Is the Hungarian Block Really a Legal Issue?

This post engages with the exchange between Spieker and von Bogdandy and Dawson and van den Brink over the Hungarian block in the European Council (EUCO) and Council on CFSP issues. The issue at the heart of this debate is not one of fantasticalness but of formal legal orthodoxy. The Hungarian block is not a legal constitutional issue but a political one; one that has been reinforced by the 30 June 2025 Council decision to extend the sanctions. Accordingly, any suggested response ought to be political rather than legal.

11. September 2025

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Whose Common Sense?

On September 8, 2025, in the case of Noem v. Vazquez Perdomo, the Supreme Court signaled its support for ICE’s continued use of racial profiling in immigration policing. By staying a lower court’s restraining order, the Court allowed agents once again to stop and arrest people based on how they look, the language they speak, where they live, and the kind of work they do. The closest the Court came to providing reasons for its intervention came in the form of a non-precedential concurrence authored by Justice Kavanaugh. In it, “common sense” is doing the heavy lifting, just as it has in the Court’s immigration policing jurisprudence for decades, at the expense of facts, evidence, and individual rights.

10. September 2025

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The Logic of Domestic Military Deployments

With all the outlandish legal arguments the Trump administration has deployed in the nine months since Inauguration Day, it has been genuinely puzzling that the president hasn’t yet invoked the Insurrection Act. Previously undisclosed facts revealed during the Newsom v. Trump bench trial, however, shed light both on how the motivations for these military deployments are being internalized by the military establishment and why there is not yet demand for invoking provisions of the Insurrection Act.

10. September 2025

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To Uniformity and Beyond

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After the Hungarian judiciary had already faced controversy over the preliminary reference procedure under Article 267 TFEU in the question phase, a new tension has emerged. The supreme judicial body in Hungary now seeks to intervene in the answer phase of the procedure – aiming to shape the referring court’s interpretation and application of the CJEU’s ruling. These dynamics foreshadow an institutional conflict over how the Hungarian judiciary internalizes and operationalizes the jurisprudence of the CJEU. At stake is the fulfillment of the principle of sincere cooperation enshrined in Article 4(3) TEU.

10. September 2025

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Das dosierte Menschenrecht

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Die Bundesregierung plant erneut, die bereits enorm prekäre Gesundheitsversorgung Geflüchteter weiter zu verschärfen. So stellt sie sich weiter in schroffen Gegensatz zur umfassenden Gewährleistung des Rechts auf Gesundheit. Seit dem 8. September prüft nun der UN-Fachausschuss den jüngsten Staatenbericht Deutschlands zur Umsetzung des UN-Sozialpakts. Mehrere NGOs weisen gemeinsam auf eine lange „List of Issues“ systemischer Defizite hin, die zeigen: Deutschland verstößt mit der Vorenthaltung von Gesundheitsleistungen für Geflüchtete gegen seine grund- und menschenrechtlichen Verpflichtungen.

9. September 2025

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Volkswagen, Oxen, Timber, and Slave Labour in Brazil

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Last week, a Brazilian Court ordered Volkswagen to pay the historic sum of US$ 30 million for collective moral damages for slave labour in the Amazon during Brazil’s military dictatorship (1964-1985). The judgment contains numerous significant findings that will serve as important references for future cases involving serious corporate human rights violations. In this piece, however, we focus on its reliance on the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, which not only impose due diligence obligations on Volkswagen but also play a key role in strengthening collective memory.

9. September 2025

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Rainbow in the Dark

On 16 July, the Hong Kong government introduced the Registration of Same-sex Partnerships Bill in the Hong Kong Legislative Council. This move was mandated by two decisions of Hong Kong’s apex court in a 2023 case. The Bill grants same-sex couples who have already registered overseas the rights to have their relationships legally recognised. The decisions came as a beam of light at the grim time of Hong Kong’s authoritarian turn. They can inspire judicial strategies to navigate a liberal enclave within the authoritarian regime, and demonstrate the correlation between gender backlash and constitutional degradation.

9. September 2025

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Introducing the Symposium “Knowledge Under Occupation: Academic Freedom and Palestine on the Global Stage”

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Pressures on universities and scholars to conform to prevailing political orthodoxies appear to be intensifying, often under the guise of safeguarding neutrality or combating alleged bias. This symposium intends to make a small contribution to re-opening the ever more restricted space for academic freedom and seek to continue to push against closing channels.

8. September 2025

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