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All Debates on Verfassungsblog
Verfassungsblog hosts online symposia on topical events and developments in legislation and jurisdiction and puts cutting-edge scholarship up for discussion. Our aim is to create a lively and multi-faceted constitutionalist public sphere in Europe and beyond. Since 2011 high-profile issues of public interest in constitutional law and politics have been at the center of controversial debates on Verfassungsblog on a regular basis, including the constitutional decline in EU member states like Hungary, the regional separatism in Scotland and Catalonia, European constitutional courts and their fraught relationships et.al.
13 February 2026
Reflexive Law as Anti-Colonial Practice
The adoption of the discourse of decoloniality by the Hindu right in India, as well as by other ethnonationalist governments around the world, points to the problem that any decolonial project faces: Who is to define which normative alternatives we should appeal to when seeking to rid concepts and institutions of their colonial legacies? This brings us to the underlying question: What is the purpose of reflecting on colonial legacies in law? Continue reading >>Disaster Law as Methodology
The pandemic’s disruption of offline commerce revealed how global value chains are bound up with learnt dependency, instant gratification, and an extractivist, always-on economic culture. Recent modern slavery and global value chains legislation signals political awareness, yet its legal impact remains largely symbolic, prioritising disclosure over change. The real crisis is not disruption but the normalisation of persistent exploitation inherent to global value chains. Lawyers must expose law’s role in rendering this ongoing violence as normal. Continue reading >>12 February 2026
Towards an Endogenous African Constitutionalism
African constitutionalism stands at a pivotal moment in its evolution. After more than six decades of independence for most African countries, it has become imperative to examine the nature, foundations, legitimacy, and institutional architecture of the constitutional systems governing the countries making up the continent. Drawing on our different fields of research, we propose to explore pathways towards a truly endogenous constitutionalism, rooted in Africa’s socio-political, cultural, economic, and historical realities. Continue reading >>Liberal Constitutionalism in the Post-Colony
Liberal constitutionalism is much maligned today as, at best, a culturally contingent approach to governance, and, at worst, epistemically hubristic. Concepts like the rule of law and the separation of powers, far from expressing universal truths, are said to be inseparably tied to the European Enlightenment. Their continued presence in constitutions around the world is less an indication of their durability and more a reflection of their current status as conceptual driftwood deposited at the high-water mark of Western hegemony. But is this an accurate account of liberal constitutionalism and does it really square with our understanding of the way legal concepts are recycled between North and South? Continue reading >>11 February 2026
Launch Event of the RefLex Centre for Advanced Studies
Join us for the launch of the RefLex Centre, exploring how globalisation reshapes law, justice, and core legal concepts across disciplines. The event will feature an introduction by RefLex Directors Philipp Dann and Florian Jeßberger, a keynote lecture by Dipesh Chakrabarty, and a panel discussion with Isabella Aboderin (University of Bristol), Natalia Ángel Cabo (Constitutional Court of Colombia), Sebastian Conrad (FU Berlin), John-Mark Iyi (University of the Western Cape), and Kalika Mehta (RefLex). The event will be broadcast live here. Continue reading >>International Criminal Law of “the West”?
The critique of international criminal law as “Eurocentric” or “Western-dominated,” however historically, politically, and analytically valid and necessary, may have reached the limits of its explanatory power. The following passages reflect on the question of whether continuing to frame the problems of international criminal law primarily through a Eurocentrism/West-dominated lens obscures more than it reveals, and whether we should move towards extending our critical analytical frameworks in the interests of the global majority. Continue reading >>International Law and the Imperial Ordering of the International
International law is an ordering language. It is predicated upon an imperial, western-centric, and hierarchical structure. It is a language of domination, of exclusion, of differentiated inclusion, but also of promise. The language of international law, which the Global South uses and appeals to, does not simply hold the promise of rectification; it also reproduces the problems it is supposed to help solve. This short reflection addresses such contradictions and how reflexivity in international law could help mitigate them. Continue reading >>10 February 2026
(Il)legalising the Destruction of the Amazon
The Amazon rainforest is vital for the ecology and agriculture of the South American continent as well as for the world’s climate. At the same time, deforestation in the Amazon is so severe that some scientists see the world’s largest rainforest as close to irreversible “tipping points”. This article will look at cattle supply chains from the Amazon to global markets and will show how law plays an ambiguous role with respect to the Amazon. Continue reading >>Who Decides, Who Pays, Who is Sacrificed
The energy transition has become a central normative axis of global climate action. However, the acceleration of renewable energy, frequently presented as inherently positive, is not politically neutral. On the contrary, it unfolds asymmetrically across territories marked by deep historical power imbalances, particularly in the Global South. This article puts forward the proposition that a truly reflexive energy transition necessarily requires not only recognising harms and measuring impacts but also dismantling entrenched forms of control, authority, and epistemic hierarchy within the governance of the transition itself. Continue reading >>09 February 2026
Method in the Madness
In this article, I will critique the project of a general theory of knowledge and scholarly inquiry using the figure of reflexivity. I understand critique here as a procedure that seeks to ceaselessly subdivide its object and thereby complicate it. This specific conception of critique is restless and – crucially – self-reflexive. It must carry on endlessly and thereby be brought to bear against every distinction it has itself drawn. Against a generalised theory of knowledge and scholarly inquiry, I will contrast an historically unsettled concept of epistemology. Continue reading >>On Eurocentrism
Over roughly the past decade and a half, many disciplines in the humanities and social sciences have undergone what is often described as a “global turn.” This shift starts from a historical insight into the disciplines themselves. As they are institutionalized today across universities worldwide, the modern disciplines largely took shape in nineteenth-century Europe and continue to bear the imprint of that moment of origin. Two features are particularly consequential. First, their close entanglement with the nation-state has fostered a predominantly national framing of research questions, archives, and narratives. Second, they have been shaped by Eurocentric assumptions that were deeply embedded in an age marked by imperial expansion and European global hegemony. Continue reading >>06 February 2026
RefLex and the Possibility of Transformative “North-South” Research Collaborations
On 20 November 2024, Humboldt University of Berlin became a signatory to the Africa Charter for Transformative Research Collaborations. This piece introduces the key argument of the Africa Charter, posits its relevance as a benchmark for RefLex, a new Centre for Advanced Studies at HU, and proposes a set of queries to guide its operationalisation within the Institute and possibly beyond in similar “North-South” initiatives. I offer these reflections drawing on my close involvement in the development of the intellectual underpinnings of the Africa Charter. Continue reading >>The Code Noir as an Archive of Resistance
What does it mean to examine political modernity from below, specifically from the position of the enslaved person – not as a metaphor or a footnote, but as a lens for analyzing foundational political and legal concepts? I argue that foregrounding the position of the enslaved provides a productive point of departure for understanding how colonial and racial epistemologies, imaginaries, and institutions have shaped core Western concepts, such as democracy and the rule of law. Continue reading >>05 February 2026
Reflexive Globalisation, Law and Placemaking
Students demand the decolonization of curricula. Civil society debates the presentation of Non-Western artefacts and entangled histories in museums across the world. European governments apologize for slavery and genocidal killings, while former colonies request reparations, and the Indian legislature decolonizes the Indian Penal Code. The legacies of colonialism and empire are debated everywhere these days. We propose that these developments signal a new phase in the dynamics of globalisation. Continue reading >>02 February 2026
Rosa Luxemburg
Shaping left-wing politics and writing numerous political papers, her name is familiar to many: Rosa Luxemburg. After growing up in Poland, she pursued a broad and interdisciplinary education. Alongside other subjects, she attended law courses and earned a doctorate with a dissertation on Poland’s industrial development. Following her academic years, she began a political career in Germany – a career that would infamously come to a brutal end. Continue reading >>12 January 2026
When Caution is Justified
Little CJEU case law has been as fiercely criticised as that relating to the right to be free from religious discrimination. However, the CJEU recently found a sympathiser in Ronan McCrea. He argues that the approach is one of “justifiable caution”. Despite my disagreements with him, I believe that we must take McCrea’s position seriously to be able to develop a more fine-grained view of when caution is warranted. At the same time, I still firmly believe that the case law on religious clothing reveals deeply troubling attitudes toward Muslim women that have no place under anti-discrimination law. Continue reading >>Religiously Sensitive Union Law in Fundamental-Rights Pluralism
“Doomsday” did not occur. The ghastly fascination with this legal conflict, shared by some observers in the media and in legal scholarship, has not been given new fuel. With its long-awaited order in the Egenberger case, the German Federal Constitutional Court has delivered a prudent and balanced decision. It has neither musealized ecclesiastical labour law and abandoned its established case law, nor initiated a trial of strength with the Court of Justice of the European Union by denying the primacy of Union law. Continue reading >>02 January 2026
Abigail Smith Adams
Born into the last decades of British colonial rule in North America, Abigail Adams (née Smith) lived to see the thirteen colonies rebel, revolt, declare independence and develop into a republic. Her legacy is the wealth of more than 1,000 letters that detail not just an intimate account of one woman’s life, but the story of a momentous change in world history, told from its innermost circle. Continue reading >>23 December 2025
Macht und Entscheidung im Publikationswesen
Der freie Zugang zu Publikationsmöglichkeiten und zur Rezeption wissenschaftlicher Erkenntnisse – wie ihn das Modell des Diamond Open Access im Kern vorsieht – sollte Leitprinzip bei Förderentscheidungen sein. Bislang ist das aufgrund vielfältiger Interessenlagen nur eingeschränkt möglich. Die maßgeblichen Akteure verfügen aber schon jetzt über Entscheidungsräume, um Förderentscheidungen stärker an DOA-Prinzipien zu orientieren. Perspektivisch kann ein gemeinsames und zielgerichtetes Handeln einen echten Wandel im Publikationswesen bewirken. Continue reading >>Open Access Done Right
Diamond Open Access is the latest big thing in academic publishing, promising salvation from a rigged system. But a flashy label alone will not save us if we are not willing to address deep-rooted and newly emerging problems of a system that has largely failed in terms of quality, power, and trust. Continue reading >>22 December 2025
Amal Clooney (née Alamuddin)
Amal Clooney is an international human rights lawyer known for representing victims of mass atrocities, journalists prosecuted for their reporting, survivors of genocide and sexual violence, political prisoners, and marginalised communities. Through strategic litigation before international, national, and regional courts, as well as through the Clooney Foundation for Justice and the Oxford Institute of Technology and Justice, her work is dedicated to expanding access to justice. Continue reading >>Exclusive Does Not Mean Exhaustive
“[The author] shall […] provide the publisher with the exclusive right of reproduction and distribution (publishing right).” – This provision, set out in § 8 of the German Publishers’ Rights Act outlines the common practice for publishing an article in a journal, not only in Germany, but in many other countries too. What appears to mark the end of the author’s control over their article, is arguably just the beginning. Continue reading >>Schöpfung in der Wissenschaft
Der Staat ist verpflichtet, die Wissenschaftsfreiheit zu schützen und die Idee einer freien Wissenschaft aktiv zu fördern. Ein effektives Urheberrecht ist dabei ein zentrales Instrument: Es sichert die konkreten Ergebnisse schöpferischer Arbeit vor unkontrollierter Nutzung, gewährleistet Anerkennung der Forschenden und eröffnet Möglichkeiten der wirtschaftlichen Verwertung. Dabei wirft die wissenschaftliche Praxis komplexe Fragen auf: Können Forschungsdaten überhaupt urheberrechtlichen Schutz genießen? Wem „gehört“ eine wissenschaftliche Publikation? Und wer entscheidet, ob und wie Forschungsergebnisse veröffentlicht werden? Continue reading >>Egenberger
The Egenberger decision is not only about church labour law, but touches on fundamental issues of national and European constitutional law. By integrating the requirements of EU law while maintaining domestic specificities, the decision provides a valuable example of how to manage different layers of fundamental rights. Nevertheless, the Egenberger decision carries an element of surprise. The FCC performed a Solange test, elaborating on the question of whether the relevant European standard falls short of the minimum standard required under German law and therefore justifies an exception to the primacy of EU law. Continue reading >>The Fragility of Proportionality Review
The latest decision in Egenberger illustrates both the importance of the EU framework for protecting against discrimination on the grounds of religion, and at the same time its fragility. Since the CJEU decision, two German courts have taken turns at assessing the proportionality of the Church’s refusal to employ Ms Egenberger, with different results. The fact that two courts could consider the same facts and reach opposite conclusions without either seeming to have misapplied the law shows how flexible the law can be. Continue reading >>21 December 2025
Winning by Losing
Up to now, religious communities in Germany could require religious affiliation for almost all kinds of employment. Following the CJEU’s intervention, the FCC in November 2025 changed this decades-long practice and thus accorded greater constitutional weight to equality and non-discrimination vis-à-vis religious self-determination. Yet it did more than that: it also reinforced the protection of religious freedom itself. Finally, the decision affirmed the supremacy of EU law in times of fundamental challenges to the transnational rule of law. Egenberger thus constitutes a substantial, well-justified, fundamental-rights-friendly, and welcome shift. Continue reading >>Article 17 TFEU as a Gateway to National Sovereignty Creep
The jurisprudence of the CJEU on Article 17 TFEU and the EU’s duty to respect the status of churches and religions under national law has changed significantly over time. Early case law reflected a narrow interpretation of Article 17 TFEU, emphasizing strong protection of religious freedom. More recent decisions demonstrate a broader reading which goes hand in hand with a wide margin of appreciation. With the latter, the CJEU effectively adopts a low level of scrutiny, thereby stepping back and giving way to the vindications of national sovereignty. Continue reading >>20 December 2025
The Battle over the Sacred and the Profane
Struggles around sexual and reproductive rights pit more liberally, progressive-oriented or “frontlash” actors against other, including non-liberal, often radical-conservative “backlash” organizations. In the actions of the latter, religion is an explicit and core dimension. This struggle is about a political and religious backlash to a largely secular, progressive cultural and human rights revolution. It confronts opposing sides of (transnational) civil society, who both make moral, “sacred” claims, while profaning the opponent. Continue reading >>Beyond Religious Freedom
In contemporary Europe, the protection of religious minorities continues to rest predominantly on the constitutional architecture of religious freedom and non-discrimination. Yet this framework often proves insufficient to capture the specific vulnerabilities and identity-based claims of minority communities. Protecting minorities therefore demands recognising the specific forms of vulnerability produced by their social and constitutional position. Continue reading >>19 December 2025
