16 April 2026
When Courts Turn Into Justices
The Brazilian Supreme Federal Court is currently facing the most severe crisis of judicial governance in its democratic history: the consolidation of individualized judicial power at the expense of collegiality. The recent Banco Master scandal exposes how conflicts of interest, opaque decision-making, and the concentration of authority in individual justices can erode the institutional foundations of a constitutional court. India experienced a very similar crisis back in 2018. The Indian episode offers a comparative mirror of remarkable clarity for understanding what is now unfolding in Brazil. Continue reading >>
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05 July 2019
Throwing the EU Off Balance
The battlefield after the European Council summits is still coated with dust, but damages to Central and Eastern Europe and more specifically the Polish and Hungarian government are already visible. There will be no representative of the new Member States (those that entered the EU in and after 2004) among the top jobs. This result is also the consequence of the Spitzenkandidaten model which works to the detriment of smaller Member States and parties and undermines the EU’s basic pillars. Continue reading >>23 September 2015
Where do we stand on the reform of the EU’s Court System? On a reform as short-sighted as the attempts to force through its adoption
Last October, the CJEU has proposed to double the number of judges at the General Court to help tackling its growing workload. The legislative process this proposal is currently undergoing appears to be marred by a pattern of procedural irregularities whose only aim seems to be the speedy adoption of the reform and – more troublingly – may also be construed as a joint advocacy strategy designed to systematically eliminate any opportunity for a public, well informed and evidence-based debate. Should this reform go through (as it appears likely), damaging evidence might yet come to light and the authority and legitimacy of relevant EU institutions will be further undermined at a time where they have little to spare. Continue reading >>
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