05 March 2024
Trump and the American Problem of the Commons
Americans missed another opportunity on Monday to reduce the threat Donald Trump presents to constitutional democracy in the United States and in other countries. The Supreme Court in Trump v. Anderson unanimously overturned decisions that held Trump ineligible to run for the Presidency. Three justices acknowledged that Trump is an “oathbreaking insurrectionist.” None challenged that Trump committed treason on January 6. Nevertheless, in an unsigned per curium opinion that had some basis in policy, but little or no foundation in the constitutional text or history of the Fourteenth Amendment, the justices ruled that states had no power to determine whether persons were eligible for the presidency under Section 3. Continue reading >>
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12 April 2022
A Bold Defence of Parliamentarism
At midnight on 10 April 2022, Pakistan’s National Assembly voted to pass a motion of no-confidence in Prime Minister Imran Khan, ousting his populist Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party from power three and a half years after its controversial election. The civilian government went to great lengths to stay in power, using allies in nominally impartial state offices to unconstitutionally dismiss the no-confidence motion and call snap elections. This attempt, however, failed - largely due to the country’s Supreme Court, which in a ruling on 7 April 2022 intervened decisively to protect the National Assembly from dissolution and order the vote to go ahead. Continue reading >>
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11 June 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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04 June 2020
The ‘Constitutional Military Intervention’: Brazil on the Verge of Democratic Breakdown
After numerous judicial defeats in the past couple of months, Bolsonaro chose to travel down the path of intimidation and defiance rather than institutional reform: Through dubious constitutional interpretation, he and his supporters are ascribing to the armed forces the role of a "constitutional moderator" in order to undermine the independence of the Supreme Court. Continue reading >>08 September 2012
Justice Kagan über Rechtskritik und die Eismaschine im Supreme Court
Das Bundesverfassungsgericht erfreut sich einer aktuellen Umfrage zufolge bei den [...] Continue reading >>04 January 2012
Wir urteilen unbelesen: Amerikanische Debatten über Juristenausbildung
Da war der Vater der amerikanischen Juristenausbildung ganz entschieden: nicht [...] Continue reading >>17 May 2011
Ist es eine gute Idee, Richter über die Gültigkeit von Gesetzen urteilen zu lassen?
Diese Frage bewegt in den USA so manchen, seit Obamas [...] Continue reading >>28 March 2011
Statistisch diskriminiert
Frauen verdienen weniger als Männer. Das weiß jeder. Da hab [...] Continue reading >>02 March 2011
Recht auf Psychoterror
Religiöser Wahn und abgründige Niedertracht paaren sich in den Praktiken [...] Continue reading >>02 March 2011