DEBATE
All Debates on Verfassungsblog
Verfassungsblog hosts online symposia on topical events and developments in legislation and jurisdiction and puts cutting-edge scholarship up for discussion. Our aim is to create a lively and multi-faceted constitutionalist public sphere in Europe and beyond. Since 2011 high-profile issues of public interest in constitutional law and politics have been at the center of controversial debates on Verfassungsblog on a regular basis, including the constitutional decline in EU member states like Hungary, the regional separatism in Scotland and Catalonia, European constitutional courts and their fraught relationships and more.
You can read more about our blog symposia as well as the associated costs here. If you have an idea for a blog symposium – and, ideally, the funding – please don’t hesitate to get in touch via symposium@verfassungsblog.de.
Parlamentsentscheidungen in eigener Sache
Wie ist es verfassungsrechtlich und politikwissenschaftlich zu analysieren und zu bewerten, wenn das Parlament „in eigener Sache“ entscheidet? Welche Bedeutung haben solche Konstellationen für die Stabilität und Funktionsfähigkeit der Demokratie? Welche Mechanismen können den Konflikt entschärfen? Können aus der Verfassung bestimmte prozedurale Pflichten oder aber die Notwendigkeit der Einschaltung unabhängiger Akteure abgeleitet werden? Diesen Fragen will sich ein Blogsymposium des Instituts für Deutsches und Internationales Parteienrecht und Parteienforschung (PRUF) und der Stiftung Wissenschaft und Demokratie (SW&D) aus rechts- wie politikwissenschaftlicher Sicht widmen.
Continue Reading >>Final Call for Digital Workers Rights in the EU
Digital labour platforms like Glovo, Uber, or Helpling try to disrupt labour laws all over the world. Since the EU Commission put forward a proposal for a Directive on improving working conditions in platform work in December 2021, all eyes are on the EU. The trilogue negotiations starting over the summer will hopefully end up making true some of the promises of protection and transnational harmonisation. This symposium explains what is at stake for platform workers, which digital platforms could be covered and what the proposed presumption of employment would bring. Further, the symposium looks into ways of effectively addressing platforms as undertakings in EU labour law in the future, at issues of social security for platform workers, as well as at the future of data protection in the context of algorithmic management.
Continue Reading >>Nachhaltigkeit in Zeiten planetarer Krisen
Klimawandel, Artensterben und Umweltverschmutzung von globalem Ausmaß bedrohen die Existenz von uns Menschen und unserer Mitwelt. Eine zügige Transformation zu einer nachhaltigen Gesellschaft ist das Gebot der Stunde. Welche Beiträge kann das Recht in diesem Transformationsprozess leisten? Begleitend zur 2. Jahrestagung des Forums Junges Nachhaltigkeitsrecht bringt diese Debatte ausgewählte Diskurs- und Lösungsansätze aus dem Forum zusammen.
Continue Reading >>Shifting Paradigms of European Media Regulation
Media freedom is vital for a democratic rule of law. It is essential to protect human rights and safeguard participation in the public sphere. However, regulating it is challenging, as proven by the extensive debates concerning the recent proposal for a European Media Freedom Act (EMFA) by the European Commission. The proposal marks a cornerstone of European Media Regulation. Yet, it is far from being the only piece of regulation affecting journalists and media outlets. The symposium takes the EMFA as a starting point to look at how media is regulated, its implications and how other European regulatory initiatives are affecting media freedom, such as the repercussions of GDPR, DSA or the upcoming Anti-SLAPP Directive. The Symposium has been curated by Viktoria Kraetzig and Neus Vidal Martí, Fellow and Alumna of the programme re:constitution – Exchange and Analysis on Democracy and the Rule of Law in Europe.
Continue Reading >>Kleben und Haften: Ziviler Ungehorsam in der Klimakrise
Die Auseinandersetzung um die Legalität und Legitimität der Aktionen der Letzten Generation hat sich dramatisch zugespitzt. Mit den Ermittlungen wegen der Bildung einer „kriminellen Vereinigung“ fährt der Staat schwere strafprozessuale Geschütze auf – und stellt damit ganz grundlegende Fragen in den Raum: Welchen Platz hat ziviler Ungehorsam im demokratischen Verfassungsstaat? Wo liegen die Grenzen zwischen regulärem Strafverfahren und unzulässiger Kriminalisierung? Und welche Rolle spielt das Klimaschutzgebot des Grundgesetzes in alledem?
Continue Reading >>Radical Reforms: Bringing Fairness to Social Media Contracts
The social media landscape is changing. The ‚public forum‘ is now filled with citizens selling products, promoting services, charging for subscriptions, and sometimes seeking attention in ways which may not be socially desirable. We ask: How can a space that is becoming increasingly commercialised, monetised, and is a source of income for many nevertheless be fair? Departing from this foundational question, this symposium pursues many more granular ones, each anchored in whether and how the rights of users in social media spaces can be strengthened vis-à-vis dominant platforms via social media contracts.
Continue Reading >>The Future of the European Security Architecture: A Debate Series
This debate series is dedicated to Ligue des Droits Humains – a case in which the CJEU decided on the fate of the Directive on the use of passenger name record data for the prevention, detection, investigation and prosecution of terrorist offences and serious crime (in short: PNR Directive). The PNR Directive is one of the first major EU-wide examples of predictive policing – thus not just interesting in itself. Today, the EU security architecture relies on the extensive use of personal data, collected in large-scale, supranational databases, which are rendered interoperable and searchable through modern and potentially self-learning technologies. The CJEU’s ruling interrogates the emergence and gradual consolidation of this new security architecture in Europe.
Continue Reading >>50 Years On: Ireland and the UK In and Out of the EU
2023 marks the 50th anniversary of Ireland and the UK’s accession to the now European Union, and three years since the UK withdrew from it. This symposium reflects on the constitutional evolution brought about by EU membership and Brexit. Following nearly fifty years of convergence and integration, commentators interrogate the meaning and nature of EU membership in a current and former member state, reflecting on common questions including sovereignty, constitutional identity, and the protection of rights.
Continue Reading >>Comparative Legal Perspectives on Abortion
Abortion rights are being claimed, challenged, and contested around the world – not only after Dobbs. Between defendants of reproductive autonomy and advocates of a fetal right to life, consensus may seem hard to find. The German debate was stuck since the Federal Constitutional Court obliged Parliament to criminalise abortion in 1993 but is gaining new momentum. This blog debate aims to enrich the national debate with a comparative perspective, assembling legal experts from different constitutional traditions and legal systems to explore what regulation may look like.
Continue Reading >>Ukraine, the European Union and the Rule of Law
Russia’s unlawful invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 did not only alter the security paradigm in Europe. It also upended the legal landscape of the European Union and Ukraine, leading to the latter becoming a candidate for EU membership and influencing the ongoing rule of law crisis in Hungary and Poland. This debate focuses on various new legal challenges for the EU, its Member States and Ukraine that arose as a consequence of the Russian invasion. In order to present our debate to the most relevant audience, this symposium is published in both English and Ukrainian.
Continue Reading >>Casting Light on Kashmir
Kashmir is one of the most militarised zones in the world. While the region of Kashmir that is part of the Indian nation-state held a semi-autonomous status until 2019, the Indian government on 5 August
2019 removed this special status through the revocation of article 370 of the Indian Constitution and turned the region into two separate Union territories that are now governed by Delhi. This debate critically engages with some legal and socio-political developments in Indian-administered Kashmir – and casts light on a region that is often overlooked in comparative and international law.
Restitution, Colonialism and the Courts
Colonial crimes are historical crimes. What at first seems to be very much evident, at closer look unveils one of the main challenges when tackling colonial injustices through the law. While disciplines like history and provenance research have been working on the question of colonial injustices for quite some time, legal scholarship has yet to find ways to integrate their findings into legal practice. This blog debate brings together scholars from various disciplines and asks the question: How can we achieve restorative justice through restitution?
Continue Reading >>Wahlprüfung in der Prüfung
Nach dem Wahldesaster in der Bundeshauptstadt Berlin am 26. September 2021 gerät das Verfahren in den Fokus, in dem der korrekte Ablauf von Wahlen überprüft und sicher gestellt werden soll. Ist das aktuelle Wahlprüfungsverfahren dieser Erwartung gewachsen? In einem Blog-Symposium in Kooperation mit dem Institut für Deutsches und Internationales Parteienrecht und Parteienforschung (PRUF) an der Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf und der Stiftung Wissenschaft und Demokratie wollen wir aus rechts- wie politikwissenschaftlicher Sicht ausloten, welche Bedeutung der Wahlprüfung für die Infrastruktur der Demokratie zukommt, welche Bedrohungen in der aktuellen Situation von konkreten Ausgestaltungen ausgehen können und welche Optionen bestünden, es zu reformieren.
Continue Reading >>Putting the DSA into Practice: Enforcement, Access to Justice, and Global Implications
The Digital Services Act was finally published in the Official Journal of the European Union on 27 October 2022. This publication marks the end of a years-long drafting and negotiation process, and opens a new chapter: that of its enforcement, practicable access to justice, and potential to set global precedents. The Act has been portrayed as Europe’s new ‚Digital Constitution‘, which affirms the primacy of democratic rulemaking over the private transnational ordering mechanisms of Big Tech. With it, the European Union aims once again to set a global standard in the regulation of the digital environment. But will the the Digital Services Act be able to live up to its expectations, and under what conditions?
Continue Reading >>Coping Strategies: Domestic and International Courts in Times of Backlash
Domestic and regional human rights courts around the world are under pressure. Populist, illiberal, or autocratic forms of governance have led to a global attack on constitutional democracy, and its guardians, courts. As a result, courts find themselves in a dilemma: should they intervene much more fiercely to uphold the rule of law or protect their institutional powers, but risk to be further attacked as enemies of the government and the majorities? Or should they practice judicial and prudential restraint to safeguard their institutional autonomy in the long term, but risk to be failing and regarded as foes by minority groups, civil society, and progressive movements who are on the receiving end of populist, illiberal or autocratic practices?
Continue Reading >>Bolsonarism at the Ballot Box
If things go badly, the upcoming elections in Brazil may be the last ones for some time to come. On election day, voters face a stark choice not just between two candidates, incumbent Jair Bolsonaro and former president Lula. They also cast their ballot on the peculiar brand of illiberal government known as Bolsonarism that will not disappear on election day even of Bolsonaro loses. This blog symposium discusses Bolsonarism at the ballot box from the perspective of comparative constitutional law and different varieties of constitutionalism.
Continue Reading >>Frontex and the Rule of Law
The management of external borders is one of the most controversial policies of the EU. In a context where violence is at times systemic, the role of the EU’s dedicated border agency Frontex has dramatically increased over the years. Do its operations respect the paradigms of the rule of law? Are there effective systems in place to monitor the Agency and ensure its accountability? The recent resignation of the Executive Director, following the presentation of a yet undisclosed report by OLAF to the Management Board, raises a number of questions that this debate tries to tackle.
Continue Reading >>European Visa for Russian Tourists?
The Russian army commits horrible war crimes in Ukraine. Should EU member states allow Russian tourists to come and spend their summer holidays in the EU as if nothing happened? Some authors have criticized a blanket visa ban for Russians from a political, but also legal perspective: Schengen rules do not allow it, in their opinion. This has stirred a passionate debate on Verfassungsblog which we document in this blog symposium.
Continue Reading >>#Scholactivism
What is the relationship between scholarship and activism? Is there a role morality requiring scholars to refrain from work motivated by specific material impacts? Tarunabh Khaitan argues in the International Journal of Constitutional Law that there are systemic, professional, and personal dangers to „scholactivism“ in constitutional studies. We asked scholars for responses to this claim – and received many of them.
Continue Reading >>Longtermism and the Law
Our actions (and inactions) may have historically unique consequences for humans living hundreds or even thousands of years into the future, but their rights and interests are rarely represented in current political and economic systems. Contributors to this symposium discuss the role of law in sustaining and improving life hundreds or even thousands of years into the future. This symposium is an outcome of the presentations at the 2022 Multidisciplinary Forum on Longtermism and the Law, co-organized by the University of Hamburg and the Legal Priorities Project.
Continue Reading >>Parliaments in Wartime
Ukraine is under armed attack. What is under attack is not just Ukraine’s sovereignty
and territorial integrity, but also its political independence. To defend Ukraine is to defend constitutional democracy and the rule of law. This blog debate focusses on a central actor in Ukrainian constitutionalism: the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s Parliament. Examining the role of the Verkhovna Rada in armed conflict through a comparative lens, this debate, organised in collaboration with Stiftung Wissenschaft & Demokratie and the Institute for German and International Party and Parliamentary Law (PRUF), provides ideas for the Ukrainian context, and explores the issue more generally.
9/11 und die Rechtsstaatlichkeit
In den vergangenen zwanzig Jahren haben wir einen Prozess hin zur Normalisierung eines permanenten Ausnahmezustands erlebt, der Rechtsstaatlichkeitsmechanismen vorübergehend außer Kraft setzt. Dieser Zustand schwächt Konstrukte der rechtlichen Kontrolle und Bindung von staatlichen Institutionen nachhaltig. Der gemeinsame Nenner ist in jedem Fall, dass die Gewährleistung der öffentlichen Sicherheit als zentraler Rechtfertigungsgrund angeführt wird, um die mit der Rechtsstaalichkeit einhergehenden Grundrechte auszuhebeln.
Continue Reading >>9/11 und die Privatsphäre
Als Reaktion auf die Anschläge vom 11. September 2001 haben nur wenige politische Reaktionen so viel Aufmerksamkeit erregt wie die internationale Ausweitung staatlicher Überwachung und die damit einhergehende massive Verletzung des Rechts auf Privatsphäre. In diesem Symposium befassen wir uns mit der Normalisierung der Überwachung seit 9/11 und den Eingriffen in die Privatsphäre.