11 April 2025
The U.S. President’s Electoral Power Play
On March 25, President Trump signed an executive order (EO) purporting to restructure American election administration. The ironically titled “Preserving and Protecting the Integrity of American Elections” EO sets out to, among other things, require those registering to vote in federal elections to present documentary proof of citizenship, and threatens to penalize states that accept late arriving ballots (i.e., mail ballots that are sent prior to, yet not received until after, Election Day). The EO has several legal deficiencies and much of it should be invalidated by the federal judiciary. Continue reading >>
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28 March 2025
Wie die Trump-Regierung Wissensinstitutionen angreift
Zeit für Mut – und Widerstand Continue reading >>
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28 March 2025
The Trump Administration’s Attack on Knowledge Institutions
Time for courage – and resistance Continue reading >>24 March 2025
Sturm auf den Verwaltungsstaat
Die erste Amtszeit Donald Trumps endete mit dem Sturm auf das Kapitol, die zweite Amtszeit begann mit dem Sturm auf den Administrative State. Ist nur ersteres oder beides ein Angriff auf die demokratische Ordnung? Wie Verwaltungsstaat und Demokratie aufeinander bezogen sind, ist eine für akademische Zwecke kaum zu beantwortende Frage. Sie bezieht unklare Begrifflichkeiten in einer unklaren Weise aufeinander. Gerade wegen dieser Unschärfe sind die Fragen nach der Demokratietauglichkeit des Verwaltungsapparats für politische Zwecke aber auch reizvoll. Denn sie lassen sich einfach instrumentalisieren. Continue reading >>19 March 2025
From Hugs to Handcuffs
On 27 February, the Mexican government transferred 29 alleged drug lords to the US. Instead of undergoing the due process required for extradition, they were simply removed of their cells, put on a plane and sent to the USA. This act was termed a “deliver” by Mexico, while the US called it a “expulsion”. This is not just a semantic issue. While combating organised crime is crucial, by bypassing the rules for extradition, Mexico disregarded the rule of law and set a dangerous precedent for sovereignty and the protection of fundamental rights. Continue reading >>
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10 March 2025
The End of NATO As We Know It
It is frighteningly easy to picture a situation in which President Trump steps off a plane and declares: “I have a paper signed by Mister Putin, there will be peace for our time.” When Neville Chamberlain declared “peace for our time” on 30 September 1938, the world was at war only one year later. Should Russia choose to test the true value of Article 5 NATO-Treaty, this would be the ultimate test for NATO. Europe needs to get serious about acquiring its own nuclear deterrent, entirely independent of the USA. Continue reading >>
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21 February 2025
Trumps Gegenverfassung
“He who saves his Country does not violate any Law” Continue reading >>21 February 2025
Trump’s Counter-Constitution
“He who saves his Country does not violate any Law.” Continue reading >>18 February 2025
In Search of Honour
There is a presumption underlying the liberal democratic constitutional project that has been exposed by the Trump administration in its first weeks in office – that formal constitutional structures are all we need to protect against bad political actors. But our entire constitutional system hinges on the very basic idea of people in positions of power doing the right thing. Therefore, I will argue that the behavioural chink in the constitutional chain that needs to be re-discovered is honour. Honour possesses the cultural potency, political currency, and psychological impetuous we need to turn the tide on illiberalism. Continue reading >>
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06 February 2025
Ceci n’est pas un Ban?
On 19th January 2025, the ‘Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act’ became operative in the USA in respect of TikTok, routinely (but somehow deceptively) referred to as ‘TikTok ban’. I will not deal in detail here with the saga (which readers of this blog are already familiar with), but with the misalignment between legal form and political narrative: A vaguely formulated statute became a symbolical proxy for principled confrontation over the underlying values. Continue reading >>
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