Articles for category: AAA General

We the Bugs

On April 14, 2025, the Hungarian parliament passed the 15th Amendment to the Fundamental Law, triggering mass protest across Budapest. Amongst its most far-reaching provisions is the constitutional entrenchment of binary sex. Read alongside a reworded Article XVI, which affirms that “every child has the right to the protection and care necessary for his or her proper physical, mental, and moral development”, these provisions establish a new hierarchy of fundamental rights, placing child protection above all others, including the right to peaceful assembly. These changes may now lend formal constitutional legitimacy to discriminatory legislation seeking to ban Pride Parades. 

23. Mai 2025

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Addio, Rule of Law?

Fears are spreading that Italy, too, may be joining the club of EU Member States dismantling the rule of law. In this post, I will discuss three episodes that indeed lay bare a set of enduring constitutional tensions: the “Striano gate”; the “Paragon affair”; and the enactment of a Security Decree. While the actors involved are not the same in each story, the constitutional stakes are analogous: the proper use of coercive powers in a democracy and the traditional dichotomy between freedom and state authority. So, are we witnessing early signs of democratic regression?

22. Mai 2025

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Poland’s Polarised Presidency

The first round of Poland’s presidential election has produced an inconclusive but politically charged outcome. With no candidate achieving an absolute majority, the second round will determine who succeeds Andrzej Duda in the Presidential Palace. This election marks yet another critical moment for Poland. In the short term, its outcome will be pivotal for the current government to deliver on promises concerning the rule of law, the judiciary, and more. In the longer term, winning the presidential race is a strategic stepping stone towards consolidating or reclaiming power.

22. Mai 2025

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A Threat to the Core

On May 13, 2025, just before midnight, a FIDESZ deputy tabled a new bill before the Hungarian Parliament. The bill seeks to enhance “sovereignty protection measures” by introducing sweeping transparency instruments targeting foreign-funded interference in Hungarian public life. These restrictions purposefully shrink civic space further, roll back protections of fundamental rights and impair the functioning of constitutional democracy in a retrogressive fashion. When adopted, Hungary’s constitutional order will fundamentally regress from the state that existed at the time of its accession to the European Union.

21. Mai 2025

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Text Messages, Transparency, and the Rule of Law

On 14 May 2025, the General Court of the EU ruled in favour of The New York Times in the much-awaited Pfizergate case, annulling the European Commission's decision to withhold the SMS text messages presumed to have been exchanged between EU Commission President von der Leyen and Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla. While presented as another case concerning document access, potentially illuminating the informal negotiation process behind COVID-19 vaccine contracts and the management and archive of texts and other instant messages, this judgment largely defies this expectation.

21. Mai 2025

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Legality Over Accountability?

On April 23, 2025, public prosecutors in Guatemala executed an arrest warrant against Luis Pacheco, the Deputy Energy Minister. This case is only the latest in a series of politically motivated prosecutions that place the Attorney General at the center of Guatemala’s democratic backsliding. She has systematically targeted journalists, public officials and civil society actors, undermining democracy, the rule of law, and fundamental rights. What can be done when legal mechanisms to hold public officials accountable are effectively blocked? When there are credible grounds to believe that a public official is abusing their mandate, accountability must take precedence in legal and political debate.

21. Mai 2025

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Whom Is Citizenship For?

On Thursday, May 15, the US Supreme Court heard oral arguments in “the birthright citizenship case.” Instead of deciding on the constitutionality of President Trump’s executive order (EO) banning birthright citizenship for certain classes of individuals, the Court is asked to decide whether lower courts exceeded their authority in placing a nation-wide injunction on the government’s order. But this doesn't make the decision any less significant.

16. Mai 2025

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Undoing the American Rechtsstaat

Donald Trump’s return to the forefront of U.S. politics brings an urgent constitutional question back into focus: Can the American administrative state survive another presidency driven by executive absolutism? Recent developments before the Supreme Court, especially in Trump v. U. S., suggest that long-standing norms and legal safeguards are under siege. This post explores how a second Trump term might exploit structural vulnerabilities in U.S. public law, with consequences that extend far beyond American borders.

16. Mai 2025

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