Fabian Steinhauer

Neues vom Glossator (8): Staatsrechtslehrer im Genderwahn

Über Staatsrechtslehrer, Staatsrechtslehrer*innen, Geschlecht, Geschlagenwerden, Phantasmen, Subkulturen, Angst und Roman Herzog. Continue reading >>

Clemens Latzel

Grundrechte gegen jedermann: Direktwirkung von Unionsgrundrechten zwischen Privaten

Grundrechte bereiten deutschen Zivilrechtlern regelmäßig Probleme. Schon der Umgang mit Grundrechten des Grundgesetzes ist im Zivilrecht mühsam – der Umgang mit Unionsgrundrechten gleicht dem Umgang mit den Restprodukten ziviler Atomkraftnutzung: Man lässt am liebsten die Finger davon, muss aber dennoch darauf achtgeben, denn die Ausstrahlung ist durchdringend und kann weitreichende Folgen haben. Deshalb muss auch ein Zivilrechtler wissen, wie Unionsgrundrechte funktionieren, und ist es lobenswert, dass sich der neunte Senat des Bundesarbeitsgerichts (BAG) mit dieser Frage an den Europäischen Gerichtshof (EuGH) in Luxemburg gewandt hat. Dessen Entscheidung hat nun ein Generalanwalt mit Schlussanträgen vorbereitet. Anlass ist einmal mehr das Urlaubsgrundrecht – ja, das gibt es wirklich. Continue reading >>

Das Märchen von der Freiheit des Internets – erste Eindrücke zum DE-CIX-Urteil des Bundes­verwaltungs­gerichts

Die oft beschworene Freiheit des Internets erweist sich in ihrer Pauschalität wahrhaftig als Märchen. Verloren ist sie damit aber noch nicht. Dies dürfte auch die DE-CIX ermutigen, gegen das Leipziger Urteil Verfassungsbeschwerde zu erheben. Angriffspunkte bieten sich jedenfalls zu Genüge. Continue reading >>

Marco Dani,

The “Savona Affaire”: Over­constitutionali­zation in Action?

As is well known, Italy is undergoing an institutional crisis sparked by President Mattarella’s veto on the composition of the prospective Italian government. Following Dieter Grimm, we claim that the events here analysed reveal the extent to which the EU legal framework is overconstitutionalised and the democratic costs and risks inherent in this legal and political order. Continue reading >>

Diletta Tega, Michele Massa

Why the Italian President’s Decision was Legitimate

The new Italian government is unlikely to find a majority in Parliament; it will probably be a short-term, neutral caretaker, until the new elections, which may take place as soon as next autumn. The impeachment procedure against the President – should it start at all – will end in nothing, although it might stir the electoral propaganda. Continue reading >>

Fabio Wolkenstein

Transnational Partisanship vs Transnational Democracy

The European Parliament has called for he creation of a European cross-border constituency, a transnational list of candidates from across the continent. This idea, recently popularised by French president Emmanuel Macron, has been gutted by the European People's Party, though – a move which could itself be seen as a powerful manifestation of the importance of transnational partisanship in the EU. Continue reading >>

Michaela Hailbronner

Caviar, Corruption and Compliance – New Challenges for the Council of Europe

Compliance with judicial decisions often poses challenges, all the more so when international courts such as the European Court of Human Rights are involved. How to react to a failure to abide by judgments of the ECHR has been a question for the Council of Europe for some time. But the suspicious background of a currently unfolding episode involving Azerbaijan may offer an unusually clear justification for a strong reaction even to a single case of non-compliance. Continue reading >>

Ethnocentric Mambo in Catalonia

Catalonia is a fragile object. As in many other places, history has assembled fragments without completely fusing them, leaving behind scars that remind us of the effort required to join what is diverse. These scars demand special attention because, contrary to societies where the wounds that produced them are old and almost forgotten, in Catalonia many of the wounds were still suppurating just a few decades ago. As they do now. For months, we have been at risk of tearing them open. Continue reading >>

Adeel Hussain

Save the Constitution!

India's oppositional Congress party wants to impeach Dipak Misra, the Chief Justice of India, who stands accused of allocating cases to the respective benches at his own, politically right-leaning whim. In its fight against the governing BJP party, the Congress party has launched a "Save the Constitution!" campaign. Unfortunately, its leader Rahul Ghandi's family has a history of entanglement with the constitution of its own. Continue reading >>

Wolfgang Schulz

Nicht nur eine Frage der Finanzierung: Karlsruhe verhandelt zum Rundfunkbeitrag

Dass das Bundesverfassungsgericht letzte Woche zum Rundfunkbeitrag zwei Tage mündlich verhandelt hat, überrascht auch vor dem Hintergrund, dass das Bundesverwaltungsgericht alle relevanten Fragen schon geprüft hatte. Wenn das Gericht nun doch grundsätzlicher prüft, stellen sich im Wesentlichen zwei Fragen: Ist der Beitrag in der aktuellen Ausgestaltung wirklich als Gegenleistung für den individuell zurechenbaren Vorteil anzusehen, die öffentlich-rechtlichen Rundfunkprogramme empfangen zu können? Und wird dieser Vorteil verlässlich erfasst, wenn die Beitragspflicht einzig darauf abstellt, dass jemand eine Wohnung unterhält? Continue reading >>

Matej Avbelj

There is No Such Thing As a Particular „Center and Eastern European Constitutionalism“

After a new landslide electoral victory by the Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, a fresh perspective on constitutional developments in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) has started taking shape. It could be described as constitutional appeasement. The argument goes that given a widespread popular support for the constitutionally backsliding regimes in Hungary, Poland as well as elsewhere, we should start examining our own theoretical premises from which we have been observing and evaluating the developments in CEE. Perhaps, there is not everything wrong with CEE political and institutional developments? Continue reading >>

Tomasz Tadeusz Koncewicz

The Białowieża case. A Tragedy in Six Acts

In the judgment of 18th of April 2018 the European Court of Justice has ruled (unsurprisingly) that by carrying on logging activities on the UNESCO-protected Białowieża Forest, Poland has failed to fulfil its obligations under EU law. In the Białowieża case the process of judicialization of the EU governance called for a concerted action and dual commitments: from the Court and the Commission. The Court did its part, Commission failed and reverted to its bad ways from the past: negotiating with the government who has been giving short shrift to the Commission and to the core values of the EU law for two years and will continue doing that under the pretense of striving for a compromise with the EU. The Commission continues to be missing one crucial element: the politics of resentment are not just one-off aberration. Continue reading >>

Carsten Momsen, Thilo Weichert

From DNA Tracing to DNA Phenotyping – Open Legal Issues and Risks in the new Bavarian Police Task Act (PAG) and beyond

Is Germany facing a tidal shift in police powers? Does the border between the prosecution of criminal offences and the prevention of looming dangers, which has so far been regarded as self-evident and constitutionally necessary, fall? Will people who are suspected of maybe committing crimes in the future only on the basis of statistical data or non-individualized investigative approaches be preventively restricted in their fundamental rights and even imprisoned in the long term? Is Germany on the way to comprehensive predictive policing, for which considerable risks of discrimination will be accepted? These questions arise from the critics of the draft act on police tasks, which the Bavarian state government intends to pass this week. Beside drones and online seizure one of the crucial investigative issues is the so called “DNA phenotyping”. Continue reading >>