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Articles for category: AAA General
The European Game
The long-awaited judgement of the Court of Justice of the European Union in Case C-333/21 - European Super League Company has finally arrived. There is a lot to unpack, especially with respect to developments in competition law. Constitutional lawyers will, however, find particular interest in how the Grand Chamber dismissed Advocate General Rantos’ pitch for a constitutional recognition of the European sports model based on Article 165 TFEU. This post focuses on this aspect of the European Super League judgment. It argues that while the Advocate General’s construction was rejected, the Court still used this judgement to further define its own constitutional understanding of the European sports model, as well as to solidify its role as the primary interpreter of that model.
2023: ein Blick zurück
Die Verfassungsblog-Texte des Jahres aus Sicht der Redaktion
Looking Back on 2023
The Verfassungsblog Posts of the Year from the Editorial Staff's Point of View
Sri Lanka’s Economic Crisis Before the Supreme Court
On 14th November 2023, the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka issued a landmark decision holding several high-ranking executive officials responsible for the economic crisis of 2021-2022. This was widely regarded as the worst economic crisis the country had experienced post-independence; it manifested itself in a rapid depreciation of the currency, dramatic shortages of fuel which saw vehicles in mile-long queues at fueling stations, and rolling electricity cuts throughout the island. In mid-2022, two petitions were filed in the Supreme Court alleging that several officials named as respondents were responsible for this economic crisis. In this blogpost, I argue that the court’s decision has significant implications for the scope of the fundamental rights jurisdiction, and for the court’s potential role in future controversies.
Avoiding the Legacy of Impunity
This week for the second time in history the Irish Government has announced its intention to lodge an Inter-State application against the United Kingdom before the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. The Irish government argues that the Northern Ireland Troubles (Reconciliation and Legacy) Act 2023 which was enacted in September 2023 and provides an extensive conditional amnesty is incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights.
Testing the Limits of Deliberative Constitutionalism
On 14th December 2023, a parliamentary committee in Ireland issued a report recommending a referendum on inserting environmental rights, including rights of nature, into the Irish Constitution. The origin of those recommendations was the prior Citizens’ Assembly on Biodiversity Loss, which was formally linked to the committee. These events are another important chapter in the unfolding story of deliberative constitutionalism, with Ireland often cited as a leading example. The fate of the constitutional reforms proposed by the Assembly and the committee on environmental rights will provide important insights into: 1) when deliberative recommendations can gain the necessary political support for implementation; 2) whether institutional design can improve the likelihood of political support for citizen-led constitutional reform.
Same, Same but Different?
The Commission’s decision to release a significant amount of EU money is a testament to some serious pitfalls in the mechanism, which governs the unblocking of frozen EU funds. To recall, Hungary’s endowments are blocked via two different channels, based on two different conditionality criteria, which have some overlapping points. Both prescribe reforms to preserve the independence of the judiciary, which according to the Commission’s justification has been successfully accomplished by Hungary. The Commission has, however, never published a detailed plan that would attach a specific amount to be released to every sufficiently satisfied conditionality criterion. In this blog post, I showcase that the overlap between the two conditionality mechanisms and the absence of a robust ex-ante blueprint for releasing frozen funds make the unblocking process highly obscure. This lack of transparency both decreases the efficiency and robustness of conditionality, and increases the tendency for inter-institutional conflicts.
Constitutional Identity vs. Human Rights
In two recent Latvian cases concerning the Russian-speaking minority decided respectively in September and November 2023, the ECtHR made clear that protection of constitutional identity has now been elevated to a legitimate aim for a differential treatment under the Convention. This post explores how the protection of constitutional identity has been deployed to enable a collective punishment by association with a former occupier, and how the ECtHR’s reasoning has effectively endorsed such a punishment, which is unbefitting of a liberal democratic system the ECHR aspires to represent. Until the three cases were decided, no liberal European democracy could argue without losing face that suppressing a large proportion of its population was its constitutional identity – one of the goals of its statehood. Today, this claim is seemingly kosher, marking a U-turn in the understanding of what the European human rights protection system is for minorities in Europe.
Everybody’s Business
War has devastated Sudan since it first broke out on 15 April 2023. What started as a power play between the country’s two most powerful armies, the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), has since metastasized into a major civil war. International actors have not paid this war the high-level attention it requires and deserves. This blog explains why international actors need to pay more attention to what is happening in the strategically located country at the crossroads between the Red Sea and the Sahel, between the Arab and African worlds. The war threatens Sudan’s integrity as a state, displaces millions and draws in neighbouring and other regional countries, all in a region already in turmoil because of coups, insurgencies and violent extremism.
