Skip to content
  • Verfassungs
    blog
  • Verfassungs
    debate
  • Verfassungs
    podcast
  • Verfassungs
    editorial
  • Support ♥︎
  • About
    • What we do
    • Who we are
    • Authors
    • Funding
  • Submissions
  • Projects
    • OZOR
    • 9/119/11 jährt sich zum 20. Mal. Welche Spuren hat dieses Ereignis in der globalen und nationalen Verfassungs- und Menschenrechtsarchitektur hinterlassen? Dieser Frage wollen wir in einer Folge von Online-Symposien nachgehen. Gefördert von der Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung bringen wir Rechtswissenschaftler_innen aus verschiedenen Regionen und Rechtskulturen darüber ins Gespräch, was aus den Erfahrungen der vergangenen zwei Jahrzehnte in Hinblick auf Völkerrecht und internationale Menschenrechte, Asyl und Migration, Überwachung im öffentlichen und privaten Raum, Presse- und Informationsfreiheit, Menschenwürde sowie Rechtsstaatlichkeit und Justiz zu lernen ist.
    • Journal
    • Books

Search

Search

Results for {phrase} ({results_count} of {results_count_total})

Displaying {results_count} results of {results_count_total}

Generic filters
Support us ♥︎
  • About
    • Who we are
    • What we do
    • Authors
    • Funding
  • Submissions
  • Projects
    • OZOR
    • 9/11
    • Journal
    • Books
Search

Results for {phrase} ({results_count} of {results_count_total})

Displaying {results_count} results of {results_count_total}

Generic filters
23 Oktober 2020
Marta Cartabia, Daniel Halberstam, Anna Śledzińska-Simon, Antoine Vauchez, Armin von Bogdandy

Vicarious Hegemony and the Anti-hegemonic Thrust of European Law: a Conversation

We are debating the specter of German Legal Hegemony. It’s a new dimension for most German lawyers. The prevailing view has been that Germany is at the receiving end and losing out. Many consider Germany as making a too small impact on European law because it’s too inflexible for its federalism and too inhibited for many reasons. Quite a few see the 2nd Senate of the BVerfG as the last institution defending law and reason against overbearing European institutions as Berlin politicians have largely given up. The symposium has provided a different picture. How to deepen learning from it? Today we propose a discussion which is both analytical and normative. Continue reading >>
9
14 Oktober 2020
Daniel Halberstam

Anti-Hegemony and Its Discontents

Long before the fighting ceased, Jean Monnet was already planning to integrate a defeated Germany into “a Europe united on terms of equality.” The idea had been brewing in the French and Italian resistance during World War II, even since Germany had been defeated last time around, and before then, in other forms, too. The key to bringing the warring nations together in solidarity was, as the Schuman Declaration would explain, taming the age-old animosity between Germany and France in a supranational project “open to all countries willing to take part.” The aim, in the words of the Treaty of Rome would be an “ever closer union among the peoples of Europe.” Continue reading >>
0
14 Oktober 2020
Anna Śledzińska-Simon

The End of the German Legal Culture?

In this post, I argue that: (I) the influence of German jurisprudence on the legal systems in Central and Eastern Europe results from transfers of legal knowledge and “cooperative adaptation” of elites in the new democracies; (II) the German legal hegemony is in fact a hegemony of reason and a culture of justification; (III) the decision of Bundesverfassungsgericht in PSPP is an attempt to maintain the culture of justification in view of its inevitable end. Continue reading >>
0
13 Oktober 2020
Pál Sonnevend

How Not to Become Hegemonial

I have to start with a confession: if it was not for the Bundesverfassungsgericht and German legal scholarship, I would have not become the lawyer I am today. Writing a PhD in the Max-Planck-Institute in Heidelberg, attending classes by giants of German public law taught me to appreciate the famous German “Rechtsdogmatik”, a term that can only be poorly translated by “legal doctrine”. The conceptual sophistication and clarity of thoughts, the persuasive power of reasoning, the attention for details and the elegance with which the lack of answers to certain questions is concealed created for me an aura of infallibility and self-evident truth. I also remember my condescending attitude when I met foreign guests in the Max-Planck Institute who were not familiar enough with this constitutional language, or even dared to challenge some of its conclusions. Being inside this world felt reassuring, safe and also elevating. After wandering through the legal education of post-communist Hungary I finally saw the light. Continue reading >>
0
13 Oktober 2020
Russell A. Miller

The Ugly German

The novel’s two ugly Americans provide useful models for two facets of hegemony as Gramsci theorized it. Hegemony, he insisted, is more than a state of cultural domination. It is better understood as a process of socio-historical change that takes place before power is institutionalized. The two drivers of the hegemonic process Gramsci theorized are consensus and coercion. Continue reading >>
0
12 Oktober 2020
Mirosław Wyrzykowski

Constitutional Borrowings, Not Hegemony

The question about the legal hegemony of Germany was raised by comments from lawyers, but also politicians, in connection with the - undoubtedly - controversial decision of the German Constitutional Tribunal in the PSPP case. Armin von Bogdandy’s introduction refers primarily to the problem of the Europeanization of Germany vs. the Germanization of Europe in the context of European integration and Sabino Cassese’s description of “some specific decisions of these more recent EU-specific decisions of the Second Senate of the German Federal Constitutional Court as an attempt to put a German dog leash on European institutions". But it also refers to the past of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the "imposition" of "an enlightened, soft neo-liberalism" on the countries of this region (Bogdan Iancu). In the case of Poland, because Kaczyński’s government seems to be a persecutor against the proceedings which the German jurisprudence provides, "the secret crypt in which the seeds of its spirit will be protected...". (Carl Schmitt). Continue reading >>
0
12 Oktober 2020
Pedro Cruz Villalón

Rule of (German) Law?

As I see it, the central question is whether Germany, just as it is an economic and a political power in the EU, is also a legal power. This would, of course, beg the question whether this notion makes sense by itself. Is it permitted to speak of legal power in the way it is preached for other forms of power? And supposing the notion applies to Germany as a Member State of the EU, may this national condition be aptly described as hegemonic? The ultimate question behind the questions just mentioned would be ‘How can this problem be tackled?’, assuming that it indeed turns out to be a problem. Continue reading >>
1
11 Oktober 2020
Argelia Queralt Jiménez

Influence yes, Hegemony no

Before starting my reflections on the arguments presented in Professor von Bogdandy’s text, a number of caveats need to be made. First of all, as I will explain below, the Spanish Constitution of 1978 and Spanish democratic constitutional law have been deeply influenced by German constitutional law. This is a fact that is both well-known and unquestioned. It may also explain why, at present, there is no debate about the matter. For this reason, before I began to write this article, I felt it necessary to discuss with some legal colleagues how they saw the questions put forward, as I did not consider myself to be entitled to reply on behalf of the Spanish academia as a whole. Secondly, the article that we have been asked to reflect on mixes different questions. Some of them may be significant from a German standpoint, but, in contrast, are not salient topics from a Spanish one. Finally, and in relation to the point that has just been mentioned, I will attempt to provide a response in the case of those aspects that are susceptible of being considered from outside, in this case from Spain. Continue reading >>
0
10 Oktober 2020
Joseph H.H. Weiler

Mirror Mirror on the Wall – Who is the Most Beautiful of All?

I have been politically aware for around, sigh, five decades. And with unerring regularity once every ten years or so, we have been treated to a kind of decennial Oktoberfest of German public hand-wringing. Very public – group therapy writ large. Sometimes it comes with the label of ‘Legitimacy Crisis’. Oftentimes it is a variation on the theme of ‘Are We Back to Weimer Times – and You Know What Followed That!’ It has all the hall marks of a ritual. Continue reading >>
2
09 Oktober 2020
Oreste Pollicino

The European “Market” for Constitutional Ideas

It was already clear to Seneca, almost 2000 years ago, that “[i]f a man knows not to which port he sails, no wind is favourable”. Now, almost 2000 years later, as mentioned by Armin von Bogdandy in his inspiring introduction to this symposium, we are faced with a crucial question of existential significance: Are we moving towards a Europeanised Germany or a Germanised Europe? In order to answer to the question, we have to draw a distinction between intention and practical effect. Continue reading >>
0
  • 1
  • 2
  • Next

Verfassungsblog is a journalistic and academic forum of debate on topical events and developments in constitutional law and politics in Germany, the emerging common European constitutional space and beyond.

Newsletter

Email
GE EN I hereby subscribe to receive information about new articles and services of verfassungsblog.de. I know that I may withdraw my consent at any time. More information in the privacy policy.
Imprint Privacy