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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.
12 December 2025
Afterword
This post synthesises key insights from the AFAR symposium on fairness and AI in asylum, migration and border management. While EU policy frames fairness as a core requirement of trustworthy AI, contributors show how discrimination, opacity, privatisation and weak procedural safeguards undermine that promise. Examining risks from biased data to secrecy in high-risk systems, the post highlights structural obstacles to fair decision-making and calls for sustained oversight, participatory governance, and research grounded in the lived experiences of those most affected. Continue reading >>09 December 2025
Seventy-Five Years of the European Convention on Human Rights
Seventy-five years ago, Europe made a bold promise: That the dignity of every individual would be safeguarded by law. And that an independent court would hold us to that promise. Today, as we close our discussions, we face two truths: First, the extraordinary resilience of that promise. And second, the magnitude of the challenges still before us. Continue reading >>Happy 75th Anniversary to the ECHR
It is not very often that I get invitations to big birthday parties for human rights conventions, so it was an immense honour to deliver the concluding remarks at this event that examined the 75 years of the Convention from transnational and global perspectives in the presence of so many who breathe life to this Convention across Europe and the Presidents of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and the African Court of Human and Peoples Rights. This birthday party has personal importance for me. I am, after all, alongside hundreds of thousands of others across the Council of Europe, a child of this Convention. Continue reading >>Human Rights and Digital Border Governance
OHCHR’s forthcoming guidance on human rights-based digital border governance consolidates legal standards for data-intensive migration and border control. This contribution identifies where such guidance can help, and where a significant shift in current State practice is needed: clear legal basis and safeguards for intrusive practices, data sharing and interoperability, oversight of algorithmic systems, human rights impact assessment, and the use of security and emergency regimes that dilute rights protections. Each area is framed by the need to ensure legality, necessity and proportionality, non-discrimination, and effective remedy. Continue reading >>08 December 2025
Privatised Digital Borders
Digitisation and the growing reliance on private intermediaries are transforming visa systems from paper-based procedures into opaque digital-commercial infrastructures. Drawing on findings from the AFAR project, this contribution shows how automation, outsourcing, and fragmented accountability reshape rights protection in migration governance. Using visa applications as a case study, it argues that existing regulatory frameworks remain insufficient and calls for new methods of scrutiny — including participatory, co-designed approaches that centre migrants’ perspectives and reimagine transparency, oversight, and responsibility in digital border regimes. Continue reading >>Automating International Human Rights Adjudication in Strasbourg and Beyond
The future lies in the adoption and refinement of semi-automated tools – AI and algorithms that issue recommendations that human decision-makers are free to accept, reject, or modify – supported by robust institutional oversight and explainability. Full automation of decisions, especially those pertaining to treaty violations, is never appropriate. As automation tools continue to evolve, we expect that more fundamental changes to the process of international human rights adjudication – including at the ECtHR –may ultimately be required. Continue reading >>Artificial Intelligence and Human Rights Courts
The adoption of AI in Human Rights Courts' operations offers opportunities for improvement in terms of efficiency and access, but it also poses significant challenges. When implementing these tools, Human Rights Court must ensure that they do not compromise the very rights they are tasked to protect. At the same time, Human Rights Court will increasingly engage with cases involving AI, and they will need to develop greater awareness of the complex implications of technology for human rights. Continue reading >>AI and Human Rights at the European Court of Human Rights
The development of a legal framework for the use of AI is still at an early stage. Moving forward, it is necessary to take into account both the inherent features of the technology and the rights that come under pressure by our use of it. The approach of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) will have to be on a case-by-case basis, building on the Convention’s transversal values, applying existing jurisprudence as a stepping stone and making wise use of the “living instrument doctrine”. Continue reading >>07 December 2025
Four Scenarios and a Proposal for the Future of the ECHR’s Dynamic Case Law on Asylum
Seventy-five years after its creation, the European Convention on Human Rights stands at a crossroads. A quarter century of dynamic Strasbourg judgments has significantly expanded rights in asylum and migration, but this very dynamism has produced a “lock-in” effect that limits political room for manoeuvre. This contribution outlines four scenarios for the future development of the case law and the possibilities for transformation. Continue reading >>Migrants’ Rights Before the European Court of Human Rights
As we are celebrating the 75th anniversary of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), the topic of migration stands at the center of concerns about the Convention’s state of health. In this blogpost adapted from my remarks at a Conference in the Federal Ministry for Justice and Consumer Protection, I argue that those attacking the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) for an over-reaching jurisprudence regarding migrants’ rights misconstrue the actual case law. Continue reading >>06 December 2025
The European Approach to Human Rights-Based Climate Litigation in Global Context
Human rights-based climate protection does not stem from a single, coherent regime but from a plurality of intersecting normative orders. This contribution examines how divergent approaches to climate-related obligations unfold across regional systems, UN bodies, and the ICJ, with particular attention to the contours of the European approach. Continue reading >>Lost in Translation?
Judicial conversations and interactions take place in different settings – sometimes behind closed doors, sometimes out in the open. One open form of conversation is the use of comparative analysis in legal arguments. Focusing on comparative arguments in policy discussions on the right to a healthy environment within the Council of Europe, I will argue that comparative arguments are too often cursory and superficial and that calls for the transferral of elements from one human rights system to another tend to underestimate the complexities involved in such legal transplants. Continue reading >>05 December 2025
Navigating Technologies in Asylum Procedures in Austria
Across Europe, asylum authorities increasingly deploy AI tools in the name of speed and efficiency—from automated translation to LLM-based text processing and chatbot-assisted country-of-origin research. Yet Austria’s experience, mapped by the AISYL project, shows how these technologies amplify a wider political trend: the erosion of the right to asylum. Far from neutral administrative aids, AI systems introduce errors, bias, and opacity into high-stakes procedures, risking further harm in an already restrictive asylum landscape. Continue reading >>The ECHR’s Contribution to European Society
On the Convention’s 75th anniversary, this essay highlights its contribution to “European society” as stated in Article 2 TEU. It sketches how the Convention, as operationalized by the Strasbourg institutions, has shaped European society’s constitutional core, provided a general structure of rights, supported a culture of justification, and contributed to making European society democratic. Finally, it speculates on how the Convention’s significance might evolve so that it can be celebrated again at its 100th anniversary. Continue reading >>Leading Through Dialogue
The ECtHR’s next decades will be shaped by its capacity to lead through dialogue rather than dominance. The goal is not a universal model, but a network of courts engaged in reciprocal learning. The 75th anniversary coincides with unprecedented global challenges – climate change, digital governance, mass displacement – that no regional system can tackle alone. Coordinated jurisprudential development, joint thematic reports, and open-access repositories of case law can enhance coherence without sacrificing diversity. Continue reading >>The European Convention on Human Rights at 75
In the 75 years of its existence, the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) has proven remarkable resilience as a safeguard for democracy, human rights and the rule of law. With this symposium, we aim to continue thoughtful, constructive and sometimes also critical dialogue between academia and practice, intended to deepen understanding of the impact and influence of the European Convention system on other international and national human rights protection systems – and vice versa. Continue reading >>04 December 2025
Rethinking the Notion of the File
As automated decision-making reshapes administrative procedures, long-standing guarantees like access to the file, the right to be heard, and effective judicial remedies risk losing their meaning. When AI systems collect, process and weigh information invisibly, individuals and courts cannot understand or contest how decisions are made. EU procedural law must rethink the very notion of “the file” to ensure traceability, human oversight, and genuine accountability. Continue reading >>03 December 2025
Biometric Technologies, Frontex and Fundamental Rights
Biometric data qualifies as particularly sensitive personal data under the GDPR, and its processing must meet strict legal requirements. Frontex’s exploration of novel biometric technologies, including DNA profiling and vein recognition, raises concerns in the absence of demonstrated necessity or proportionality. Such developments require prior Fundamental Rights and Data Protection Impact Assessments. Overall, the legal and technical prerequisites for expanding the use of these technologies, particularly in light of interoperability challenges and fundamental rights protections, are not yet sufficiently established. Continue reading >>02 December 2025
Technology Multiplies Secrecy
It is now widely acknowledged that new technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI), are becoming integral to migration and asylum governance. This contribution argues, using the AI Act as an illustration, that migration and asylum governance suffer from a culture of information deficit, which is exacerbated by the increasing use of modern technology. It therefore advocates for a shift towards a culture of transparency, which is necessary for ensuring both accountability and fairness. Continue reading >>01 December 2025
Public Perceptions Of Biometric Checks And Their Legal Significance
As the EU prepares to launch the new Entry/Exit System, biometric technologies are set to shape how millions move across Europe’s borders. But what do citizens consider fair when states collect fingerprints, facial images, and automated risk scores? A five-country survey experiment shows that public views are fragmented: people do not consistently prefer automation over human border guards, nor do they judge different traveller groups uniformly. These findings challenge assumptions that “smart borders” automatically enhance objectivity, legitimacy, or trust. Continue reading >>Valmaine Toki
From the quiet shores of Aotea to the echoing halls of the United Nations in Geneva, Professor Valmaine Toki has carried the voices of Indigenous peoples to the international stage. As a Māori legal scholar and tireless advocate, she draws on her own perspectives and lived experiences to fight for the 6.2 % of the world’s population who identify as Indigenous. Her work gives those voices both presence and power on the international stage. Continue reading >>28 November 2025
What “Real Risk” Means For AI-Assisted Refugee Status Determination
European asylum systems increasingly rely on AI tools—from identity checks to case summarisation—promising fairness and efficiency but also raising significant human rights and transparency issues. Because Refugee Status Determination depends heavily on credibility assessments amid limited evidence, AI risks replicating bias, introducing new proxy discrimination, and deepening epistemic uncertainty. This contribution asks how current AI models may generate foundational uncertainties in Refugee Status Determination and what, if anything, can be salvaged from AI going forward. Continue reading >>27 November 2025
Digital Visas Risk Deepening Discriminatory Borders
The deep challenge of equality by design is that it is no mere technical matter. Underlying equality law commitments is a contextual assessment of the impact of distributive systems on disadvantaged groups. This goes beyond the standard approach to “debiasing” in computer science, as the impactful contribution of Sandra Wachter and her team has demonstrated. However, applying these insights to the discriminatory borders requires even greater efforts. Continue reading >>Introduction to the Symposium on Algorithmic Fairness for Asylum Seekers and Refugees
How are digital and algorithmic systems reshaping asylum and refugee protection in Europe? Based at the Centre for Fundamental Rights at the Hertie School, the AFAR project brings together scholars across Europe to map the growing use of “newtech” in asylum and border governance—from automated decision-making to digital evidence and biometric tools. This symposium traces the project’s findings. Continue reading >>24 November 2025
From Backwater to Battleground
The EU acquis, as it affects research libraries, is characterised by both overlaps and gaps, which exist alongside forces and habits endemic to these institutions. While libraries have always been the place where the rubber hits the road – where the commands and constraints of different laws and policies need to be translated into a single body of practice – this contact is far bumpier today than it was before. This blog explores these tensions, as well as the additional complexity introduced by the circumstances in which libraries operate. Continue reading >>17 November 2025
The Case for a EU Digital Knowledge Act
The European educational, research and cultural heritage institutions face significant barriers to transition their practices into the digital environment. Despite playing a fundamental role in supporting the exercise of rights such as education, scientific freedom, and participation in cultural life, these institutions are peripheral to the EU’s digital legislative agenda. The proposal for a Digital Knowledge Act is a response to this regulatory blind spot. Continue reading >>Lawful Access as a Gatekeeper for TDM in the EU
Text and Data Mining (TDM) has become indispensable across disciplines: from medicine, where mining scientific articles can reveal patterns for new drug discoveries, to the humanities, where algorithms explore centuries of literature at once. The EU legislator embedded mandatory TDM exceptions into its Copyright in the Digital Single Market Directive. Chief requirement is that TDM can only be carried out on works to which researchers have “lawful access”. The concept of lawfulness, however, is anything but clear under EU copyright law. Continue reading >>14 November 2025
News, Information, and Knowledge
The EU adopted the press publishers’ right to strengthen the bargaining position of press publishers towards online intermediaries. As an intellectual property right, it gives publishers control over information flows and, by its nature, interferes with freedom of expression. Researchers, however, have an interest in being able to share and reflect upon matters of public interest brought forward by the press in online fora. As such, this post considers the press publishers’ right’s potential to curtail European researchers’ activities. Continue reading >>Synallagmatic Copyright
Copyright, which provides the exclusive rights that allow authors to control the use of their works, is based on a societal bargain that grants rights in exchange for purpose-bound access to the works protected. In the EU, this contract has become imbalanced. Copyright, in order to honor its social contract, must empower users and follow-on creators to enforce the limited rights they have by providing them with efficient enforcement tools. Continue reading >>13 November 2025
