11 October 2021
Statement of Retired Judges of the Polish Constitutional Tribunal
On 7 October 2021, the Constitutional Tribunal issued a judgment in case K 3/21 concerning the place of EU law in the Polish legal order. The judgment caused great public concern due to its foreseeable devastating consequences for the position of the Republic of Poland as a Member State of the European Union. The retired judges of the Constitutional Tribunal fully share this concern. In addition, however, they consider it their duty to correct the many false assertions contained in the judgment, its oral reasoning and the comments of representatives of political power. Continue reading >>
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The Writing is on the Wall
On 6 October 2021, Advocate General (AG) Saugmandsgaard Øe published his Opinion in the joined cases C-368/20 NW v Landespolizeidirektion Steiermark and C-369/20 NW v Bezirkshauptmannschaft Leibnitz. Six Schengen countries (Germany, France, Austria, Denmark, Norway and Sweden) have reintroduced border controls over the past years. If the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) were to follow the AG’s Opinion, they would need to seriously rethink their practices in this regard. New evidence-based procedures and serious reasons, capable of passing a proportionality test, would be necessary to introduce border controls within the Schengen Zone. Continue reading >>
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Resisting Membership Fatalism
While we fully agree with the main thrust of the editorial ‘The Exit Door’ on Verfassungsblog last Friday, we would like to warn against its seemingly fatalistic mindset. Yes, a Polexit from the EU is not on the table until the Polish government itself pushes the Article 50 TEU button, but the other EU Member States do not have to idly wait ‘hoping’ for a resolution to the crisis. Continue reading >>
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Post-Electoral Changes in Czechia with a Hospitalised Head of State
The Czech Republic held parliamentary elections this past weekend, on 8 and 9 October 2021. The party of the incumbent Prime Minister Andrej Babiš was defeated, albeit by a small margin, and for the first time in its history, the country will most likely be led by a government composed of no less than five political entities. Constitutionally (and traditionally), the President of the Republic moderates the post-electoral negotiations between the parties, convenes the first meeting of the newly established Chamber of Deputies, and appoints the new Prime Minister and the government. However, President Miloš Zeman was taken to hospital yesterday, on the day after the general elections, and remains hospitalised at an intensive care unit. Could the President’s illness at this very crucial moment cause a constitutional stalemate? Continue reading >>10 October 2021
Whoever equates Karlsruhe to Warsaw is wildly mistaken
In the Polish, and to some extent also in the German public discourse, the ruling of the Federal Constitutional Court of 5 May 2020 on the partial unconstitutionality of the ECB's PSP programme is considered to be qualitatively comparable to the ruling of the Polish Constitutional Tribunal of 7 October 2021. In this respect, the Polish judgement is merely seen as a continuation of the established case law of the Bundesverfassungsgericht. From a legal point of view, however, this is clearly false. Continue reading >>Wer Karlsruhe mit Warschau gleichsetzt, irrt sich gewaltig
Im polnischen, partiell aber auch im deutschen Diskurs wird das Urteil des Bundesverfassungsgerichts vom 5.5.2020 zur partiellen Verfassungswidrigkeit des PSP-Programms der EZB als qualitativ vergleichbar mit dem Urteil des polnischen Verfassungsgerichts vom 7.10.2021 eingestuft. Das polnische Urteil knüpfe insoweit lediglich an die gefestigte Rechtsprechung des BVerfG an. Dem ist aus juristischer Sicht aus verschiedenen Gründen deutlich zu widersprechen. Continue reading >>09 October 2021
Roots of the EU Tree
The European Citizens’ Panels (ECP) are part of the Conference on the Future of Europe and provide randomly selected citizens with the opportunity to articulate their visions of the EU. The author participated in the second ECP and points out the risk of separating EU values from each other by locating them in different deliberation streams. Continue reading >>08 October 2021
Balancing Accountability and Legitimacy
As they have installed themselves as the de facto government of Afghanistan, the Taliban could theoretically be held accountable for potential crimes via inter-state proceedings. In practice however, that would run the risk of increasing the perceived legitimacy of the Taliban as the Afghan government. The announcement of Prosecutor Karim Ahmad Khan of the International Criminal Court on September 27 to resume investigations in Afghanistan in the form of criminal prosecution – and thus not as inter-state litigation – therefore deserves support. Continue reading >>
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07 October 2021
Contesting Consent
On 29 September 2021, the EU General Court (GC) annulled Council decisions approving trade and fisheries agreements concluded between the European Union and the Kingdom of Morocco. An earlier post by Eva Kassoti gave an overview of the factual and legal background to the judgments and offered insightful critical analysis. This post will focus on how the GC approaches the issue of how the EU authorities could receive the ‘consent’ from the people of Western Sahara. Continue reading >>
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The Rise and Fall of World Constitutionalism
Constitutionalism and populism, although pursued in different registers, are related forms of authoritarian liberalism, related not just in displaying family resemblances but also in a more causal, diachronic sense; constitutionalism created the conditions for populism to thrive and authoritarian populism in turn generates and provokes an increasingly authoritarian constitutionalist response. Continue reading >>
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06 October 2021
Towards Institutional Guarantees for Democratic Rotation
In a recent Advisory Opinion the Inter-American Court of Human Rights established that indefinite presidential re-elections constitute a violation of Inter-American human rights standards. In doing so it sets substantive limits to states regarding the design of their political and electoral systems. This is a far reaching and bold move. Continue reading >>
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The Long Road Home
On 29 September 2021 the General Court (GC) issued two important judgments annulling the Council decisions on the conclusion of the EU-Morocco Sustainable Fisheries Partnership Agreement and on the amendment of Protocols 1 and 4 to the EU-Morocco Association Agreement. These judgments are the latest instalment in the continuing Western Sahara saga before the CJEU and they are of seminal importance both in assessing the Court’s approach to international law in its practice, and, more fundamentally, in assessing the EU’s commitment to the strict observance of international law in its relations with the wider world. Continue reading >>
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05 October 2021
Brexit, Labour Shortages and Structures of Exploitation
Even though there were warnings that labour shortages would follow Brexit, the UK Government did not put sufficient plans in place between 2016 and 2021, to prevent the current crisis that many predicted. Now, the UK Government is attempting to address the problem in two different ways: first, by introducing temporary visas for migrant workers; second, by employing prisoners and other offenders to cover shortages. However, for migrant workers or prisoners to work in fair conditions, radical change of the legal framework is needed. Continue reading >>
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04 October 2021
Neutralitätspflichten von Behörden im Wahlkampf
Einige Ministerien sollen im Vorfeld der Bundestagswahl Wählerinnen und Wähler mit zielgruppenspezifisch zugeschnittenen Botschaften auf Facebook angesprochen haben. Ein solches Microtrageting wäre als ein Einsatz amtlicher Ressourcen für den Wahlkampf zu qualifizieren und damit ein eklatanter Verfassungsverstoß. Die Rechtsprechung des Bundesverfassungsgerichts zur Neutralitätspflicht von Hoheitsträgern bietet Anhaltspunkte für die verfassungsrechtliche Einordnung dieses Verhaltens. Continue reading >>Indigenous Rights and the “Marco Temporal”
At the end of August 2021, Brazil witnessed the largest indigenous mobilisation in its history. Organised by the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (APIB), more than five thousand indigenous people from 117 different groups set up camp in Brasilia, the capital city of the country. Under the slogan “Fight for Life: our history does not begin in 1988”, indigenous groups from all over the country mobilised the public opinion in protest against the further erosion of their rights. Continue reading >>
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30 September 2021
Die Chilenische Verfassunggebende Versammlung
Die Verfassunggebende Versammlung in Chile hat am 28. und 29. September 2021 die grundsätzlichen Verfahrensregeln ihrer Arbeit verabschiedet. Seit der Wahl ihrer Mitglieder im Mai 2021 ist klargeworden, dass der politische und sozialökonomische Kontext einen erheblichen Einfluss auf ihre Arbeit hat. Gleichzeitig erhebt die Versammlung gewisse Machtansprüche im aktuellen politischen Diskurs. Continue reading >>29 September 2021
The Stubborn Subversiveness of Judaism’s Matrilineal Principle
The recent #patrilineal debate about the matrilineal exclusiveness of being Jewish in Germany that started last July between several writers/opinion makers demonstrates perfectly just how difficult but also dangerous it is to speak of ethnicity, race, religion, gender but also blood particularly in their intersectional form. The following contribution attempts to explicate the central challenge behind the ethnically based matrilineal principle in Judaism. Continue reading >>
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28 September 2021
Wahlen in Berlin: ein Bericht
Dass in der Hauptstadt eines der wichtigsten, reichsten und entwickeltsten Länder der Erde es nicht möglich erscheint, demokratische Wahlen angemessen zu organisieren, ist nicht nur für die Berlinerinnen und Berliner peinlich, sondern zugleich ein gravierendes Demokratieproblem. Einzige Konsequenz aus politischen, fachlichen und moralischen Gründen kann nur der Rücktritt der Landeswahlleiterin und ihrer Stellvertreterin sein. Es ist bezeichnend für die politische Kultur Berlins, dass das in der Öffentlichkeit kaum gefordert wird. Continue reading >>Facebook suspends accounts of German Covid-19-deniers
On 16 September 2021, Facebook suspended more than 150 “Pages and Groups operated by individuals associated with the Querdenken movement in Germany” because of “coordinated social harm”. These accounts were, undoubtedly, spreading misinformation about the Covid-19-pandemic, denying the existence of the virus and encouraging other users to resist the government. However, this type of removal has no legal basis other than Facebook’s Community Standards. Hence, this constitutes a great example of how we (still) apply double standards in content moderation and that, from a legal perspective, we need to think beyond traditional categories and expand the horizontal effect doctrine, but not solely to the advantage of the users affected by the removal. Continue reading >>
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27 September 2021