Articles for category: English Articles

Avoiding an Odyssey – The EU’s Accession to the ECHR

Since 4 July 2013 the draft agreement for the EU’s accession to the ECHR has been under scrutiny by the ECJ. In this context, Daniel Thym opened up a debate, concerning whether the EU’s accession to the ECHR might be a “Trojan Horse” within the walls of EU law endangering its primacy. Marten Breuer rejected this insinuation: There is no “Donum Danaorum”. While I share Breuer’s result wholeheartedly, my line of reasoning differs, at least partly.

30. September 2013

Can the Election make the Law Unconstitutional?

If it were the case that last Sunday the five procent threshold had turned unconstitutional - what exactly has caused this unconstitutionality over night? Can an election make the electoral law unconstitutional? Sophie-Charlotte Lenski suggests to flexibilize the threshold: If the number of discounted votes exceeds a certain quorum the five percent threshold turns into a three percent threshold.

27. September 2013

In Praise of the Five-Percent Hurdle

The five percent hurdle is far from having lost its justification. It structures and channels the later parliamentary decision-making process. But that means that as a countermove the public discussion must be all the more free, open and varied in the pre-parliament space. The five-percent hurdle loses its democratic legitimacy if enjoined to also perform the role of thought-police of the public space.

27. September 2013

A Trojan Horse? Challenges to the Primacy of EU Law in the Draft Agreement on Accession to the ECHR

The negotiations for a draft agreement on the accession of the EU to the ECHR was quite successful – and yet the draft provokes a couple of questions, bringing us back to the original challenges to the primacy of Union law, which the CJEU has always been eager to deter. It might do so again: just before the summer recess, the European Commission referred the matter to the CJEU in Luxembourg, in Opinion 2/13 whether the Draft Accession Agreement falls foul of the EU Treaties.

11. September 2013

Remembering Eric Stein

Today is the 100th birthday of Eric Stein (1913-2011), and there would be many reasons to mark this occasion with a biographical sketch (there has been an obituary here, followed by a bunch of obituaries in eminent journals, written by his friends and colleagues), with a juicy piece of archival material, with reflections on the rise(s) and decline(s) of European constitutionalism(s), with witty poetry and profound comparative law, with reflections on the historiographical turn in European law and the legal turn in the historiography of European integration. But how could I dare to honour a diligent, careful, pointed and elegant ... continue reading

8. Juli 2013

Discourse Theory and International Law: An Interview with Jürgen Habermas

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AvB: Dear Professor Habermas, we have had four days of intense discussions on international order based on your landmark book Between Facts and Norms. On that basis, I want to ask you some questions that might be of interest to the members of the European Society of International Law. Your writings on international order usually contain two main parts. One part consists of reconstructions of such important concepts as sovereignty, human rights or constitutionalism. The other part consists of policy proposals, for example a certain reform of the Security Council or the General Assembly. Some readers might be puzzled to ... continue reading

12. Mai 2013

The Sense and Nonsense of a Copenhagen Commission

1. Failings The political actors themselves admit that it was a mistake to push for fulfillment of the Copenhagen criteria for accession while having no evaluation mechanisms for reviewing a country’s sustained adherence to the criteria following its accession – and now arguing that this could be set aright through establishment of a Copenhagen Commission, understood as a watchdog, that red-flags a given country’s drift into crude nationalism à la Hungary. It is also correct that we not expect too much of the “nuclear option” of Article 7 of the Treaty on European Union (TEU). The process does not provide ... continue reading

8. April 2013

Opening the enforcement of EU fundamental values to European citizens

Over the last two years, the adoption, implementation and, more recently, amendment of the new Hungarian Constitution have sparked widespread political and academic discussion motivated by the controversial genesis and contents of that document. Debates on a European scale have revolved around the difficulties encountered by the European Union in contrasting the corrosion of constitutional democracy in one of its member states. Following a consolidated trend in European studies, also in this occasion the blame has been thrown on the EU institutional framework. If there are problems, it seems, this is mainly because the available instruments of enforcement are inadequate. ... continue reading

7. April 2013

„The Have-Nots Will Decide That It’s Not Worth Belonging“

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Hamburg, March 23th, 2013. The opening of the „Internationale Bauausstellung“ draws large crowds to the once derelict district of Wilhelmsburg. Among the prime attractions are Saskia Sassen und Richard Sennett, the Royal Couple of Sociology, two of the most influential intellectuals of the globe and – as husbands and wives often will do – agreeing on many things but by no means on all (as will be seen below). Both are scheduled to speak during the opening conference, and both have agreed to talk to me about „Europe 2023“ during lunch break. We walk to their nearby hotel „Wälderhaus“, an ... continue reading

31. März 2013