, Maximilian Steinbeis

Five Questions on Brexit to GERTRUDE LÜBBE-WOLFF

Former Constitutional Court Judge Gertrude Lübbe-Wolff on why she deeply regrets to see the British go, on the reversibility of the Brexit decision, and on an independent Scotland's prospects to continued EU membership. Continue reading >>

Martin Nettesheim

Ultra-vires-Kontrolle durch Bundesregierung und Bundestag – Für eine materielle Subsidiarität des Vorgehens gegen das Parlament

Das Bundesverfassungsgericht ist mit seinem Urteil zum OMT-Programm der Europäischen Zentralbank seiner Verantwortung, das (Verfassungs-)Recht in seinem größeren Bezug zu interpretieren (Art. 23 Abs. 1 S. 1 GG), gerecht geworden. Die Bundesregierung und der Bundestag werden dabei aber in die Rolle von Rechtshütern gedrängt, die sie funktional und institutionell-gewaltenteilig nur schwer spielen können. Dies gilt vor allem für das Parlament. Continue reading >>

Dimitry Vladimirovich Kochenov

Brexit and the Argentinisation of British citizenship: Taking care not to overstay your 90 days in Rome, Amsterdam or Paris

What are the likely consequences of Brexit for the status and rights of British citizenship? Is it possible to mitigate the overwhelming negative consequences of the UK’s withdrawal from the EU on the plane of the rights enjoyed by the citizens of the UK? The Brexit referendum result will most likely mark one of the most radical losses in the value of a particular nationality in recent history. Continue reading >>

Neil Walker

The Brexit Vote: The Wrong Question for Britain and Europe

Referendums are supposed to provide decisive interventions in the affairs of state. Yet the referendum theory is in fact deeply flawed. European ‘membership’ for a country of Britain’s size, influence and location should be less a matter of ‘yes or no’ than one of ‘more or less’. The reduction of a complex and graduated choice to a basic dichotomy simply does not reflect the position or serve the interests of the vast majority who will be affected by the outcome. What is more, and worse, the crude logic of either-or plebiscitary politics threatens to become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Continue reading >>

The European Union and the Erosion of State Capacity

The broad assumption in Europe is that member states of the European Union inherently have the capacity to implement EU legislation. This proceeds from the general understanding of Weber’s definition of the modern state as having a monopoly of legal violence within its territory. To this can be added the capacity of the state to “read” the population, to know through censuses, registers data bases who the inhabitants of the state are and, for that matter, where they are; the ability to impose taxes; and the capacity to sustain the uniform distribution of authority. Continue reading >>

, Alexander Arnesen

Jurisdiction, legislation, and creative interpretations in the Opinion of AG Wathelet in C-72/15 Rosneft

The frequent legal challenges to the European Union’s economic sanctions regimes have resulted in several judgments chiseling out key issues of EU law. Case C-72/15 Rosneft, which will be decided in the coming months, provides the European Court of Justice (ECJ) yet another opportunity to do so. In particular, the Rosneft case invites the ECJ to clarify its jurisdiction and power of judicial review over decisions taken by the Council under the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) – in the context of a reference for preliminary ruling. Continue reading >>