The Harms of Speech
The United States Supreme Court seems poised to strike down state restrictions that prohibit medical professionals from engaging in so-called “conversion therapy,” or efforts to make a lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT) person heterosexual or cisgender. Although the Supreme Court has declined to hear similar challenges in the past, the arc of its First Amendment jurisprudence and its skepticism of constitutional claims involving sexual and reproductive rights suggest that the restriction at issue is likely to be invalidated.
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A Judicial Compromise
On 3 October 2025, the Supreme Court of the Netherlands handed down its judgment concerning the export of parts for the F-35 jet fighter to Israel. We highlight two notable elements. First, the Court did not follow the teleological interpretation typically taken by the ECJ. Another approach to interpretation of international and EU law could have led to a (partly) different outcome of the case. Second, we agree that, given the State’s discretionary power, civil courts must exercise restraint when dealing with foreign policy and national or international security.
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Was dem Parlament zufällt
Der Vorschlag, ein Losverfahren darüber entscheiden zu lassen, wer zur Musterung antreten und womöglich zum Wehrdienst verpflichtet werden soll, sorgte in den vergangenen Wochen nicht nur für Unruhe in der Koalition. Der Vorschlag entfachte auch eine öffentliche Debatte darüber, ob Losverfahren zulässig und sinnvoll sind. Die Debatte schadet einem Verfahren, das entgegen seinem Ruf ganz und gar nicht willkürlich ist – und dennoch für die Auswahl künftiger Soldaten unzulässig.
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Using the DSA to Study Platforms
The EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA) established a host of new transparency mandates for online platforms. One of the simplest yet most critical allows researchers to collect or “scrape” data that is publicly available on platforms’ websites or apps. This post examines who can take advantage of the DSA’s protections.
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Democratic Education in a Tempest
The Australian social media ban exemplifies a troubling global trend: governments across democracies are asserting greater control over what students may read, study, or debate – whether through curriculum directives, book bans, or online restrictions. While such measures may be motivated by legitimate concerns for child welfare, they risk undermining democratic education by narrowing civic pluralism and shielding students from contested ideas.
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Ethnically Stratified Citizenship
The upcoming ECJ judgment in Slagelse Almennyttige Boligselskab – the so-called Danish Ghetto Area case – could reshape the boundaries of EU equality law. At issue is whether Denmark’s policy targeting neighborhoods with more than 50% “non-western immigrants and their descendants” amounts to discrimination based on race or ethnic origin. While Advocate General Ćapeta framed the case around ethnic discrimination, the deeper question is one of EU citizenship: can EU law accept stratification of EU citizenship along ethnic lines?
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Das Völkerrecht im Angesicht des Absurden
Camus’ Sisyphos als Wegweiser durch die Weltunordnung
Continue reading >>International Law in the Face of Absurdity
Learning from Camus’ Sisyphus
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Rethinking Highest Possible Ambition
States classify a large portion of agricultural emissions as “hard to abate”, framing them as residual emissions which must be compensated through removals. As other sectors decarbonise more rapidly, persistent agricultural emissions pose a significant obstacle to achieving the Paris Agreement’s 1.5°C target, underscoring the growing importance of reducing emissions in this sector to restoring a pathway consistent with returning to 1.5°C as quickly as possible.
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Zwischen Gleichheit, Gerechtigkeit und Allgemeinheit
Bei den aktuellen Plänen zur Wehrpflicht wird zur Auswahl der heranzuziehenden Wehrpflichtigen insbesondere das Losverfahren diskutiert. Allerdings werfen sowohl die quantitative Begrenzung der Wehrpflicht im Sinne eines kontingentbasierten „Auswahlwehrdienstes“ als auch ein vom Los bestimmtes Selektionsverfahren verfassungsrechtliche Fragen auf. Dabei spricht vieles dafür, dass sich eine derartige Ausgestaltung der Wehrpflicht als mit der Verfassung vereinbar erweisen wird.
Continue reading >>CURRENT DEBATES
Mapping Article 13: Academic and Scientific Freedom under the EU Charter
Academic freedom is under pressure. Though protected by Article 13 of the EU Charter, this article received practically no or very little attention in both scholarship and EU institutional and jurisprudential practice. As legal and political developments accelerate, the meaning of this right is taking shape in real time. This symposium puts Article 13 in the spotlight and reflects its potential in light of past and present threats to academic freedom. Co-edited by Vasiliki Kosta and Marie Müller-Elmau.
Read all articles >>Defund Meat
Meat is an embodied symbol of the mounting and interrelated environmental and public health crises that have become characteristic of our era: climate change, biodiversity loss, deforestation, pandemics, food insecurity, unhealthy and unsustainable diets, and institutionalised animal suffering. Drawing from the Defund Meat conference in January in Heidelberg, this blog symposium moves the meat question from the margins into the spotlight. Convened by Saskia Stucki and Anne Peters, the symposium is supported by the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law.
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Volume 7,Issue 2
July 2025
JUS COGENS
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Killing Hitler Word by Word: The Oath as Apocalyptic Lawmaking
GREGOR NOLL
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Adjudicating Climate Protest as a Tool of Modern Republicanism
DMITRII KUZNETSOV
OUR LATEST PUBLICATION
Friedrich Zillessen (Hrsg.)
Die vorbereitete Demokratie:
Resilienz durch Antizipation im Thüringen-Projekt
Was wäre, wenn autoritär-populistische Akteure in Thüringen Zugang zu staatlichen Machtmitteln erhielten? Wie würden sie vorgehen, um ihr eigenes Abgewähltwerden zu erschweren? Welche rechtlichen und institutionellen Spielräume stünden ihnen offen?
Für diesen Sammelband haben wir 35 Blogposts aus dem Thüringen-Projekt ausgewählt, die diesen Fragen nachgehen und über tagespolitische Ereignisse hinaus Relevanz entfalten. Die Beiträge testen Schwachstellen, entwickeln Szenarien und führen die Debatte über Resilienz weiter – und tragen so dazu bei, dass die Demokratie besonders dann wehrhaft ist, wenn sie vorbereitet ist.
PROJECTS
VB Security and Crime
In cooperation with:
VB Security and Crime is a cooperation of the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Crime, Security and Law (MPI-CSL) and the Verfassungsblog in the areas of public security law and criminal law. The MPI-CSL Institute is a member of the Max Planck Law network.
Das Justiz-Projekt
Weltweit gerät die unabhängige und unparteiische Justiz unter den Druck des autoritären Populismus.
Wie verwundbar ist die rechtsprechende Gewalt in Deutschland – im Bund und in den Ländern?
VB Security and Crime
In cooperation with:
VB Security and Crime is a cooperation of the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Crime, Security and Law (MPI-CSL) and the Verfassungsblog in the areas of public security law and criminal law. The MPI-CSL Institute is a member of the Max Planck Law network.
EDITORIAL
Das Völkerrecht im Angesicht des Absurden
Camus’ Sisyphos als Wegweiser durch die Weltunordnung
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