vertrag sind komplexe rechtliche Probleme verbunden.

0

Are Hungary’s EU Funds Being Cut (or Not)?

The news about whether Hungary will receive EU funds (or not) these days is confusing. One day, we hear that the European Commission is proposing to lower the boom on Hungary by cutting a large chunk of its Cohesion Funds under the general EU budget. The next day, we hear that the Commission is nearing an agreement to approve Hungary’s Recovery Plan in order to greenlight the release of funds. Is the Commission using or surrendering its financial leverage to require that the Hungarian government honor the rule of law? Will the Hungarian government negotiate its way out of funding cuts by really loosening its autocratic grip on power, or would any reform be illusory?

1

Mut zur Selbstkorrektur in Straßburg

Die Aussicht, in den USA zu lebenslanger Haft ohne Aussicht auf eine spätere Überprüfung verurteilt zu werden, ist nicht unbedingt ein Auslieferungshindernis. Das hatte der EGMR bisher noch anders gesehen – jetzt hat er seine Linie ausdrücklich korrigiert. Der Gerichtshof zeigt sich damit offen für einen Dialog mit den Gerichten der Konventionsstaaten, der auch für Deutschland im Streit um das Beamtenstreikverbot schon bald relevant werden könnte.

0

Meloni’s Illiberal Anti-Rave Law

Only ten days after it was sworn in and a week after it received the confidence vote from the Parliament, the new Italian government led by Giorgia Meloni presented its first decree-law containing numerous provisions on a variety of issues: health, justice, and security. The decree-law was the first legislative act presented by the new radical right-wing government. Members of the opposition argued that the decree, in particular the anti-rave norm, is a danger to the freedom of assembly of the Italian citizens and that is a law that Putin could have written.

0

With or Without Hungary

By December 2022, the Council must vote on the Commission's proposal to withdraw EU budgetary funds from Hungary under the Rule of Law Conditionality Regulation. Without a legal basis for its exclusion, Hungary will cast its vote on that proposal. Obviously, the participation of a Member State in a vote that decides on the consequences of its own rule of law violations seems paradoxical. There should be a general Treaty rule that prevents a Member State from voting in the Council when their own alleged misconduct is at stake.

0

Unexploited Monitoring Opportunities

Over the last year and a half, the European Border Coast Guard Agency has been under an unprecedented scrutiny. The Frontex saga started in 2020 when investigative journalists published ground-breaking findings, revealing how the Agency was breaching the law being complicit with human rights violations committed by Greek authorities. National Parliaments could play a bigger role in monitoring Frontex, serving as a complementary avenue for democratic oversight, in addition to the European Parliament.

0

Einheitliche Auslegung und Vorrang des Unionsrechts im Dialog der Gerichte

Die Frage nach einheitlicher Auslegung und Vorrang des Unionsrechts wirft eine Grundsatzfrage nach der Zuordnung und der Verteilung justizieller Macht im Rahmen der europäischen Integrationsgemeinschaft auf. Aus Sicht der unionsrechtlichen Praxis erscheint die nun mit neuer Vehemenz einsetzende Diskussion jedoch aus der Zeit gefallen. Es bedarf eines gewandelten Verständnisses der überkommenen Staatlichkeit um angemessen auf die aktuellen Herausforderungen zu reagieren.

5

Fighting for a Cause

On 18 October 2022, the European Court of Human Rights handed down its judgement in the case of Mørck Jensen v. Denmark, upholding the applicant’s conviction under Danish law of breaching the prohibition on entry into and stay in a conflict zone in order to participate in armed hostilities on the side of one party to an ongoing armed conflict. In its judgment, the Court consciously opted to take an objective or neutral stance towards the question of whether there may exist ‘right’ reasons to travel to a hot conflict zone in order to actively participate in armed activities.

0

EU Military Mission Is Coming Home

On 10 October 2022, the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, delivered a remarkably clear speech (for a diplomat) at the EU Ambassadors Annual Conference 2022, in which he drew conclusions about the current state of the Union’s foreign policy. A few days later, on 17 October 2022, the Council for Foreign Affairs agreed on establishing the European Union Military Assistance Mission in support of Ukraine (‘EUMAM Ukraine’). Normally, such EU military operations are carried out overseas. However, this does not seem to be the case here, raising legal questions as to whether this action has a sufficient legal basis in the EU Treaties.

3

A Chernobyl Case for our Times

On 10 October 2022, René Repasi, a member of the European Parliament, brought a case against the European Commission before the EU General Court. The key question of the case is procedural: Does an individual MEP have standing to claim before the Court that an EU act has been based on the wrong legal basis, if the choice of legal basis affects an MEP’s participatory rights. If Mr. Repasi succeeds, his case could significantly strengthen the Court’s role in protecting the rights of the minority in the European Parliament. It could introduce a new type of player to EU institutional legal battles – the MEP – and establish a sort of Organstreitverfahren for individual MEPs.

1

Kein Untergang des Rechtsstaates durch EU-Russlandsanktionen für Rechtsanwält*innen

Angesichts des russischen Angriffskriegs auf die Ukraine sehen BRAK und DAV den Rechtsstaat in Deutschland bedroht. Allerdings bedauerlicherweise nicht durch die völkerrechtswidrigen Verbrechen des russischen Regimes, sondern durch die jüngste Reaktion der EU darauf. Erstmals wird in gewissem Umfang auch die Erbringung von Rechtsdienstleistungen für bestimmte russische Mandanten verboten. Und das hat umgehend zornige Reaktionen anwaltlicher Standesvertreter ausgelöst.

2

Evolution and Mutation in the EU’s DNA

In order to get rid of “classical” border controls between Member States, the EU Commission is trying to incentivise Schengen States to substitute them with so called “alternative measures”, for example the enforced use of police powers and monitoring and surveillance technologies. These technologies and their impacts confront us with the question what it means to move “freely” within an area of freedom, security and justice without internal frontiers.

0

How NOT to Be an Independent Agency

The Hungarian government is trying to convince EU institutions that it is taking adequate steps to ensure proper spending of EU funds going forward. At the center of this effort is a new ‘Integrity Authority’. The law establishing this authority, Bill T/1260, just passed the Hungarian Parliament on 3 October 2022. We have carefully read the laws enacted so far that establish a new anti-corruption framework and can confidently say that neither the Commission nor the Council should accept what the Hungarian government is offering because the proposed changes do not begin to alter business as usual in Hungary. In this blogpost, we will analyze the ‘Integrity Authority’ which forms the centerpiece of the government’s program, showing that it is not independent from the government nor are its powers real.

0

Sham and Smokescreen

Since 27 April 2022, Hungary has been under the Rule of Law conditionality mechanism, introduced by the Conditionality Regulation. After various debates and considerations, and in the light of the blackmailing potential of the Hungarian prime minister, the Regulation, in a weaker form than initially proposed, works as a preventive tool for ensuring the protection of the EU budget and sound financial management of EU resources. The Hungarian government has a record of misleading (and betraying) the European Union, and apparently, it is not different now.

0

Mobilized to Commit War Crimes?

In that earlier post, I argued that states have a legal obligation to recognize the refugee status of Russian troops who flee to avoid participating in what is a war of aggression. That argument applies equally to this new scenario. Those who refuse to fight and who leave Russia to avoid doing so should be recognized as refugees.  However, there is now an additional way to ground that claim.

0

Why EU Countries Should Open Their Borders to Russian Draft-Evaders

In a significant escalation of his war in Ukraine, Russia’s President Putin announced a partial mobilisation on the 21st of September. Attempting to avoid the draft, thousands of Russian men are reported to be fleeing the country. Are EU countries obliged to grant asylum to Russians who are (pre-emptively) evading Putin’s draft?

2

Rote Ampel für Geisterfahrer

Der „Neustart der Geisterfahrer“, wie Kurt Graulich die nach der Digital Rights Ireland-Entscheidung entfachte Debatte über die Vorratsdatenspeicherung beschrieb und damit die Intensität der Auseinandersetzung zwischen Befürwortern und Gegner gut einfing, hat auf den ersten Blick ihr vorläufiges und erwartbares Ende in Luxemburg gefunden. Dass die Entscheidung hier besprochen wird, bedeutet keinesfalls, dass sie neuartige Impulse bringt oder, wie der Bundesjustizminister meint, (in einem rechtlichen Sinne) „historisch“ sei. Denn die Unionsrechtswidrigkeit der deutschen Vorratsdatenspeicherung war spätestens ab 2016 deutlich.

0

Missing Freedom Act

The European Commission is due to present its Media Freedom Act (MFA) this week. The MFA is not welcomed by several states, for different reasons. Some fear that their current system of media freedom and pluralism will be compromised. Others worry that their captured media scene will be exposed and investigated. Both types of opponents can relax because the Media Freedom Act draft is as impactful as a light breeze. It only scratches the surface, and important safeguards are missing.

0

Jetzt das Strommarktdesign auf Erneuerbare ausrichten

Der starke Anstieg der Strom- und Gaspreise in den vergangenen Wochen und Monaten hat nicht nur in Deutschland Sorge vor wirtschaftlichen Folgen sowie Strom- und Gasengpässen ausgelöst. Neben den Entlastungspaketen der Bundesregierung sind auch auf europäischer Ebene verschiedene Maßnahmen getroffen worden, um den Preisanstieg und dessen Auswirkungen zu begrenzen. So hat insbesondere die Europäische Kommission ein Maßnahmenpaket für nachhaltige Energie in Europa vorgestellt und verschiedene Einzelmaßnahmen, etwa die Senkung der Großhandelspreise auf dem iberischen Strommarkt, genehmigt.

1

Here We Stand

On Sunday, 28 August 2022, four major associations of European judges announced that they would challenge the Council’s Decision of 17 June that releases funds to Poland to help it recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. The four associations are seeking to prevent the release of recovery funds to Poland until it has complied with the Court’s judgments in full. Whether their action has any chance of success will depend on how the Court applies the long-standing Plaumann criteria.

3

A New European Political Community: The British Perspective

The upcoming State of the Union address scheduled for 14 September and the succession of Liz Truss as UK Prime Minister looks set to be a potential turning point in EU relations. But will the EU grasp it? Could a new intergovernmental political forum – acting alongside EU enlargement – ease the tension of EU treaty change? Such a forum might bridge the potential role prospective EU member states in Eastern Europe could play before formally joining and the necessity of forging a constructive post-Brexit relationship with the UK. It could resolve political and constitutional concerns.

1

Kein Geld ohne Reform

Polen stehen rund 35,4 Mrd. Euro aus dem im Dezember vom Europäischen Rat beschlossenen Nachcorona-Sonderbudget  („Next Generation“) zu. Bisher sind Zahlungen an Polen nicht geflossen.  Die EU-Kommission hatte am 1. Juni eine Reihe von Reformauflagen für das polnische Justizsystem als Bedingungen für die Freigabe des Aufbau- und Resilienzplans beschlossen. Zwar hat die polnische Regierung seitdem einige Reformen veranlasst, die europarechtlichen Voraussetzungen für die Auszahlung von Geldern an Polen aus dem Aufbaufonds der EU sind aber weiterhin nicht gegeben.

0

Seenotrettung vor dem EuGH

Gegen das Instrument der Hafenstaatkontrolle, mit dem Italien NGO-Schiffe regelmäßig festsetzte, hatten die NGOs Sea-Eye und Sea-Watch 2020 vor italienischen Verwaltungsgerichten geklagt. In den von Sea-Watch betriebenen Verfahren hatte das Regionale Verwaltungsgericht Sizilien dem EuGH zwei Vorabentscheidungsersuchen vorgelegt. Anfang August erging nun das Urteil des EuGH. Der Gerichtshof präzisiert darin die europarechtlichen Vorschriften zur Hafenstaatkontrolle, trägt zur Auslegung der einschlägigen seevölkerrechtlichen Normen bei und grenzt die Verantwortungsbereiche von Flaggen- und Hafenstaaten voneinander ab.

0

Konventionswidrig aber rechtssicher

Mit Beschluss vom 08. Juli 2022 verwarf das OLG Frankfurt a.M. eine sofortige Beschwerde gegen die Ablehnung eines auf § 359 Nr. 6 StPO gestützten Wiederaufnahmeantrags durch das LG Kassel - obwohl der Europäische Gerichtshof für Menschenrechte bereits die deutsche Handhabung möglicher Befangenheit von Richtern kritisiert hatte.

2

Dobbs in the EU

EU leaders and institutions have reacted strongly to the US Supreme Court’s ruling in Dobbs, which overturned Roe v. Wade and held that the right to abortion was not consitutionally protected. Shortly after the decision was made public, the European Parliament adopted a resolution condemning Dobbs, and calling for the right to abortion to be included in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.

0

Law must be enforceable

The Court of Justice of the European Union ruled on 01.08.2022 that administrative decisions refusing family reunification must be open to judicial review with a legal remedy. The decision had been long awaited. The underlying article only provided for a legal remedy “against”, not “for” a transfer decision. The CJEU clearly rejects this view and emphasizes that administrative decisions must generally be subject to judicial review, which is a hindrance to the EU Commission's plans to significantly reduce the number of legal remedies in the revised EU legislation.

0

The Re-Emergence of the Net Neutrality Debate in Europe

The European online space has been subjected to intensive legal reforms in recent years, and the policy and regulatory debates regarding the role and obligations of tech companies in Europe are far from over. With the rumoured Connectivity Infrastructure Act, the European Commission seeks to compel Big Tech actors to financially contribute to telecommunications infrastructure. This initiative risks opening the pandora's box of net neutrality, and potentially endangers the democratic principles of freedom of expression and pluralism.

0

Tesla und die Sicherheit autonomer Fahrzeuge

Im Juni 2022 hat die US-amerikanische National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) eine Untersuchung von Tesla angeordnet, die nicht weniger als 830.000 Fahrzeuge sämtlicher Produktlinien betrifft. Die Behörde ist das amerikanische Pendant zum Kraftfahrtbundesamt und unter anderem für die Sicherheit der zum Straßenverkehr zugelassenen Kraftfahrzeuge zuständig. Die Untersuchung von Tesla betrifft das von diesem Unternehmen eingesetzte Computerprogramm namens „Autopilot“.

0

Inkonsequenz made in Luxemburg

In diesem Dezember jährt sich die Gründung des Europäischen Gerichtshofes zum 70. Mal. Der EuGH zelebriert diesen runden Geburtstag bereits mit dem Hashtag #CJEUin70days auf dem sozialen Netzwerk Twitter. Nicht nur diese Kampagne, sondern auch die Öffentlichkeitsarbeit des EuGHs über soziale Medien insgesamt scheint dabei nicht im Einklang zu stehen mit der eigenen Rechtsprechung des Gerichtshofs.

4

Karlsruher Türsteher

Diese Woche, am 26. und 27. Juli, verhandelte das Bundesverfassungsgericht das „Eigenmittelbeschluss-Ratifizierungsgesetz“ (ERatG). Die politischen Entscheidungen, die in Gestalt des Wiederaufbaufonds „Next Generation EU“ in rechtliche Form gegossen wurden, trafen dabei auf alte Rechtsfragen.

0

Accessing Information about Abortion

The U.S. Supreme Court decision of 24 June 2022 overruled a half century of precedent supporting a constitutional right to abortion across the U.S. established in 1973 in Roe v. Wade. Essentially, Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization left the decision on abortion to individual states. The ruling, although astonishing, was not necessarily a surprise, after its draft had leaked a few weeks earlier. But to the surprise of many, almost immediately, Facebook and Instagram started removing posts informing about access to abortion pills, the Associated Press and Vice first reported.

0

On Osman Kavala and Turkish Judicial Failures

The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, in charge of monitoring compliance with ECtHR rulings, will now deliberate as to how to handle Turkey’s now judicially confirmed failure to release Kavala.  Suspension of Turkey’s membership in the Council of Europe, is an option that is on the table, at least theoretically. The Kavala case is larger than Kavala himself though. 

0

The Government versus the President

A few days ago, the Georgian government filed a constitutional complaint against the President of Georgia to the Constitutional Court. Many in Georgia, and not only in Georgia, think that the government is trying to curtail the powers of the president and punish the president for her pro-European political activities. What is interesting in this context is how strong the government's legal positions really are.

2

Holidays with smog

The Polish energy policy is seeing further controversies. The Minister of Climate and the Environment, Anna Moskwa, allowed poor quality coal to be sold for 60 days. This means that, up to 28 August, households are able to buy bituminous coal with a higher content of sulphur and mercury, as well as harmful mining waste, e.g. mining sludge. This decision is already causing considerable controversy not only among climate activists, but also among voivodship (local) authorities that are implementing so-called anti-smog resolutions.

0

The Selective Nature of a pan-European Willkommenskultur

Four months into Russia’s war on Ukraine, there has been a tremendous show of support for Ukrainians fleeing violence and the atrocities of war – in Europe and elsewhere in the world. As is well-known, European states have hammered out pragmatic administrative solutions to accommodate large numbers of incoming person, going to great lengths to provide for beneficial welfare arrangements. Against this backdrop, it may not be unreasonable to present the crisis in Ukraine as a tipping point for humanitarian protection more generally.

0

Fiktive Einheit vor Pluralität

Nun hat also auch der Europäische Gerichtshof für Menschenrechte in Sachen Tarifeinheitsgesetz entschieden. Wie zuvor schon das BVerfG kommt er zum Ergebnis, dass der neue § 4a TVG in Menschenrechte eingreift, kann sich aber nicht dazu durchringen, Deutschland hierfür zu verurteilen. Und wie bereits im BVerfG haben zwei Richter:innen ihren Widerspruch in einem Sondervotum formuliert.

1

Untying the Ties that (don’t) Bind

In his letter to MEP Daniel Freund of 17 June 2022, European Council President Charles Michel argued that neither he, as President, nor the European Council have the power to exclude democratically unaccountable representatives of a Member State from that institution. But President Michel’s apparent recourse to a literal reading of Article 15(2) TEU – which fails to consider its relationship with other provisions relating to the composition of the European Council – is not convincing.

1

The Core of the European Public Space

Increasing the visibility of the constitutional fundamentals of the Union takes on existential importance in times of constitutional reckoning or, as some call it in more ominous terms, in times of “capitulation”. It is for that reason that art. 19(1) TEU should be amended to reflect the case law of the Court of Justice and thus to codify the core that binds the Member States to the discipline of the legal order.

1

Europe Needs a Civil Society Strategy

In a number of EU countries, governments are squeezing civic space, rendering it increasingly hard for civil society to operate. A comprehensive strategic approach to partnering with civil societies would allow the EU to more effectively tackle growing illiberalism and ambivalence about democracy.

0

Russian Elites, Proxies, and Oligarchs – Make them Pay!

Russland und seine starken Männer sollen buchstäblich für die Kriegsschäden in der Ukraine zahlen. Die Kommission schlägt vor, die Durchsetzung von Sanktionen mit unionsweit einheitlichen Strafandrohungen zu stärken und auf diesem Weg elegant zugleich einen Rechtsgrund für die Einziehung involvierter Vermögenswerte zu schaffen. Diesem Vorhaben stehen ungeachtet seiner politischen Opportunität erhebliche sanktionstechnische, unionsrechtliche und vor allem strafrechtliche Bedenken entgegen, die erhebliche Zweifel an Zulässigkeit und Erfolgsaussichten nähren.

3

A Directive altered beyond recognition

On 21 June 2022, the Court of Justice of the European Union rendered its decision in the preliminary ruling procedure on the fate of the PNR Directive. The Court had a chance to decisively answer one of the most crucial questions facing European security law: Is indiscriminate mass data retention for and the technology-induced analysis of ordinary human behavior compatible with fundamental rights? It instead opted for an enigmatic compromise creating a whole host of new questions. It does not change the fact that the PNR Directive survives – as a strange beast altered beyond recognition.

0

Experimenting with European Democracy

The Conference on the Future of Europe came to an end on 9 May, with the presentation of a final report of 49 recommendations and 329 specific measures to the  presidents of the three EU institutions. While it is unclear what the exact follow-up to the Conference will be, the upcoming Council Summit on 23-24 June will show whether a simple majority of Member States is open to starting the process for a Treaty change.

0

The UK’s anti-legal populism

Calls for UK withdrawal from the ECHR are raised at fairly regular intervals in certain quarters of the Conservative party, but this week various members of the Government, including the Prime Minister. Reason for this was an interim measure by the European Court of Human Rights that stopped a deportation flight to Rwanda. It was entirely predictable that calls for UK withdrawal from the ECHR would resurface. Less predictable for many, are the implications this would hold for the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement.

1

British Bare Necessities

In the latest episode of the Brexit saga, the United Kingdom government has published the Northern Ireland Protocol ('NIP') Bill, by which it seeks to unilaterally disapply large parts of the Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland to the 2019 Withdrawal Agreement (‘WA’) concluded between the UK and the European Union. The British government has shared a summary of its legal position, seeking to justify the NIP Bill on the basis of the doctrine of necessity. However, this justification seems to be a literal, if unconvincing, attempt to make a virtue of necessity.

2

Moving Beyond Token Participation

The concept of human rights due diligence was developed over the past decade as a way for companies to grapple with adverse human rights violations and impacts connected to their business practice, including within their value chains. In February of this year, the European Commission published a proposal for European Union-wide mandatory human rights due diligence for companies that fall under its scope. For such legislation to succeed in advancing the rights of the most affected and to lead to better human rights outcomes for rights-holders, it is crucial to anchor such laws and regulations with not only the perspective of rights-holders but their ongoing involvement. To do otherwise would miss an invaluable opportunity to improve the landscape of business and human rights to center rights-holders in the years to come.

0

Serbia on Hold

Since 3 April 2022, when elections at all levels were held, Serbia has been on hold. Two months after the elections, only the President of Serbia has begun to serve his regular mandate, while the official results of the parliamentary elections are yet to be proclaimed, the new composition of the National Assembly is yet to be convened, and the new government is yet to be formed. Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, which occurred at the beginning of the election campaign, added to the already tense political situation.

0

How the Data Retention Legislation Led to a National Constitutional Crisis in Portugal

Some weeks ago, the Portuguese Constitutional Court (PCC) triggered a heated political debate on the need to amend the Constitution to grant criminal investigative authorities access to metadata on personal communications. Whilst disagreements between the political branches and the constitutional jurisdiction are common, this conflict is located at a wider critical juncture that intersects EU and national constitutional law, the CJEU, the domestic constitutional court, and ordinary courts.

0

Censuring von der Leyen’s Capitulation on the Rule of Law

The spectre of a motion of censure is looming over the von der Leyen Commission. While this rather extraordinary, perhaps desperate, measure appears unlikely to attain the required number of signatures to be tabled – and even less likely to be adopted by the European Parliament –, this initiative deserves some scrutiny. Perhaps even some praise by those who still believe in the primacy of law over power. 

0

The European Commission Cedes its Crucial Leverage vis-à-vis the Rule of Law in Poland

The worst thing about the European Commission’s decision of 1 June 2022 to approve Poland’s EUR 36 billion national recovery plan, despite this country’s very meek (to put it mildly) assurances about improvements to its rule-of-law situation, is not even its substance, bad though that is. Worse still is the sequencing.

0

The French Constitutional Council’s Problem with Impartiality

If only one example was needed to show the oligarchic nature of the French political system and the limited power of civil society, the game of musical chairs that was played between the Government and the Constitutional Council in the decision “Association La Sphinx” would be perfect. Two ministers directly involved in the drafting of the challenged policy were also judging the constitutionality of the legislative provisions they themselves brought forward. The Constitutional Council’s rules of procedure dismiss impartiality concerns in such cases. This management of conflicts of interests in this court is unacceptable.

0

Competition and Conditionality

On 5 April 2022, just two days after the Hungarian national elections, the European Commission formally announced that it would apply the conditionality mechanism enshrined in Regulation 2020/2092 in relation to Hungary. In the past the Commission has frequently addressed issues related to “systemic irregularities, deficiencies and weaknesses in public procurement procedures”. In Hungary, however, it has not probed the enforcement of competition (cartel) law in public tender procedures. The Commission should seize the opportunity to act in this area.

1

Just a Feint?

A running joke in the pro-democratic military analyst community is about ridiculing the messages of pro-Russian experts who are pretending that the Russian defeat in the battle of Kyiv was "just a feint". I am afraid that the European Commission just walked into a similar strategic blunder with its deal with the Polish government on the recovery fund and the Supreme Court.

0

Die grenzenlose Aufnahme der ukrainischen Flüchtlinge und was wir daraus lernen

Mit der spontanen Aufnahme der ukrainischen Frauen, Kinder und Hilfsbedürftigen hat die europäische Zivilgesellschaft gezeigt, wie gut sie mit Flüchtlingen interagieren kann, wenn die Grenzen sich öffnen und hemmende Regulierungen entfallen. Die Staaten lernen in den letzten Wochen, eher unterstützend als kontrollierend zu wirken. Diese Erfahrungen sollten motivieren, kritischer als bisher zu hinterfragen, wieweit Einschränkungen der freien Entfaltung Geflüchteter und ihrer Unterstützer sinnvoll sind.

0

Verbraucherinteressen als Teil der öffentlichen Ordnung?

Am 28. Mai 2022 erhält das EGBGB erstmals eine eigene Bußgeldvorschrift. Das überrascht auf den ersten Blick. Bußgelder dienen eigentlich der Wahrung der öffentlichen Sicherheit. Doch die neue Vorschrift impliziert ein neues Verständnis des Verbrauchsgüterkaufs, das über den reinen Warenaustausch hinausgeht.

3

GDPR Collective Litigation Against Facebook

The recent CJEU Case C-319/20, Meta Platforms Ireland provides insights on the interpretation of Article 80(2) of the Regulation (EU) 2016/679 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data (GDPR), which regulates representative actions in the data protection field. The Court of Justice specified that actions protecting general interests fall under the scope of Article 80(2) GDPR, but leaves the task unmoved to reconcile this provision with the Directive on Representative Actions (DRA).

0

Climate Change Litigation Before the ECtHR

Verein KlimaSeniorinnen Schweiz and Others v. Switzerland is the first case of climate change litigation before the ECtHR where all domestic remedies have been exhausted. The Chamber to which the case had been allocated relinquished jurisdiction in favour of the Grand Chamber. This reinforces the potential of the case to become a landmark ruling determining the Court’s approach to climate change.

0

Drifting Case-law on Judicial Independence

In a preliminary ruling of 29 March 2022, in case C-132/20 Getin Noble Bank, the CJEU answered questions on judicial independence of judges appointed under an undemocratic regime and of judges appointed before 2018 in an allegedly flawed process. Taking a highly formalistic approach, the Court seeks to preserve judicial dialogue between itself and the national judges – at the expense of the rule of law and judicial independence.

0

The War in Ukraine, Fake News, and the Digital Epistemic Divide

The ongoing war in Ukraine sheds light on crucial challenges of our digital media landscape. The social media-driven “(mis)information wars” surrounding the Russian invasion expose a growing epistemic divide running through liberal democracies. The regulatory focus on truth, with measures like fact-checking, serves little to cure the larger problems behind this. We should rather use the power of the law to devise new modes of intelligent speech regulation mimicking the functions formerly played by the centralized set-up of communication conditions.

0

RePowerEU and End War by Ending Fossil Fuels

Putin’s criminal war on Ukraine has forced the Commission to say it will ‘RePowerEU’, to end Russian fossil fuels. We must clearly end all fossil fuels, and drive as fast as technology allows to 100% clean energy. To do this we should capitalise upon the vast range of legal options in our European economic constitution: that is the ‘law of enterprise’. The geopolitical situation requires us to see our law as an organic, social whole, and for all private and public actors to be on board.

2

Die EU schlägt zurück

Am 27. April 2022 hat die EU-Kommission ihre Initiative zur Bekämpfung missbräuchlicher Klagen gegen öffentliche Beteiligung (sog. SLAPPs) vorgestellt. Die Initiative umfasst einen Vorschlag für eine EU-Richtlinie gegen SLAPPs in Zivilsachen mit grenzüberschreitendem Bezug (im Folgenden: Anti-SLAPP-RL) und eine ergänzende Empfehlung, mit der die Kommission die Mitgliedstaaten auffordert, die Richtlinie überschießend, das heißt auch auf innerstaatliche Sachverhalte und sämtliche Verfahrensarten, umzusetzen und Schulungs- und Sensibilisierungsmaßnahmen zu SLAPPs zu ergreifen.

2

Wieviel Automatisierung verträgt die Meinungsfreiheit?

Mit seinem Urteil über die grundrechtliche Bewertung des umstrittenen Artikel 17 der EU-Urheberrechtsrichtlinie (Rechtssache C-401/19) definiert der Europäische Gerichtshof enge Schranken für den Einsatz von Filtersystemen zur automatischen Sperrung mutmaßlich illegaler Inhalte. Das Urteil ist weit über das Urheberrecht hinaus von Bedeutung, da es den Sinngehalt des Verbots allgemeiner Überwachungspflichten präzisiert. Dieses Verbot ist auch Gegenstand einer aktuellen gerichtlichen Auseinandersetzung zwischen Grünen-Politikerin Renate Künast und dem Meta-Konzern über die Frage, inwieweit Facebook dafür verantwortlich ist, gegen Falschzitate auf der Plattform vorzugehen.

0

Wie Geld oder Gold

Das Bitcoin-Whitepaper datiert von 2008. Seitdem hat Bitcoin eine enorme Aufmerksamkeit und Wertzuschreibung erfahren, und dabei in einer Distanz zu Staat und Recht gestanden, die gut zu seinen libertären Idealen passt. Mit dem Erfolg kommt nun aber die Regulierung. Es ist daher höchste Zeit, einen Blick auf den grundrechtlichen Rahmen der anlaufenden Blockchain-Regulierung zu werfen – er ist weitestgehend unbesprochen.

1

The Court of Justice of the EU goes (almost) public

While the broadcasting of the delivery does not add much value (the texts are generally made available online at the time of their live reading in Luxembourg) to its declared goal of facilitating “the public’s access to its judicial activity”, that of the public hearings appears a major game-changer in the Court’s stance vis-à-vis the public-at-large. And that despite the many precautions accompanying the introduction of such a major rehaul of the Court’s publicity policy regarding its hearings,

3

Elon Musk Wants to Buy Twitter to Create a Free Speech Utopia: Now What?

The enigmatic Tesla founder Elon Musk has made a public offer to buy 100% of Twitter’s shares at approximately 138% of each share’s value. In his letter of intention submitted to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Musk describes that free speech is necessary in a democratic society, and he wishes to unlock its full potential by bringing Twitter under (his) private ownership. Constitutionally this raises an interesting point: if indeed a billionaire wants to change the rules of speech on the ‘new public squares’ by acquiring a social media platform, can he – and should he be able to?

1

Anything Goes?

Last month, the ECtHR ruled in the case of Johansen v. Denmark on the deprivation of nationality and expulsion for terrorist offenses. It rejected the applicant’s complaint of an infringement of Art. 8 ECHR. The decision underlines the Court’s reluctance to engage with issues raised by deprivations of nationality in terrorism cases. Instead of setting out clear limits on such measures based on the rights guaranteed by the Convention, the Court does not seem to be willing to interfere with measures related to national security, no matter how drastic the consequences for the individual.

0

Palantirs Beitrag

Am 15. Tag des russischen Angriffskriegs gegen die Ukraine ruft Alexander Karp, der CEO von Palantir Technologies, in einem offenen Brief „Zur Verteidigung Europas“ auf. Es ist ein bemerkenswertes Dokument, das zu dem Schluss kommt, nur digitale Gegenwehr könne Europa noch retten – selbstredend mit Palantirs Hilfe. Bemerkenswert ist nicht nur die schamlose Instrumentalisierung des Kriegs für seine Zwecke. Prämisse, Analyse, Schlussfolgerung: Satz für Satz lässt Karps Brief die Augenbrauen höher wandern. Aber der Reihe nach.

1

Sexualverbrechen sind nicht grenzüberschreitend

Pünktlich zum Internationalen Frauentag am 8. März 2022 hat die EU-Kommission ihren Vorschlag für eine EU-Richtlinie zur Bekämpfung von Gewalt gegen Frauen und häuslicher Gewalt vorgelegt. Auch wenn der Inhalt der Richtlinie politisch wünschenswert ist, hat die EU hierfür nicht die Kompetenz, da Vergewaltigungen (und Femizide) keine grenzübergreifende Kriminalität darstellen. Vor diesem Hintergrund dürfte die Bundesrepublik der Vergewaltigungs-Vorgabe in Art. 5 des Richtlinien-Entwurfs nicht zustimmen, will sie nicht die Vorgaben aus dem Lissabon-Urteil des BVerfG ignorieren.

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A Backdoor Exit from the European Convention on Human Rights

Russia left the Council of Europe on 16 March 2022. The European Court of Human Rights declared that Russia will remain a Party to the Convention until 16 September 2022. This resolution is inconsistent with applicable termination rules. But even beyond technicalities, it reveals fundamental defects in the design of the ECHR denunciation clause. Forced withdrawal and expulsion from the Council, as mechanisms to sanction severe violations of human rights, should not have the effect of relieving the delinquent State of its conventional human rights obligations.

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The Council of Europe as an AI Standard Setter

On 4 April 2022, Member States of the Council of Europe commences negotiations on the world’s first international binding legal instrument in the field of artificial intelligence. The CoE has a large reservoir of both experience and expertise in the field of standard setting, as far as the three key priorities are concerned: promoting human rights, democracy, and the rule of law. Given the undisputed need for regulating AI activities, the CoE appears a prime candidate for this undertaking.

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Letters from Brussels with Love and the Issue of Mutual Trust in Nationality Matters

In a recent article on this blog, I have set out that the spotlight will soon be turning on the European passportization of Russian oligarchs. And well, what shall I say, it did not take long for the Commission to come out swinging. In a recommendation issued on March 28, the Commission urged “Member States to immediately repeal any existing investor citizenship schemes and to ensure strong checks are in place to address the risks posed by investor residence schemes”.

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The Council of Europe’s Sharp Turn

The Council of Europe (CoE) responded promptly to Russia’s act of aggression against Ukraine first by suspending Russia’s representation rights on 25 February 2022, and then by expelling it on 16 March 2022 in accordance with Article 8 of the Statute. The Committee of Ministers used the Article 8 procedure for the first time in the history of the CoE. This might have crucial implications for the broader CoE context and could make the threat of suspension and expulsion more credible for other member states as well.

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Unmatched Levels of Sanctions Coordination

In early 2022, the European Union (EU) was quick and decisive in imposing an unprecedented set of measures against Russia. Among other things, the EU targeted the Russian Central Bank, which is an extraordinary move, given that central banks are rarely on sanctions lists. Reconciling the interests of 27 Member States is an art itself, especially in a highly sensitive policy area which continues to be dominated by individual Member State interests. Overall, the swiftness of EU measures went beyond most of our expectations.

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Take Down the Wall. And Make Russia Pay for It

EU law allows admitting Ukraine into the Union immediately. This is not only the moral imperative, it would also not require any Treaty revision and mark a return to the classical approach of the first EU accession: accession first, full taking on of the acquis later, with lengthy transitional periods. Ukraine will also require a super Marshall plan to ensure speedy reconstruction. This is doable: the seized – say confiscated – “Russian” money, a bit short of a trillion by now, will be enough, with the EU hopefully topping this amount.

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A Self-Regulatory Race to the Bottom through Out-of-Court Dispute Settlement in the Digital Services Act

Art. 18 of the draft Digital Services Act [Art. 21 in the final text] will introduce new dispute settlement processes. This addresses a legitimate policy concern, namely the need to enable effective recourse mechanisms for platform decisions. However, the concept fails when trying to combine the best of two worlds: solving disputes through real courts as well as through self-regulation. Art. 18 [Art. 21 in the final text] DSA raises serious concerns and should be substantially modified.

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Reimagining a European Constitution

At this point, it is almost trite to say that the invasion of Ukraine has thrown the world order into tailspin. Unimaginable steps have been taken by the European Union and its Member States in the weeks since the invasion. These steps have already started to have significant consequences for discussions on the future of EU constitutionalism. Arguably, the appetite and political will for change is unprecedented and could serve to unplug EU constitutionalism from its sclerotic tendencies – it must be capitalised on.

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Über die Grenzen des Rechts

Der Angriffskrieg Putins gegen die Ukraine hat in den vergangenen Tagen eine Welle der Empathie und Solidarität ausgelöst. Die Reaktionen haben aber auch deutlich gemacht, dass es Hierarchien darin gibt, wem solche Empathie und Solidarität entgegengebracht wird – und wem eher nicht. Diese Hierarchien sind Ausdruck von strukturellen und institutionellen Rassismen. Das Recht hat in diesem Zusammenhang eine ambivalente Rolle, indem es zugleich rassistische Strukturen (re)produziert und dazu einlädt, eben diese zu hinterfragen und zu überwinden.

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Sanctions for Abramovich, but Schröder Goes Scot-Free

What is the role of citizenship – Russian and European – in the context of the deployment and operation of the sanctions? The question is far from trivial. Indeed, effective rights-focused judicial review of such measures is very weak, allowing the matters of foreign policy and perceived political expediency and retribution to override core constitutional principles and guarantees of the European legal systems at all levels. Let us start with history, to understand what is going on and give it a legal assessment.

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Sendeverbot durch Sanktionen

Die Europäische Union hat eine Reihe von Sanktionen gegen russische Staatsmedien erlassen. In normalen Zeiten wäre ein (quasi-)staatliches Verbot von Medien wohl erheblichen Einwänden ausgesetzt gewesen. Doch unter dem Eindruck der immer rücksichtsloseren Invasion Russlands in der Ukraine erhält die EU breite Zustimmung bei nur wenigen kritischen Stimmen. Trotzdem muss auf europäischer Ebene eine tragfähige und geeignete Rechtsgrundlage für den Kampf gegen staatliche Propaganda entwickelt werden. Statt auf das Sanktionsrecht sollte hierfür auf das Medienrecht gesetzt werden. Dafür sollte auf Unionsebene das Medienrecht nach deutschem Vorbild weiterentwickelt werden.

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“The Ever Closer Union among the Peoples of Europe” in Times of War

The war in Ukraine has brought a moment of the constitutional reckoning and the ultimate test of belonging for the Europeans. The ill-fated politics of appeasement and dialoguing with a criminal has come crushing down. Finally, Europe seems to take a more strategic and long-term view of its own politics at least when it comes to common foreign policy and defense. A true re-appraisal and reinvigoration of European ideals will however not be complete if the Union keeps looking the other way, dithering, procrastinating when its own axiological foundations are under attack by one of its own member states.

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Temporary Protection for Ukrainians

One might have expected that the activation of the Temporary Protection Directive would witness a remake of the toxic disputes about ‘burden sharing’ following the mass influx of 2015/16. None of this happened, although the contents of the Implementing Decision is quite different from what many might think intuitively. Inter-state distribution keys or quotas give way to a simple allocation mechanism: ‘free choice’ is the surprise outcome of Thursday’s Council meeting.

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Time for Military Integration in the EU?

For decades, the EU’s security and defence policy was largely looked at as a theoretical piece in the overall puzzle of the Union’s external role. During the past week, however, the unthinkable happened, and European defence policy has taken a significant leap forward. This brings to fore questions about the legal nature of the security and mutual assistance provisions in the EU Treaties, including the relationship between aligned and non-aligned States in EU defence policy.

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Too Little Politics in EU Defense Policy

The arming of Ukraine with European financial means may enjoy widespread support among European populations scandalized by Putin's egregious actions. But this should not obscure the fact that it is the result of largely arcane decision-making processes: Neither the establishment of the European Peace Facility nor the breaking of the Union's rules on arms exports by supplying weapons to the war zone Ukraine was the subject of a substantively open public discourse and will formation.

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Zu wenig Politik in der EU-Verteidigungspolitik

Die Rüstung der Ukraine mit europäischen Mitteln mag in der europäischen Bevölkerung, die durch das ungeheuerliche Vorgehen Putins skandalisiert ist, breite Unterstützung genießen. Das darf aber nicht verdecken, dass es sich um das Ergebnis weitgehend arkaner Entscheidungsprozesse handelt: Gegenstand einer inhaltlich offenen öffentlichen Meinungs- und Willensbildung war weder die Errichtung der Europäischen Friedensfazilität noch die Durchbrechung der Unionsregeln für Rüstungsexporte durch Waffenlieferungen in das Kriegsgebiet Ukraine.

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Claiming “We are out but I am in” post-Brexit

It is not often that the European Court of Justice (ECJ) is presented with a case in which the law is so crystal clear, and so overwhelmingly contrary to the applicant’s claims, as in Préfet du Gers. The central question of the case is weather British nationals retain their EU citizenship and EU citizenship rights after Brexit. Given how straightforward the Treaties and the case-law are on this matter, it is unsurprising that AG Collins answered this question in the negative in a well-argued and straightforward Opinion.

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Green(wash)ing Global Commodity Chains

Yesterday, the EU Commission finally published its proposal for a corporate sustainability due diligence directive – nearly a year after the Parliament’s resolution to the same effect. Tensions were running high among policymakers, businesses, and civil society alike following several delays, DG Internal Market weighing in on the DG Justice file, and two negative verdicts by the obscure Regulatory Scrutiny Board. Have these distortions left their mark on the final text, as many had feared? Yes and no, as I shall explain, focusing on the proposal’s operative environmental dimension.

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The next step towards auditing intermediaries

The lack of transparency of digital platforms is a well-known problem that has wide societal implications. There is now an extraordinary opportunity to establish legally mandated criteria for meaningful transparency for online platforms in the proposed EU Digital Services Act (DSA). However, their success will depend on the strength of oversight mechanisms which need to be accompanied by sufficient access to data. Hence, we propose creating an auditing intermediary to assure the effectiveness of such oversight.

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Not looking up

It now seems that after the ruling is before the ruling. The Commission is intent on continuing with its wait-and-see approach, a situation which Hungarian MEP Katalin Cseh compared to the Netflix movie “Don’t look up”, in which the President of the United States decides to ignore the huge comet approaching the earth. While in the movie the comet finally destroys the planet, the European Parliament, however, is determined not to let it come to that. It has made clear that it will not tolerate this policy of looking the other way and has taken up arms.

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Constitutional Identity in and on EU Terms

The EU protects national constitutional identities and does not protect national unconstitutional identities. This is the message the Court of Justice of the EU has sent with its decision of 16 of February 2022, in the cases initiated by Hungary and Poland about the rule-of-law conditionality mechanism, in which it ominously referred to the constitutional identity of the EU. Constitutional identity, according to the CJEU, is a key concept of public law and a fundamental pillar of the EU, so Member States constitutional identities may not be manipulated in such a way that turns into a violation of the constitutional identity of the EU.

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In Defense of Its Identity

The introduction of rule of law budgetary conditionality, as approved by the Court, is a first step in the right direction. But the Union must go further. Taking a page from fundamental rights and anti-discrimination law, we suggest the systematic, deliberate, and transparent incorporation of rule of law considerations into all Union policies and practices at all stages, from planning and legislation to execution and enforcement, with the aim of actively promoting, realizing, and sustaining the rule of law throughout the Union.

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No More Excuses

Sitting as a full court, due to the exceptional importance of the case, the Court of Justice has dismissed the annulment actions brought by the Hungarian and Polish governments against the Rule of Law Conditionality Regulation. A non-exhaustive account of the main substantive issues addressed by the Court.

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When Is a Court Still a Court?

On 3 February 2022, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) issued a judgment in the case of Advance Pharma sp.z o.o. against Poland. This is another judgment on the irregularities in the appointments of judges to the Polish Supreme Court, in which the ECtHR confirmed its previous rulings. But it also touched on several implications of its conclusions for the Polish judiciary. It suggests that they may be relevant for ordinary courts in Poland as well and that Polish authorities should ensure the possibility to reopen proceedings in certain situations.

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The Duty to Exhaust Remedies with Systemic Deficiencies

On 3 February 2022, the European Court of Human Rights issued its judgment in Advance Pharma v Poland and addressed the question of whether an applicant is required to exhaust domestic remedies that suffer from systemic deficiencies for the first time. While the Court does not yet give a clear answer to this particularly sensitive issue, this case is another reminder of just how difficult it is for the Convention system to engage with countries that structurally impair their judicial system.

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On the Right to Compulsory Vaccination

The legitimacy of compulsory vaccination is a question of what kind of freedom we want. It is not a matter of state decree, but rather the reaction of a democratic constitutional state to an omission that can be interpreted as a violation of the freedom of others. If we take the legal relationship of freedom as a basis, some guidelines for models of compulsory vaccination emerge.

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Jenseits der roten Linien

Abgeordnete aus Russland sollten nicht an der Parlamentarischen Versammlung des Europarats (PACE) teilnehmen können. Dies haben am vergangenen Montag, zu Beginn der neuen Sitzungsperiode, Abgeordnete aus der Ukraine und dem Baltikum gefordert und die Beglaubigungsschreiben der russischen Delegation angefochten. Am Mittwoch muss nun über diese abgestimmt werden, damit die russische Delegation ihr Mandat in der PACE aufnehmen kann. Auch die deutschen Delegierten sollten die russischen Beglaubigungsschreiben, wenn überhaupt, dann nur unter Auflagen ratifizieren.

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Pushbacks? Never mind, we’re doing it

"Pushback" has been elected Germany’s non-word of the year 2021. The word is rather innocent, the act is the problem. The EU Commission has now submitted a proposal for an amendment of the Schengen Borders Code that allows for irregular arrivals to be returned without effective legal protection.

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Pushbacks? Egal, wir machen das jetzt so

„Pushback“ ist zum Unwort des Jahres 2021 gekürt worden. Das Wort ist eher unschuldig, die Tat ist das Unding. Die EU-Kommission hat jetzt einen Änderungsvorschlag zum Schengener Grenzkodex vorgelegt, der das ignoriert: Sie schlägt Transfers ohne effektiven Rechtsschutz vor.

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Curing the Symptoms but not the Disease

Traffic violations are not a proportionate justification to effectively deprive a person of her EU citizenship. This may sound obvious but in reality it was not, as the crucial Grand Chamber case of JY decided on January 18 demonstrates. This is a significant yet predictable addition to the edifice of EU citizenship post-Rottmann. Regrettably, the forward-looking judgment is myopic up to the point of an error of judgement as to the fundamental challenges at play in the factual constellation at hand.

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Wer Whistleblower nicht schützt, muss haften

Whistleblower in Deutschland haben es schwer. Bis zum 17. Dezember 2021 hätte der Bundesgesetzgeber Zeit gehabt, die „Whistleblower-Richtlinie“ in nationales Recht umzusetzen. Da er diese Frist untätig hat verstreichen lassen, entfaltet die EU-Richtlinie ihre Wirkung nun unmittelbar. Sie schützt Personen, die Verstöße gegen das Unionsrecht melden und kann zu weitreichenden Haftungsansprüchen gegenüber der Bundesrepublik führen.

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A Missed Opportunity for LGBTQ Rights

A few days ago, the British activist Gareth Lee failed with his complaint before the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). The Court declared the application inadmissible as Lee had not claimed the violation of rights under the European Convention on Human Rights in any of the national court proceedings and thus had not exhausted all national remedies. Lee v. the United Kingdom really was a missed opportunity for Europe’s regional human rights court to address the issue of homophobia in the context of access to goods and services.

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Pushbacks against the Child’s Best Interests

The lack of a functional EU-level legal framework, designed for high immigration numbers, contributed to increasing recourse to practices of dissuading migrants away from the EU territory. This did not leave the European Court of Human Rights indifferent and it decided to give a legal green light to pushbacks under certain conditions. The Court applies its jurisprudence equally to all individuals and in all situations. In doing so, however, it violates the principle of the child’s best interests. A more nuanced approach should be taken, guaranteeing special protection to children, in accordance with the principle of the child’s best interests.

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The EU and its ‘Exes’

In September 2021, MEPs voted in favour of a new EU Ethics body to oversee movements of personnel between the public and the private sector and proposed an interinstitutional agreement to this end. Replacing the current Independent Ethical Committee, the new body would be responsible for proposing and advising Commissioners, MEPs and staff of the institutions on ethics rules. The new Ethics Body, however, is not the regulatory unicorn many are hoping for. The gaps and ineffectiveness of EU policies to address revolving door moves stem from a limited understanding of the issue, which in turn is a result of lack of research and interest. The EU cannot devise better policies unless more is known about the phenomenon.

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Bürgerräte als Potential für die Handlungs- und Lernfähigkeit von Demokratien

Seit einigen Jahren entstehen in europäischen Ländern und in den USA neue Formen der Bürgerbeteiligung. Auch im neuen Koalitionsvertrag sind Bürgerräte vorgesehen. Sie könnten die aktuellen politischen Debatten wirksamer machen und Diskurse in einer fragmentierten Öffentlichkeit sinnvoll strukturieren. Das funktioniert allerdings nur unter gewissen Voraussetzungen, die sich aus den bisherigen Erfahrungen mit ähnlichen Formen von Bürgerräten ableiten lassen: Entscheidend sind transparente Ziele und Verfahren, eine inklusive Repräsentativität und die Umsetzung der sich daraus ergebenden Empfehlungen.

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The Conference on the Future of Europe as an Institutional Illusion

The Conference on the Future of Europe is currently underway on the basis of the joint Declaration of 10 March 2021. Nine months after the Joint Declaration there is ample evidence from the Conference that allows us to assess this institutional event. The Conference might best be described as a campaign to stimulate public interest for EU politics. It is clear that the Conference has neither the legal basis nor the institutional character to address the Union's structural problems in the face of great challenges.

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Datenschutzvollzug vor Zentralisierung

Die Europäische Datenschutzgrundverordnung (DSGVO) gilt noch keine vier Jahre, doch schon werden erste Forderungen nach mehr europäischer Zentralisierung der mitgliedstaatlichen Datenschutzaufsichtsbehörden laut, da Teile der nationalen Datenschutzaufsichtsbehörden nicht in der Lage sind, bei Verstößen gegen die DSGVO durch Technologiekonzerne in wichtigen grenzüberschreitenden Datenverarbeitungen einzuschreiten. Muss das System der Zuständigkeiten und Zusammenarbeit der mitgliedstaatlichen Aufsichtsbehörden bereits jetzt einer grundlegenden Revision unterzogen werden?

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Not Above the Law

In the joined cases EMA and ELA on the determination of EU agencies’ seats, a decision of the EU-Court is pending very soon. According to AG Bobek’s opinion, delivered on 6 October 2021, intergovernmental decisions the seats of the European agencies fall outside the EU Court’s judicial review. Ezio Perillo, former Judge at the General Court, does not agree with this solution. For him court has the duty to assure the effective judicial protection of intergovernmental decisions when they do not respect the institutional balance as in the EMA and ELA cases.

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No rule of law?

Something out of the ordinary, something very strange, something seriously concerning happened at the second section of the European Court of Human Rights on 23 November 2021.

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Verfahren eingestellt, Problem gelöst?

Am 2. Dezember 2021 hat die EU-Kommission das Vertragsverletzungsverfahren gegen Deutschland wegen des PSPP-Urteils des BVerfG vom 5. Mai 2020 eingestellt. Dieser Einstellungsentscheidung ist mit Erleichterung zu begegnen.

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Questions of Integrity

Many have rightly criticized the Commission for failing to robustly defend the EU’s founding values from academic freedom, to media freedom, to judicial independence, to the rights of refugees or the LGBT community. In these discussions, the Commission’s failure to take action against another form of discrimination is generally ignored: discrimination against national minorities. Looking at the example of Hungarian communities in other member states, this post highlights the Commission’s failure to defend ethnic or national minorities against discrimination. This is in stark contrast with the fact that the protection of and respect for minorities is a founding value of the EU, ranked equally to democracy, rule of law and human dignity.

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Das Damoklesschwert über der europäischen Rechtsordnung

Am 16. November fand vor der Großen Kammer des EuGH die mündliche Verhandlung im Verfahren C-562/21 PPU statt. Es ging um den europäischen Haftbefehl in Zusammenhang mit der Rechtsstaatlichkeit in Polen – einen europarechtlichen Dauerbrenner. Wie alle Fälle mit Bezug zur Rechtsstaatlichkeit in Polen hat auch dieser wieder einmal große politische Brisanz. Dennoch fand das Verfahren in der Öffentlichkeit relativ wenig Beachtung. Der EuGH könnte dabei wegen der langen Inaktivität der politischen Akteur:innen im Konflikt mit Polen und auch aufgrund seiner jüngsten Rechtsstaatsrechtsprechung eine tragische Rolle spielen, die sich aus der starken Verrechtlichung des Konflikts um die Rechtsstaatlichkeit ergibt.

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The Honest (though Embarrassing) Coming-out of the Polish Constitutional Tribunal

The particular coming-out of the Tribunal, made in the judgment K 6/21 by admitting that the Constitutional Tribunal is not subject in general to the standards inherent in Article 6 EC, leads to the conclusion that the Polish Constitutional Tribunal and its judges need not be independent. Paradoxically, therefore, the judgment confirms (albeit by different reasoning) the disqualification of the Tribunal made in the Xero Flor judgment by ECtHR. And yet the Tribunal intended to remove the negative consequences for itself of the Xero Flor. 

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Mauern wieder denkbar machen

1985 versuchte die DDR die Bundesrepublik zu destabilisieren, indem sie für tamilische Geflüchtete aus Sri Lanka ein "Loch in der Mauer" nach Westberlin öffnete. Nicht ohne Erfolg: der Diskurs über „Scheinasylanten“ nahm Fahrt auf, „Die Republikaner“ setzten zu ihren größten Erfolgen an. Angesichts der Furcht vor dem Flüchtling hatten andere Parteien das Geschäft übernommen, Migration als schädlich, Asyl als Überforderung und den universalen Geltungsanspruch der Grundrechte als Traumtänzerei darzustellen. Die damals Geborenen sind mittlerweile Eltern, Deutschland ist in mitten eines neuen Europas vereint – aber einige Kosten des damals eingeschlagenen Kurses werden immer deutlicher sichtbar.

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The Sanctity of Preliminary References

A national supreme court must not declare a request for a preliminary ruling by a lower court unlawful on the ground that the referred questions are irrelevant and unnecessary for the original case. This has been held by the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) in its important decision C-564/19 IS. In addition, the CJEU held that EU law also precludes disciplinary proceedings from being brought against national judges on the ground that they made a reference for a preliminary ruling. The case also raises important questions to what extent preliminary rulings can be effective against rule-of-law decline and make up for political EU institutions’ failure to use adequate EU tools of supervision and enforcement.

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In Court for Saving Lives

The trial against human right defenders Séan Binder and Sarah Mardini was supposed to start on 18 November 2021 at the criminal Court on the Greek island of Lesvos. The core charge of the prosecution, the facilitation of irregular entry of third country nationals, is based on the EU Facilitator’s Package and Greek anti-smuggling laws, both of which are at variance with international law standards related to smuggling. The remaining charges pressed upon Binder and Mardini are excessive and likely to be proved unfounded for lack of sufficient evidence. The whole process is just another example of the ongoing criminalization of humanitarian assistance to refugees and asylum seekers in Europe.

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Das Cannabis-Dilemma

Die zukünftige deutsche Bundesregierung will Cannabis legalisieren. Wie das alles konkret umgesetzt werden soll, wird sich zeigen. Worüber erstaunlich wenig diskutiert wird, ist die Frage, ob die Legalisierung rechtlich überhaupt realisierbar ist. Europa- und völkerrechtlich bestehen hohe Hürden, die eine vollständige Legalisierung von Cannabis sehr schwierig, wenn nicht sogar unmöglich machen.

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Digital Services Act: European Parliament discusses website blocking against platforms

The deliberations on the Digital Services Act are taking a worrying turn. In the European Parliament's struggle to reach a common negotiating position, rapporteur Christel Schaldemose is proposing that authorities be allowed to order the complete blocking of online platforms, according to Der Tagesspiegel. Website blocking is already controversial when it is used as a last resort, the current proposal, however, eclipses anything that has gone before, because it envisages website blocking as an interim measure. This ill-conceived proposal contravenes the system of sanctions in the DSA and is incompatible with fundamental rights.

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A Tale of Primacy, part III

The third act, but not the end, of the ongoing „game of Courts” between the Romanian Constitutional Court and the European Court of Justice came on 9 November 2021, with a letter by the Romanian Constitutional Court to assist the acting minister of justice with a reply to the EU Commission's concern about primacy of EU law. I will not comment again on the arguments, already developed by the Constitutional Court in its decision, but I will try to emphasize, through relevant quotes, the disregard of the rule of law requirements stated in the CJEU judgment as well as the absence of the capacity of a true dialogue with the European Court.

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Plaumann and the Rule of Law

Most recently, the CJEU sanctioned Poland with daily penalty payments for failing to suspend the operation of its Supreme Court’s disciplinary chamber. The disciplinary chamber’s interference with the independence of judges can have a profound impact on the preliminary reference mechanism as a means for individuals to seek the review of EU law. This must be addressed to safeguard the right to an effective legal remedy under Article 47 CFREU. One possible response may be to modify the Plaumann-test insofar as necessary to protect the functioning of the EU’s ‘complete system of legal remedies’.

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(Il-)Legal Gymnastics by Poland and Hungary in EU Border Procedures

This week, Poland has made headlines yet again for dispatching 12,000 guards to the border between Poland and Belarus and the use of tear gas to prevent third country nationals (TCNs), including children, from crossing into Polish territory. It is acutely problematic that Poland has foregone any semblance of conformity with EU law at all in the adoption of its domestic legislation on border procedures.

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The Multiple EU Rule of Law Crises

The European Court of Justice has recently delivered a judgment in the Pinxten case. The decision specifically concerned a question of financial misappropriation at the European Court of Auditors, but its significance goes far beyond this single case. It reveals multiple misfunctions at the top of the European Court of Auditors. Curiously, however, the judgement won't be published and has thus (against the Court’s own rules) not been translated. Most people will therefore never know about it, even though the Court of Justice gathered most exceptionally a full court to deal with this case.

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A More Complex Union

Based on the new legal history of European integration that has come out over the last decade, I will offer a different interpretation of the role of law in the EU than the one typically offered by legal scholarship. The central conclusion is that there is an unresolved tension in the relationship between law and politics in the EU that will most likely shape the Union’s response to the Polish crisis. To conclude, I will offer several alternative scenarios of how the EU may react to the Polish crisis.

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A(nother) lost opportunity?

The October meeting of the European Council (EUCO) was its first occasion to react to the declaration by the Polish “Constitutional Tribunal” that several provisions of the Treaty on European Union are incompatible with Poland’s Constitution and consequently inapplicable to the country. The express denunciation of fundamental provisions of EU primary law by one of its members (with the support of another), while insisting on his country remaining part of the Union, is a situation the EUCO could hardly overlook. And yet, not a word about the unfolding constitutional crisis was included in the EUCO Conclusions. Various elements may explain the restraint. However, the complete muteness from the EU crisis-manager-in-chief is more questionable and may carry a disquieting message.

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Fischen im Trüben

Der Post-Brexit-Fischereistreit zwischen London und Paris will nicht enden: Erst im Mai dieses Jahres standen sich vor der Kanalinsel Jersey französische und britische Kriegsschiffe gegenüber. Nach der Festsetzung eines britischen Fischerbootes in der Hafenstadt Le Havre am vergangenen Donnerstag droht der Konflikt nun abermals zu eskalieren. Kern des Streits sind Unstimmigkeiten über die Ausstellungen von Fischfanglizenzen für britische Gewässer zwischen sechs und zwölf Seemeilen vor der Küste. Das beiderseitige Säbelrasseln über die Zugangslizenzen überdeckt die Tatsache, dass es sich letztlich um eine bürokratische Einzelfrage handelt. Diese gilt es nun zu klären.

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