Articles for category: English Articles

Judicial Independence and the EU-Switzerland Framework Treaty

The European Union is about to finalise a package of sectoral treaties with Switzerland. Its goal is to institutionalise five existing treaties and to conclude three new ones. At the core of these agreements lies the dispute settlement mechanism, modelled after the EU’s agreements with the post-Soviet states of Armenia, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. This mechanism would grant the European Commission the unilateral right to bring Switzerland before an ‘arbitration tribunal’.

28. Februar 2025

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Reciprocity in Trade?

Trump’s plans to impose "reciprocal" tariffs, announced in a Memorandum of 13 February, fundamentally contradict the existing rules of the world trade order, in particular the USA's tariff obligations and the principle of providing the same benefits to all imports and exports – known as the most-favoured nation (MFN) treatment. The absence of a bolder protest against this flagrant disregard of the law might be due to a shared understanding that the existing rules-based international economic order is in a deplorable state. The crucial question, therefore, is whether we should quietly accept its final abolition by someone with the power to do so, or rather set about repairing it. Now, tariffs may be a very mundane matter. But what is at stake here is the more general and fundamental question of international law today: how do we deal with rules that were created in better times and are now in danger of disintegrating?

28. Februar 2025

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A Glimpse of Hope for the Rohingya

On Thursday, 13 February 2025, a federal criminal court in Buenos Aires, Argentina, took a significant step toward international criminal accountability by issuing arrests warrants for Senior General Min Aung Hlaing and 24 other Myanmar military officials. This marks the first public arrest warrants to be issued against the Myanmar military in a universal jurisdiction case. This legal development represents a rare moment of hope for the roughly one million Rohingya forced to live in refugee camps in Bangladesh.

27. Februar 2025

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The Dismissal of the Romanian Prosecutors Annulment Action

In the latest chapter of the EU rule of law saga, the General Court dismissed an annulment action lodged by an association of Romanian prosecutors, which challenged the termination of the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism in 2023, due to lack of direct concern. We argue that a too-narrow view of the issue does not reflect the rule of law situation in the country, including open non-compliance with the CJEU’s own rulings, and leads to several undesired consequences.

27. Februar 2025

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Reading Project 2025 as a Manifesto

Manifestos have very often prefigured constitutional crisis, revolution, the overthrowing of legal orders, and set the terms of what follows. Project 2025, or the 2025 Presidential Transition Project, can be read as a manifesto, and one that is now well on its way to being implemented. Examining it through the lens of constitution (re)making sets out some of the terms in which it could be opposed, including by counter-manifesto.

26. Februar 2025

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A Power Grab Is Not a Constitutional Theory

Lawyers love legal theories. President Trump’s unprecedented executive actions have reignited interest in theories about the U.S. Constitution, especially conservative ones. Is he working with an extreme conception of the unified executive theory, a strong version of “originalist” or even “post-originalist” legal reasoning, or will the “political question doctrine” dominate? These debates are fascinating, but they strike me as pointless. Why? Because Trump’s supporters are not deploying them in good faith. Rather, these theories are being used as rhetorical maneuvers to dress up a power grab in theoretical garb.

24. Februar 2025

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The Claim of Hybrid Attacks

At the European Union’s external borders, migrants are being instrumentalized in geopolitical conflicts, as seen in cases before the European Court of Human Rights concerning pushbacks at the EU-Belarus border. Poland, Latvia, and Lithuania justify these measures as responses to a “hybrid war,” while critics warn against eroding non-refoulement protections. The Court’s ruling will be crucial in defining the balance between state security and human rights.

21. Februar 2025

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Criminalizing Knowledge

When does sharing information become an act of disloyalty to the state? Three bills advancing through Israel’s Knesset aim to answer this question decisively: any cooperation with international justice mechanisms, particularly the International Criminal Court (ICC), would constitute a betrayal of the state punishable by up to life imprisonment. This legislative package marks a dramatic shift from merely opposing international criminal jurisdiction to criminalizing the very act of documentation and information-sharing about potential human rights violations. For Israeli scholars researching international humanitarian law, the message is clear: our academic work could become a criminal offense if it finds its way to international courts.

21. Februar 2025

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A New Step in the Greening of the Right to Life

In Cannavacciuolo and Others v. Italy, the European Court of Human Rights unanimously found a violation of Article 2 ECHR on account of the State’s failure to protect the right to life of residents in an area of Southern Italy known as the “Land of Fires” (Terra dei Fuochi). This is the first judgment linking a violation of the right to life to the prolonged exposure to pollutants released into the environment. The decisive element for the applicability of the right to life has been a shift in the Court’s approach to the causal link requirement that triggers a violation of Article 2. The Cannavacciuolo judgment should therefore be seen as a turning point for climate and environmental justice.

20. Februar 2025

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