Articles for category: English Articles

Protecting Democracy and the Rule of Law inside the EU, or: Why Europe Needs a Copenhagen Commission

Could there be a dictatorship inside the European Union?  If such a spectre appeared, should Brussels somehow step in to shore up democracy?  Or would this constitute an illegitimate form of meddling in the domestic affairs of countries which, after all, have delegated only specific powers to Europe – and not empowered Brussels to lecture Europeans from Lapland to Lampedusa on how popular rule is correctly understood, let alone to be a policeman for liberal democracy across the European continent?  All these are no longer theoretical questions: recent developments in Romani and especially in Hungary have put such challenges squarely ... continue reading

13. März 2013

Hungary: Taking Action

The Hungarian Parliament has enacted a package of constitutional amendments that virtually neutralizes the Constitutional Court as an opponent of Viktor Orbáns two-third-majority government. There was no lack of protest notes from both Strasbourg and Brussels, but apparently to no avail. Neither the EU nor the Council of Europe seems to be able, institutionally, to find an adequate response to a systematic undermining of constitutionalism within member states such as Hungary or Romania. A conspicuous deterioration in constitutionalism  erosion isn’t just the problem of the respective member state; it affects  the entire EU and all its member states. But what ... continue reading

13. März 2013

Racial Profiling is unconstitutional

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It can be debated, whether it merely constitutes an act of “highbrow legalism” (as the chairman of the German Police Union put it) to enforce the non-discrimination rule in art. 3 par. 3 of the German Grundgesetz. The Superior Administrative Court of Rhineland-Palatinate in the city of Koblenz, however, ordered the supremacy of the Constitution over alleged necessities of police practice. What had happened? In December 2010, an architecture student took a train from Kassel to Frankfurt, when two federal police officers entered the train to search for illegal immigrants. Said student turned out to be the only person on ... continue reading

31. Oktober 2012

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Why the Circumcision Judgment looks so weird to American Eyes

The Cologne Landgericht decision proclaiming religious circumcision to be a form of illegal assault will apparently soon be superseded by legislation permitting the practice under certain conditions. Nevertheless, the mere fact that the decision came about – coupled with its endorsement by many members of the German criminal-law community and the fact that approximately half of Germans want to see religious circumcision punished by law – points at a continuing controversy. Circumcision also presents an interesting cross-cultural case study, since it is not expressly regulated in either the United States or (yet) in Germany. An enlightening 2002 analysis by Geoffrey ... continue reading

30. September 2012

Naked Law, Lost Traditions. A Comment on Reut Paz and Legal Pluralism

Some days ago, Reut Yael Paz published a critical comment on the Cologne Court’s circumcision decision on this blog. Reut rigthly criticized the ignorant stance the Court took towards the challenges of legal pluralism and the conflict of diverging normative orders at the core of the concrete case – and she rightly criticized the widespread silence on these matters that shaped the debate so far. However, her own distinction between the Public and the Private remains unclear and therefore problematic. Does religion exclusively belong to the private sphere? The Cologne courts did not explicitely problematize that differentiation, and Reut Paz ... continue reading

18. August 2012

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The Cologne Circumcision Judgment: A Blow Against Liberal Legal Pluralism

In his preface to Frantz Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth, Jean Paul Sartre writes that violence against the colonized ‘seeks to dehumanize them. Everything will be done to wipe out their traditions, to substitute our language for theirs and to destroy their culture…’. Power and violence however depend on the legal language to appear rational, legitimate and systematic. The law in its turn relies on power in order to relate itself to competing normative orders that either strengthen and/or coexist with other social norms, moral convictions and religious belief system. Keeping this in mind, the recent court judgment by ... continue reading

24. Juli 2012

German court rules child’s religious circumcision can be a criminal offence – Decision and Analysis in English

In these last few days, I have repeatedly been asked for material in English on the Cologne Regional Court’s decision on male religious circumcision (Max Steinbeis and Hans Michael Heinig discussed the decision here and here on Verfassungsblog). Over on the UK Human Rights Blog, Adam Wagner has not only published an excellent analysis, but also uploaded a translation of the ruling into English, alongside with the German versions of the appeal judgement and the original decision.

1. Juli 2012

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Rescue Package for Fundamental Rights: Comments by MICHAELA HAILBRONNER

The Heidelberg proposal, with its suggestion of the adoption of a Reverse-Solange Doctrine by the CJEU, has sparked considerable debate. Much of this debate has focused on the question how such a doctrine would fit into the current body of European law and whether its adoption would represent a legitimate exercise of judicial power by the CFEU. What has been largely absent from this debate, however, is the question how we should imagine the real-life consequences of the adoption and application of the Reverse-Solange doctrine. Daniel Thym and Dimitri Kochenov have touched upon this issue, but the question deserves a ... continue reading

17. April 2012

Rescue Package for Fundamental Rights: Further Comments by DANIEL HALBERSTAM

Peter Lindseth’s post directed at my own intervention on the Heidelberg proposal deserves a response, if only because it opens up debate about a basic divide in scholarship on the European Union.  Do we understand the Union as an administrative or a constitutional construct?  This has important consequences for both democracy and how we understand the “reverse-Solange” approach. The Lens of Judicial Interpretation: Administrative or Constitutional? Peter points to the non-delegation doctrine in the United States.  It no longer declares administrative delegation unconstitutional but provides a canon of interpretation to limit authority from shifting away from the U.S. Congress towards ... continue reading

3. April 2012