Marx, Enemy of the Constitution?

Is it constitutionally permissible to hold a Marx reading group in the German Republic? According to a recent judgment of Hamburg’s Administrative Court: unclear. A reading group can apparently only take place as long as it does not “actively and combatively” promote Marx’s ideas, since “the social theory formulated by Marx” is in essential points “incompatible with the principles of the liberal democratic basic order” of the Federal Republic. The judgement is worth examining in detail.

29. August 2025

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Verfassungsfeind Marx?

Darf man in der Bundesrepublik unbehelligt einen Lesekreis zu Marx veranstalten? Laut Verwaltungsgericht Hamburg: Unklar. Stattfinden darf der Lesekreis ohne Einmischung staatlicher Behörden anscheinend nur, solange er sich nicht „aktiv-kämpferisch“ für Marx‘ Ideen einsetzt, da „die von Marx begründete Gesellschaftstheorie“ in wesentlichen Punkten mit den „Prinzipien der freiheitlichen demokratischen Grundordnung nicht vereinbar“ sei. Es lohnt sich, dieses Urteil im Detail anzuschauen.

28. August 2025

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Lithium, Law, and the Limits of EU Sustainability

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In July 2024, the European Commission entered into a strategic partnership on critical raw materials with Serbia by signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on sustainable raw materials and battery value chains. Three days before signing the MoU, the Serbian government had decided to renew the spatial plan for the realization of the “Jadar” project, which includes the exploitation of the mineral Jadarite in western Serbia. These two events have signaled the readiness of the Serbian regime to allow lithium mining in western Serbia and the EU’s commitment to exploit a source of critical raw material (CRM) in its neighborhood, particularly in the Western Balkans.

28. August 2025

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Can Africa Still Drill?

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While the ICJ found that any State suffering from climate change can bring charges against others for their contribution to climate change, the opinion does not distinguish between the obligations of developed and developing States (except where treaty law already imposes different obligations).  African States and the African Union have continued to support fossil fuel development on the continent. In light of this advisory opinion, what obligations are imposed on developing States, like African States, to protect the climate, particularly regarding the further development of fossil fuel industries? 

28. August 2025

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The Other Side of Trade

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On 10 August 2025, Germany announced it would suspend the export of offensive weapons to Israel, citing the risk of mass civilian casualties during Israel’s planned incursion into Gaza City. Yet Germany’s military trade with Israel is a two-way street. As crucial as Berlin’s arms exports are its growing imports of Israeli weapons, military technology, and security expertise, including training.

26. August 2025

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Not a Curtain Drop, but an Abuse of Rights

The recent Grand Chamber decision in Kovačević v. Bosnia and Herzegovina might send shockwaves through the legal and political landscape in Bosnia and Herzegovina or even across Council of Europe states, as Professor Joseph Marko suggests in his article. However, his analysis presents an incomplete picture of the Court’s decision and overlooks critical context necessary for a full understanding of why the Grand Chamber declared the application inadmissible.

26. August 2025

Closing the Silences

At COP 30 in Belém, ministers will wrangle over how “sufficient” the new climate-finance goal must be, and whether “phase-down” of coal is a slogan or a legal trigger. In Brussels, the 2040 climate target faces the same test, while in Geneva, the WTO’s fossil-subsidy reform stalls over which tax breaks to cut. Read through a strict consent-only lens, and these are political choices. Read through the ICJ’s frame – science, equity, no-harm, precaution – they become legal ones: finance must be capable of delivering 1.5°C and repairing loss and damage, coal and subsidy policies must be plausibly 1.5°C-compatible, and the burden falls on governments to prove it. 

26. August 2025

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Klimaschutz in Karlsruhe 5.0

Vor kurzem ließen mehrere Pressemitteilungen deutscher Umweltverbände Verfassungsrechtler:innen aufhorchen. Die vom Bund für Umwelt und Naturschutz Deutschland (BUND), Greenpeace, Germanwatch, dem Solarenergie-Förderverein Deutschland und der Deutschen Umwelthilfe (DUH) im Sommer/Herbst 2023 eingereichten „Zukunftsklagen“ werden in Karlsruhe offenbar ernst genommen. Im weiteren Verfahren könnte auch das kürzlich ergangene Gutachten des Internationalen Gerichtshofs (IGH) zu völkerrechtlichen Verpflichtungen der Staaten mit Bezug zum Klimawandel eine wichtige Rolle spielen.

26. August 2025

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Trump’s Manufactured Emergencies

The Trump administration’s actions in Washington D.C. represent the continuation of interconnected political and rhetorical tactics that the president has used since his second inauguration that we should expect to see again and again – using misleading or downright fabricated information as the basis for declaring an emergency, relying on the fabricated emergency to invoke emergency legal authorities, and then relying on those authorities to take actions that exceed even the broad powers that such emergencies confer under the law. Looking ahead, we can expect the administration to run this same playbook in additional, predictable ways.

22. August 2025

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The Next Episode On Gender-Based Asylum

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One of the CJEU’s most talked-about recent cases asks a simple question: when does someone belong to a “particular social group” under EU refugee law? On 11 June 2024 in K, L v Staatssecretaris van Justitie en Veiligheid (K, L), the CJEU found that, women who genuinely came to identify themselves with the fundamental value of equality between women and men during their stay in the host country can be regarded as belonging to a particular social group. However, the implementation of the K, L judgment has led to a divergence between national policy and national courts over the meaning of “identification with the fundamental value of equality between women and men.”

22. August 2025

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