21 October 2025
The Slow Death of Human Rights
Following several egregious crimes against women and children, Kyrgyzstan’s President Sadyr Japarov publicly suggested that the death penalty might be restored. Politically, this statement can be considered a populist response to capitalise on the public outrage over gender-based violence. But beneath this political rhetoric lies a multi-faceted legal question: Kyrgyzstan abolished the death penalty almost twenty years ago, binding itself under international law to permanent abolition. In light of this, the Kyrgyz Republic can neither legally nor reputationally afford to reverse this course. Continue reading >>
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17 October 2025
Academic Freedom as a Human Right
New attempts by the U.S. administration to tie federal funding to an ideologically driven “Compact for Academic Excellence” have sent shockwaves through universities, raising alarms about political steering of curricula and governance. These developments are not isolated: they echo tactics increasingly used worldwide, including within the EU, where subtle regulatory and financial pressures are reshaping the academic landscape. To counter this erosion, the EU must treat academic freedom not as a sectoral issue, but as a fundamental right under Article 13 CFR. Continue reading >>
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29 September 2025
A Badge of Dishonour
Calls for the UK to leave the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) have become commonplace in British political debate. Reform UK has announced withdrawal as its day one priority, the centre-right Conservative party could be on the brink of adopting exit from the ECHR as a flagship policy, and even some Labour MPs are thinking the unthinkable. Continue reading >>25 September 2025
Public Debt Transparency and Global Public Law
As the world faces an intensifying post-pandemic public debt crisis, demands for increased transparency in external public debt management have grown stronger, especially from international organizations such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. The 2025 Jubilee Year has reinforced those concerns. Nonetheless, a key question persists: how can transparency be institutionalized as a binding principle instead of just a recommended best practice? A key step towards improving public debt transparency is to analyze it through the lens of constitutional law. Continue reading >>
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23 September 2025
The Realm of Good Intentions
A recent decision by a Brazilian labour court fined Volkswagen do Brasil approximately US$ 30 million to be paid into a State fund to combat slave labour. This decision was praised on Verfassungsblog by Danielle Pamplona and Hartmut Rank (“historic, consistent, and necessary”). However, I would like to put forward an alternative view, as I believe the decision has two flaws: it does not comply with Brazilian law and lacks practical utility. Continue reading >>
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24 July 2025
Corporations, Climate, and the Court
Corporations, especially those engaged in fossil fuel production, agriculture, construction, and transportation, play a significant role in the climate crisis and in its human rights impacts. It is thus of critical importance that the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR)’s Advisory Opinion 32/25 (AO-32/25) not only directly addresses corporate climate and human rights impacts, but also provides some pathways forward on these persistent barriers to accountability. This blog discusses AO-32/25’s holdings and innovations as related to business and human rights and reflects on their broader legal implications. Continue reading >>
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22 July 2025
Protecting Rights in the Anthropocene
On July 3, 2025, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR) issued its long-awaited Advisory Opinion No. 32 (AO-32/25) on the “Climate Emergency and Human Rights”. With its opinion, the IACtHR became the first human rights monitoring body to recognize that a healthy climate is an autonomous and justiciable human right. This blog post traces the emergence of this new right within the Inter-American Human Rights System (IAHRS) and highlights its most transformative elements for theory and practice. Continue reading >>
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18 July 2025
The Bloom of Nature’s Rights
The Inter-American Court of Human Rights’ (IACtHR) advisory opinion on human rights and the climate emergency (AO-32/25) addresses numerous dimensions of the climate crisis, setting an important precedent for the protection of our planet. This post focuses on one particularly significant development: the IACtHR’s recognition of Nature as a subject of rights. We argue that the IACtHR’s pronouncements on this subject mark the advent of an ecocentric paradigm whose implications are likely to be far-reaching and transformative. Continue reading >>
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16 July 2025
Jus Cogens and the Climate Crisis
While there are many aspects of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR)’s Advisory Opinion 32/25 (AO-32/25) that are new and groundbreaking, the inclusion of a reflection on jus cogens might have surprised some observers. The legal consequences of the recognition as jus cogens of the obligation not to create irreversible damage to the climate and the global environment are profound. Treaties violating the norm are void, customary international law rules cannot exist, nor does the persistent objector rule apply. Continue reading >>12 July 2025
Beyond the Fog of War
Superlatives are often overused - but in the case of the Grand Chamber judgment in Ukraine, The Netherlands v Russia, delivered on 9 July 2025, they are not only justified but arguably inadequate. This case stands out as one of the most consequential and complex in the history of the European Court of Human Rights. It addresses systemic human rights violations committed in the context of an ongoing international armed conflict and during a prolonged period of occupation. Continue reading >>
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