Unwritten Constitutional Norms
Unwritten Constitutional Rules are those elements of the constitution that are not fully contained in its text. Even though - or maybe precisely because - they are unwritten, they serve important functions within the constitutional system. This blog symposium examines the phenomenon of Unwritten Constitutionalism from a comparative perspective with contributions from Germany, Canada, and the United Kingdom, three jurisdictions in which unwritten constitutional rules play very different roles
Read all articles >>Media Freedom and Pluralism
What is ‘media’ in a digitalized society where boundaries between news, commercial and social content are increasingly blurred? How can we safeguard media pluralism against powerful state actors as well as powerful tech companies? This Symposium will explore these and other pressing questions concerning the state of the media.
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Volume 6,Issues 1
April 2024
LATEST POSTS
Why and How the Hungarian Presidency Must Be Stopped
It took less than a week for Viktor Orbán to make the worst predictions about the Hungarian Presidency of the Council become true. Yet with a twist. If many had warned about the danger that such a Presidency would have paralysed the internal operation of the EU, nobody expected this could also cause confusion and damage to the Union’s foreign policy. How the EU Member States will react to it may define the overall credibility of the Union on the international stage, particularly at a time when it increasingly faces significant challenges both from within and the outside.
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On Tables, Markets, and Free Speech
On the surface level, we see private actors exercising more and more power over speech; on a deeper level though, we might be returning to a far older discussion about the interplay of private and public power, and the fate of an individual who lives in the crash zone between them. Given that the result of this clash largely comes down to choosing a proper regulatory policy, this contribution argues that when regulating market-situated speech particular caution should be exercised.
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Regulating the Discursive Power of Big Tech Companies
Big Tech companies have power. One element of this power is discursive power, including in the public sphere, a cornerstone of democratic societies. In the current digitalized society, the public sphere has a significant online component. Discursive power may continue to grow, fuelled by AI developments, unless checked. To shape a possible legal response – we focus on European competition law – requires understanding the complexity of this power. Though competition law is focused on market power, we argue that it can and should have a role to play in curbing discursive power too, despite some inherent limitations.
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‘Democracies Die in Silence’
What is ‘media’ in a digitalized society where boundaries between news, commercial and social content are increasingly blurred? What do we really mean by ‘media pluralism’? These are all key questions liberal democracies in Europe and beyond need answers to, given both political challenges and the rise of market power and Big Tech companies whose actions affect media markets. While the law will not solve all of the problems associated with these developments, it can help in imposing limits on the way in which political and market power is used. This necessitates a sustained and informed debate as to what the existing legal framework offers and what additional legal responses are necessary.
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“Displacement due to environmental factors is one of the great tragedies of our time”
In a recent judgment, the Colombian Constitutional Court has ruled that displacement due to environmental factors can be legally considered as forced displacement triggering specific obligations of the State. The judgment (T-123 of 2024) highlights the deficit of constitutional protection for victims of environmental displacement, urging the state to develop specific strategies to address this issue. In this interview, Natalia Ángel-Cabo, a Judge at the Colombian Constitutional Court, explains the implications of the ruling and the concept of displacement due to environmental factors.
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The “Hong Kong 47” Verdict
Recently, the first court verdicts in the trial surrounding the “Hong Kong 47” were handed down. The trial is one of several political trials that are underway in Hong Kong (HK), a Special Administrative Region (SAR) of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). These trials are political partly because the accused are political figures involved in the 2019 civil unrest, partly because the accused are being tried under the National Security Law (NSL) introduced into HK by the PRC Central Authorities, and partly because they have been didactic spectacles revealing the actions and consequences sought by the accused. This blog post explains the background of the “Hong Kong 47” case and shows why it raises questions that are of interest outside of Hong Kong as well.
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Hate Speech on and off the Field
During the EURO 2024 in Germany, the UEFA has imposed a series of sanctions on fans and two players for inappropriate comments and gestures. Albania's player Mirlind Daku was suspended by UEFA's Control, Ethics and Disciplinary Body (CEDB) for two UEFA representative team competition matches after chanting nationalist slogans. Turkey's Merih Demiral was suspended for two matches for celebrating his second goal against Austria with a "wolf salute". These sanctions can be considered justified under the standards of the European Convention on Human Rights ("ECHR"). However, in order to have an effective preventive effect, they should be accompanied by criminal investigations under national law.
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Prison for Fake News
In Cyprus, a new legislative proposal introduces a prison sentence of up to five years on those spreading fake news. I argue that criminally punishing fake news is absolutely horrifying for free speech, for media pluralism, and for democracy. Criminalizing fake news has a “chilling effect” and it causes a self-censorship by media, civil society organizations, and average citizens. Moreover, the concept of fake news is highly ambiguous and its criminalization is counterproductive as it is not reducing the problematic content but “often draws more attention to it.”
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Ist dieses Urteil der Anfang vom Ende der AfD?
Mitte Mai entschied das OVG Münster, dass das Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz die AfD zu Recht als rechtsextremistischen Verdachtsfall einstuft und beobachtet. Das schlug hohe Wellen. Die Veröffentlichung der Urteilsgründe sechs Wochen später jedoch nicht – obwohl sie ein Verbotsverfahren gegen die AfD und dessen Erfolg wahrscheinlicher machen.
Continue reading >>Eiltransport gegen Eilrechtsschutz
Mit der Auslieferung von Maja T. nach Ungarn zur Strafverfolgung hat die Generalstaatsanwaltschaft Berlin Fakten geschaffen, die sie nicht mehr rückgängig machen kann. Die einstweilige Anordnung des Bundesverfassungsgerichts, nicht auszuliefern, kam zwar schnell, lief aber ins Leere, weil die Polizei Maja T. schon ins Ausland verbracht hatte. Die Feststellung der Generalstaatsanwaltschaft, man könne außerhalb des deutschen Staatsgebiets nichts mehr für Maja T. tun, ist blanker Hohn. Ihr Vorgehen ist mit Blick auf die Rolle und Rechtsprechung des Bundesverfassungsgerichts in Auslieferungsverfahren rechtsstaatswidrig, weil es gegen das Prinzip der Gewaltenteilung verstößt.
Continue reading >>Mehr Desselben?
Nach dem tödlichen Angriff auf den Polizisten Rouven L. in Mannheim plant das Bundesjustizministerium eine Strafrechtsreform. „Menschen, die sich für das Gemeinwesen einsetzen“ sollen besser vor Angriffen geschützt werden. Dabei dürfte auch der Politik klar sein, dass die geplanten Strafschärfungen ungeeignet sind, um Angriffe auf Polizist*innen, Rettungskräfte und andere zu unterbinden. Doch leider fehlt es in Deutschland nach wie vor an einer rationalen und faktengestützten Politikgestaltung in den Bereichen der Kriminalität und der Justiz. Wieder einmal wird auf Symbolpolitik gesetzt, die zwar nichts kostet, an der Gewalt jedoch nichts ändert.
Continue reading >>Online Speech at the US Supreme Court in Moody v. Netchoice
The First Amendment of the US Constitution raises some of the most difficult legal hurdles for regulating the global digital public sphere today. In Moody v. Netchoice, the US Supreme Court heard appeals from two judgments, an appeal from a decision of the Fifth Circuit declaring that Texas’ social media law H.B. 20 did not violate the First Amendment, and an appeal from a decision of the Eleventh Circuit finding Florida’s social media law S.B. 7072, instead, unconstitutional. These laws are similar in that they both attempt to impose must-carry and non-discrimination obligations on social media platforms, which in practice amounts to requiring them not to discriminate against conservative users’ posts. The compatibility of these two laws with the First Amendment cuts across a plethora of crucial issues on the future of social media regulation which the court could, but didn’t fully, address.
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Warum Cybermobbing bestraft werden sollte
Die Frühjahrskonferenz der Innenminister 2024 fordert wieder einmal die Einführung eines eigenen Cybermobbing-Straftatbestandes. Trotz in den letzten Jahren vorgenommener Gesetzesanpassungen ist ein spezieller Straftatbestand zum Cybermobbing tatsächlich notwendig, unter anderem wegen der teils gravierenden Folgen für die Opfer. Dieser Straftatbestand muss die zeitliche und dynamische Komponente eines nicht geplanten Zusammenwirkens einer Vielzahl von Menschen gegenüber dem Opfer erfassen, denn hierin liegt der spezifische Unrechtsgehalt des Cybermobbings.
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Talkshow für alle?
Das Oberverwaltungsgericht NRW hat in einem vor der Europawahl ergangenen Eilbeschluss den WDR dazu verpflichtet, die Partei Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht („BSW“) zu der WDR-Sendung „Wahlarena 2024 Europa“ mit verschiedenen Spitzenkandidaten einzuladen. Das OVG änderte damit die Entscheidung des Verwaltungsgerichts Köln ab, welches den Eilantrag des BSW zuvor noch abgelehnt hatte. Die Entscheidungen bieten Anlass, die verfassungsrechtliche Struktur und die Kriterien des Zugangs von Parteien zu öffentlich-rechtlichen Wahlkampfsendungen näher zu beleuchten.
Continue reading >>Locating Unwritten Constitutional Norms in Global Constitutionalism
If there is a global constitutional order, it is “unwritten���. We cannot point to a written constitution for global law. Rather, theories of global constitutionalism and processes of global constitutionalisation are derived from an amalgamation of sources across international law and domestic constitutional orders. This blog post reflects on these tensions within the debate on global constitutionalisation, and focuses specifically on democracy as an unwritten constitutional norm in global constitutionalism.
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The Rule of Law and the United Nations Summit of the Future
Is the rule of law an unwritten principle for the UN system? Today, rule of law language has been gradually replaced by a new paradigm of ‘inclusivity’. The rule of law debate within the UN was centered on a thick understanding of the rule of law, highlighting substantive values rather than procedural guarantees. Absent a consented definition of the term, the rule of law was never considered to be an unwritten principle for the UN system.
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Giving Covenants Swords
The classical Hobbesian critique of international law famously asserts that “covenants, without the sword, are but words.” Accordingly, given Israel’s persistent non-compliance with the ICJ’s provisional measures in South Africa v. Israel, on 29 May 2024, South Africa requested “the Security Council to give effect to the Court’s judgments” under Article 41 of the ICJ Statute. This post shows why the discussions on whether the Council lacks the statutory authority to supervise and enforce the Court’s provisional measures under the ICJ Statute overlook the broader point. Namely, the Order on provisional measures is the perfect legal evidence for the Council to trigger its powers under Chapter VII and thus end the humanitarian calamity in Gaza.
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How Viktor Orbán Challenges the EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy
Since the start of the Hungarian Presidency of the Council of the European Union (EU), the Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán pursued an active foreign policy. He went to Kyiv for a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, made a surprise visit to Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, attended an informal summit of the Organisation of Turkic States hosted by Ilham Aliyev, President of Azerbaijan, and then flew to Beijing for a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Orbán’s self-declared ‘peace diplomacy’ illustrates – once more – the challenges surrounding the EU’s external representation. His visits are nothing else than an expression of Hungarian national foreign policy. Also in that capacity, however, his actions are problematic in view of Hungary’s obligations under the EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy.
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