Articles for category: AAA General

Elon Musk, the Systemic Risk

Elon Musk seems to many in Europe to symbolize the dawn of a digital dystopia. I argue, however, that this view may be incorrect in several respects. With the Digital Services Act (DSA) and its new “systemic tools,” the EU has an opportunity to address the technological roots of Musk’s powerful position in the digital sphere. In this context, Musk (potentially) using his platform (or AI) to intentionally influence the access, distribution, and presentation of information is “merely” a manifestation of risks that are already inherent in the systemic position of certain digital services.

7. Februar 2025

A Dangerous Departure

Governments from Argentina to the United States to Hungary and beyond are engaging in concerted efforts to assail and undermine sexual and reproductive rights that have long been understood as gendered interpretations of fundamental rights under international law. In this context, the recent decision by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in Beatriz v. El Salvador is a missed opportunity to consolidate the Court’s jurisprudence on sexual and reproductive health and rights and defend the legitimacy of international human rights law.

6. Februar 2025

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Small Fry

Last week, the oral hearings in the EU-UK Sandeel case were concluded before the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague. This marks the first time in which a dispute between the EU and UK under the 2021 Trade and Co-operation agreement reaches the stage of arbitration, testing the post-Brexit legal framework in a case where the UK’s regulatory autonomy to adopt unilateral measures for the protection of the marine environment is pitted against the EU vessels’ right to access and fish in British waters.

6. Februar 2025

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Voting from Abroad Ahead of Germany’s 2025 Snap Election

Over the past few weeks, several reports have appeared in German media on expected challenges with postal voting from abroad ahead of Germany’s snap election scheduled for 23 February 2025. For example, the recent case of a German citizen living in South Africa highlighted that ballot papers will be sent to registered postal voters only in the first week of February, whereas normally this is done six weeks ahead of election day. We suggest that countries should formally allow and facilitate postal voting for citizens living abroad via their country’s diplomatic missions and official courier services.

6. Februar 2025

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Ceci n’est pas un Ban?

On 19th January 2025, the ‘Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act’ became operative in the USA in respect of TikTok, routinely (but somehow deceptively) referred to as ‘TikTok ban’. I will not deal in detail here with the saga (which readers of this blog are already familiar with), but with the misalignment between legal form and political narrative: A vaguely formulated statute became a symbolical proxy for principled confrontation over the underlying values.

6. Februar 2025

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The Baltic Politics of Post-War Accountability for Russia

Will the Russian war against Ukraine prove to be a watershed moment for the implementation of international criminal law on the aggressor? This contribution focuses on the Baltic states’ accountability-seeking for Russia as the politics of deterrence by legal means and a struggle for historical justice.

5. Februar 2025

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America’s First Religious Public School?

On 24 January 2025, the US Supreme Court granted certiorari to a case that could fundamentally reshape the nature of public education in the United States by permitting public schools – so called charter schools – to become religious in character. However, this blog argues that this case is not merely about school choice or religious freedom, but rather reflects the culmination of “private disestablishment”— a legal phenomenon where entities that operate at the blurred boundary between public and private recast themselves as entirely private actors while performing public functions. By doing so, they secure public benefits—such as funding and regulatory advantages—without bearing the constitutional obligations, such as anti-discrimination mandates or religious neutrality, that typically constrain public institutions. 

5. Februar 2025

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Remembering Democracy

In the years following the brutal suppression of pro-democracy protests in Belarus in 2020 and 2021, a wave of politically engaged Belarusian artists — visual artists, musicians, filmmakers, poets and novelists — have been driven into exile. Scattered abroad, these artists not only use their work to reflect on the repression at home, but also seek new ways to keep the spirit of resistance alive.

4. Februar 2025

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The Habitats Directive as a Tool for Systemic Biodiversity Litigation

On 22 January 2025, the District Court of The Hague found the Netherlands in breach of the Habitats Directive and the Dutch nitrogen targets by failing to stop the deterioration of protected habitats and by failing to prioritise the most vulnerable habitats through its nitrogen targets. This blogpost provides an overview of the judgment and argues that the case enables a link between the location specific approach of EU nature protection and a systemic dimension and highlights the strength of the Habitats Directive. Conversely, it shows some limitations regarding the remedy and a missed opportunity to consider the longer-term and inter-generational impacts

4. Februar 2025

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Law, Coercion, and State Crime

On January 26, 2025, President Donald J. Trump announced via Truth Social retaliatory measures against Colombia following President Gustavo Petro’s refusal to allow US deportation flights. These included a 25% emergency tariff on Colombian imports, escalating to 50% within a week. The Trump administration’s use of unilateral economic sanctions on countries opposing US policies is part of a long history of imperial interventions. Sanctions are central to the colonial arsenal of economic statecraft, disproportionately targeting the Global South. I argue that sanctions should be recognized as a form of state crime due to their socially injurious effects.

4. Februar 2025

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