Articles for category: English Articles

An Elusive Touchdown with a Political Football

On July 19, Congress voted to revoke funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting – something it has not done in the 60 years since its creation. In countries with strong public media traditions, this may seem astonishing: Why would Congress defund NPR and PBS after already having appropriated the money? And what does this mean for the First Amendment? To answer these questions, we must consider the peculiar history of public broadcasting in the United States.

24. Juli 2025

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The Great Recall Movement

Confronted with lawmakers they themselves elected just eighteen months ago, Taiwanese citizens have creatively repurposed the antiquated mechanism of "recall" as a last-resort check on a runaway legislature. Sparked by a year of legislative overreach and erosion of constitutional checks, this unprecedented campaign reflects Taiwan's spirit of civic constitutionalism, and its determination to defend its democratic institutions.

24. Juli 2025

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Respect for International Law in Gaza

Since October 2023, a group of eminent Israeli international law scholars has written numerous letters and memos expressing concerns over many aspects of the Gaza war. Given the importance of these documents both in doctrinal terms and in highlighting the work of these colleagues, we have asked to publish them. So far, only one of the letters has been officially published. Readers interested in more detail can access the full text of the respective documents, which are hyperlinked and archived on Verfassungsblog.

23. Juli 2025

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Another Step in the Anti-Abortion Agenda

Trump’s recently passed “One Big, Beautiful Bill” bars Medicaid reimbursements to Planned Parenthood for one year. The provision is now temporarily blocked after Planned Parenthood filed suit. But it builds on, and must be read against, the backdrop of Medina v. Planned Parenthood, a recent and disastrous Supreme Court ruling initiated by South Carolina. The case starkly illustrates the Court’s continued alignment with an anti-abortion agenda advanced through state governments and forms part of a broader assault on civil rights. Not least, its entanglement with Medicaid signals a deeper campaign against the poor and access to healthcare.

23. Juli 2025

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The Demise of Congress

Last week, Congress passed a bill permitting deep cuts to foreign aid and public broadcasting programs – just days after enacting what Donald Trump hailed as the “Big Beautiful Bill,” widely seen as a legislative disaster. Congress is increasingly surrendering its constitutional power of the purse and, with it, its institutional identity in relation to the presidency. Its collapse in favor of pure partisanship signals the breakdown of the system of checks and balances at the heart of the U.S. Constitution.

22. Juli 2025

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Sweden, Sex Work, Screens

Sweden takes its sex work ban online — but at what cost? Criminalising digital intimacy clashes with EU rights and consensus. The new law risks punishing autonomy without protecting anyone. From demand to overreach: privacy in the digital age is at stake. Copying offline laws into online spaces erodes digital freedoms.

22. Juli 2025

Protecting Rights in the Anthropocene

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On July 3, 2025, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR) issued its long-awaited Advisory Opinion No. 32 (AO-32/25) on the “Climate Emergency and Human Rights”. With its opinion, the IACtHR became the first human rights monitoring body to recognize that a healthy climate is an autonomous and justiciable human right. This blog post traces the emergence of this new right within the Inter-American Human Rights System (IAHRS) and highlights its most transformative elements for theory and practice.

22. Juli 2025

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Stopping the Davids, Shielding the Goliaths

In Barbara v. Trump, an individual federal district court judge stopped the Administration’s birthright citizenship executive order nationwide. Just when the Supreme Court said this was not allowed in Trump v. CASA, a New Hampshire judge ordered universal relief, this time through a class action. There is a big difference between a nationwide injunction that benefits non-parties and a class action that benefits class members. But what they have in common is that they both empower the “little guy” to enforce the rule of law. The Supreme Court has eliminated the former and is now trying to kneecap the latter.

21. Juli 2025

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Decriminalising Abortion in England and Wales

On 17 June 2025, British MPs took an important step in decriminalising abortion against a backdrop of rising prosecutions for "later" abortion. Once the amended Crime and Policing Bill becomes law, people who voluntarily end their own pregnancies will be exempt from criminalisation. But, unless a further amendment is made, those good faith actors who provide abortion, or support others in getting access, remain at risk of criminal investigation. Five aspects of the recent legal changes are worth emphasising as lessons for a strategic perspective on defending, and even expanding, reproductive freedom.

21. Juli 2025

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