31 März 2022
Securitisation and Solidarity in Singapore after 9-11
The Singaporean government adopts a proactive, holistic approach in seeking to preserve national security, unity and solidarity through rehabilitation, emphasising the responsibilities of all citizen to be vigilant and to actively preserve racial and religious harmony through social interaction and building relationships, as part of the communitarian compact. Remaining a united people would thwart the terrorist goal of driving a sharp wedge between ‘us’ and ‘them.’ Continue reading >>
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30 März 2022
Does the Threat of Terrorism Justify Migration Restrictions?
Barring migrants for the sake of achieving marginal reductions of already very low risks of terrorism might be justified if restrictions imposed few or no morally significant costs. But, in fact, barring migrants fleeing oppression and war is a grave wrong. It inflicts enormous harm, violates human rights against unjust discrimination, and is also inimical to concepts of dignity prominent in modern European and international law jurisprudence. Continue reading >>
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15 März 2022
Borders of Equality
Legally sanctioned, robust border security today marks a fundamental inequality in the world; it is a reflex and sign of unequally distributed resources and at the same time perpetuates this inequality. Nevertheless, borders – as dramatically demonstrated these days in light of the terrible war in Ukraine – also have an inherent protective dimension. Border regimes can therefore only be interpreted and legitimized as legal instruments of order in a society of the free and the equal; their function as barriers cannot be justified in terms of fundamental considerations of justice and equality. Continue reading >>
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08 März 2022
The Cost of our Fear
Despite their extraordinary character, Western responses to terrorism failed to bring the security Western populations demanded. Our fear, however, led us to support the erosion of our values, institutions, and laws beyond repair. Continue reading >>
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07 März 2022
Die Schlangenbeschwörer
Während russische Panzer in die Ukraine rollen, sollten wir uns vor den "Träumern des Absoluten" in unserer Mitte in Acht nehmen. Sie verehren die Exekutive, weil nur eine starke Exekutive in der Lage ist, die kosmopolitischen und menschenrechtlichen Errungenschaften der zweiten Hälfte des zwanzigsten Jahrhunderts zurückzudrehen. Diese Anbetung hängt jedoch davon ab, dass an der Spitze der Exekutive eine Person steht, die zumindest die wichtigsten Grundsätze ihrer Version des "Gemeinwohls" teilt. Dies erfordert die Befreiung der Exekutive von den Zwängen der Rechtsstaatlichkeit, sowohl international als auch innerhalb des Nationalstaates. Continue reading >>
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07 März 2022
The Snake Charmers
As Russian tanks roll into the Ukraine, we should be wary of these ‘dreamers of the absolute’ in our midst. They worship the executive because only a strong executive is capable of rolling back the cosmopolitan, human rights achievements of the latter half of the twentieth century. But such worship depends on maintaining in power the person at the head of the executive who shares at least the most important tenets of their version of the ‘common good’. That requires not only freeing the executive from the constraints of the rule of law, both internationally and within the nation state. It also requires that democracy be hollowed out in order to ensure that periodic elections return the right person to power. Continue reading >>
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11 Juni 2020
From Legal Fiction to Reality: Securing the Dignity of India’s Manual Scavengers
Manual scavenging is one of the most inhumane and abhorrent sanitation practices prevalent in modern India: broadly, it means deploying individuals to manually clean up drainage systems. ‘Manual scavengers’ (unfortunately, for the lack of a better term) have been denied their humanitarian due for centuries in the Indian sub-continent and their constitutional due for 70 years in the Republic of India – it is high time the Law dismantles the structure that perpetuates their oppression. Continue reading >>
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31 März 2020
Corona-Triage and Human Dignity
Does the duty to protect human life have an essence of dignity? The „triage“ of COVID-19-patients, i.e. their sorting due to scarce treatment capacities, raises this question. The answer is yes: It would violate the state's duty to protect human dignity, for example, if the state gave orders to save not as many lives as possible, but as many young people as possible. Continue reading >>
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15 Juni 2019
Being a Good Dictator is not so Easy
On investigative journalists, homeless people, aberrant academics and other sources of civic unrest and discomfort. Continue reading >>11 Juni 2019