Looking Sideways
What are the major interpretative principles which assist the European Court of Human Rights in its decision-making? What role do they play in climate change judgments? Subsidiarity, the living instrument doctrine and a harmonious interpretation of international law all enable the Court to incorporate relevant comparative law into its reasoning. Climate change case-law is particularly well-suited to the comparative law approach and I argue that the role of comparative law can potentially have more impact in this emerging area of the law than in others.
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Strengthening Data Protection Resilience Against Geopolitical Threats
Geopolitical threats to data protection can arise in particular from armed conflicts and cyberattacks, and may involve disrupting the processing of personal data needed to deliver vital services, destroying public records and databases, and misusing data to facilitate human rights abuses. EU law is currently unprepared to protect data processing in case of a major crisis such as kinetic or cyber warfare. This requires action by the EU institutions and the data protection authorities, in particular under the EU GDPR.
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No Kings, No Queens in European Society
Armin von Bogdandy discovered the concept of society in Article 2 of the EU Treaty, theorised it as European society and brought it to the forefront of European legal scholarship and practice. The proposition of a European society stands or falls with the assumption that the Treaty of Lisbon has established a new framework. However, there are good reasons, particularly based on the history of Article 2 TEU and its structure, to take the exact opposite view.
Continue reading >>KlimaSeniorinnen and its Progeny
On 9 April 2024, the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights delivered rulings in three climate-change cases, thus becoming the first international court to establish a right to be protected from the effects of climate change. The leading judgment was Verein KlimaSeniorinnen Schweiz and Others v. Switzerland. Now, two years after the KlimaSeniorinnen precedent, we can perhaps begin to take stock of its implications and its progeny.
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Das Existenzminimum bleibt unantastbar
Der EuGH hat in seinem Urteil vom 4. Juni 2026 die Kürzung von Leistungen für Asylbewerber*innen, für die ein anderer Staat zuständig ist für unvereinbar mit den Vorgaben des Unionsrechts erklärt. Die Rechtslage in Deutschland sieht derzeit aber genau diese Kürzungen vor. Die Regelung des § 1 Abs. 4 AsylbLG, die diesen Leistungsentzug ermöglicht, ist nach dem Urteil unionsrechtswidrig und darf ab sofort nicht mehr angewendet werden. Das Bundesinnenministerium hat trotzdem angekündigt, die Entscheidung auf diesen Aspekt hin vertieft prüfen zu wollen. Für die unionsrechtliche Bewertung dieser Frage besteht jedoch kein weiterer Klärungsbedarf.
Continue reading >>Normalising Lawlessness via Membership
The European Law Institute has recently welcomed Poland’s (compromised) Supreme Court and Supreme Administrative Court as its latest institutional members. Beyond this professional network, two judicial networks known as the Conference of European Constitutional Courts (CECC) and the Network of the Presidents of the Supreme Judicial Courts of the EU (NPSJC) have similarly failed – through inaction – to take account of CJEU and ECtHR rulings as regards their Polish members. This post will look at the negative spillover effects created by these networks’ membership (in)action.
Continue reading >>Again, the European Defence Community Is Dead, Let It Rest in Peace
Can the 1952 European Defence Community (EDC) be revived to supranationalize European defence in 2026? My earlier post had raised serious doubts about the legal feasibility of this idea championed by ALCIDE; and these doubts have now been scrutinized by the project’s two senior jurists: Federico Fabbrini and Franz C. Mayer. This rejoinder addresses their counterarguments, and it also questions, once more, the political wisdom of reviving the NATO-led executive organization today, especially when alternative forms of European defence integration are currently explored.
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Shopping Lists and Steppingstones
The member states of the Council of Europe today, in Chișinǎu, Moldova, have agreed on a new Declaration to reform the European Convention of Human Rights. It contains a pick-and-mix of instructions to the Court on how it should reduce the current protections, relativize absolute provisions, and give states more leeway to do what they wish in various contexts. Getting too legal and technical might, however, miss the real point of the Chișinǎu Declaration. It might better be understood as a stepping stone to hardening domestic stances on migration and creating a common political position.
Continue reading >>Mirroring Society’s Struggles
The Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) stands as a central institution in the European legal and political landscape. Its judgments not only shape the trajectory of European integration but also reveal deeper EU Law Stories – ideological clashes, conflicting narratives and distributive consequences with the subtle emergence of winners and losers in each case. Yet, these dimensions often remain hidden behind the opaque language of the increasingly lengthy rulings and traditional doctrinal analysis.
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