Articles for category: English Articles

A Love Letter from Strasbourg to the Turkish Constitutional Court

We can all breathe a sigh of relief: Turkey’s constitutional complaint mechanism is an effective domestic remedy. Said the European Court of Human Rights in its March 20th rulings, speaking for the first time on the issue of prolonged pre-trial detentions since the July 2016 coup attempt in Turkey. These judgments reflect the ECtHR’s continuing preoccupation with its docket crisis despite the rapid consolidation of authoritarian rule in Turkey.

27. März 2018

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The Authoritarian Regime Survival Guide

This text was published in social media in January 2017 in a series of improvised, spontaneous tweets, which reached 3 million views within one month. Their common element was their trademark signature, “- With love, your Eastern European friends”, and the accompanying hashtag #LearnFromEurope. Excerpts and summaries were published by various on-line media, but this is the first time it is published as a whole.

26. März 2018

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›The Place of the Constitution Is Empty‹: Chinese Political Aesthetics of Commanding Constitutional Faith

‘The document emblazoned with the Chinese characters the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), the constitution in its material form, was gingerly held and escorted by a military guard of honour onto the lectern at the centre of the podium of the Great Hall of the People in the First Session of China’s 13th National People’s Congress on 17 March, 2018.’  This is the snapshot of a video cap about the inauguration of the PRC’s (new/amended) constitution, which was part of the so-called core leadership’s constitutional oath-taking ceremony before the audience of the members of the National People’s Congress for the first time in the PRC history. Watching that video, I cannot help but attempt an aesthetic read of the unsubstantiated Chinese political order in the light of Claude Lefort’s famous ‘empty place’ thesis.

23. März 2018

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A Constitutional Court Silencing its Critics

After twenty years of operation, the Thai Constitutional Court has finally got its first statute that lays out details of procedural rules. The Organic Act on the Procedure of the Constitutional Court B.E. 2561 (2018) is long overdue. A decade of political chaos had prevented the Parliament from passing the law until the military took power in 2014. The junta-appointed National Legislative Assembly expected it to facilitate the Court through the foreseeably turbulent future. Ironically, turbulences might come from the law itself.

20. März 2018

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Lebanon – Plaything of Regional Powers: The Case of Saad Hariri

The forced temporary resignation of the Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Harari under pressure from Saudi-Arabia has raised not just political, but also legal questions. Saudi-Arabia violated the principle of non-intervention, Hariri’s personal inviolability and his human right to personal liberty. Maybe this time the Lebanon escaped a new political crisis, but the situation remains tense. Living in fear of a new conflict seems to be Lebanon’s destiny.

16. März 2018

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Bye bye, ICC! The Philippines‹ farewell put into perspective

On 14 March 2018, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte announced that the Philippines will withdraw from the International Criminal Court (ICC, the Court) “effective immediately.” Duterte’s intention to reject the ICC’s jurisdiction exemplifies the Court’s fragile foothold across Southeast Asia. Cambodia and the Philippines have been the only two ICC members among the ten ASEAN countries. Thailand signed the Statute in 2000, but not yet proceeded to ratification. An explanation of this Southeast Asian hesitation may be found in distinct attitudes and principles within and between the ASEAN countries.

15. März 2018

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Constitutional Rights First: The Italian Constitutional Court fine-tunes its „Europarechts­freundlichkeit“

Only a few days after the Court of Justice of the European Union buried the hatchet in the so-called Taricco saga, the Italian Constitutional Court issued a decision that may inaugurate the most significant shift of its jurisprudence in European affairs since 1984, when the Constitutional Court fully accepted the principle of primacy of EU law and blessed the disapplication of national legislation incompatible with EU law.

14. März 2018

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