Articles for category: Focus

Rescue Package for Fundamental Rights: Comments by MICHAELA HAILBRONNER

The Daniel Thym and post). It thus constitutes a significant risk for the CJEU to take if it wants to preserve its authority. The bigger and more important the concerned country is, the less likely it is that the CJEU will take this risk. This necessary inconsistency in its application will lead to accusations of hypocrisy and further add to national outrage. It is also a mark against the Heidelberg-proposal that is not coincidentally made by German scholars who may justifiably feel safe from intervention of the CJEU. The best situation for the CJEU to risk an application of Reverse-Solange ... continue reading

17. April 2012

Rettungsschirm für Grundrechte: Anmerkungen von MATTIAS KUMM

Ungarns Ministerpräsident Victor Orban und die von ihm kontrollierte Regierungspartei Fidesz sind seit der letzten Parlamentswahl 2010, bei der sie 53% der Wählerstimmen aber 68% der Sitze im Parlament auf sich vereinen konnten, dabei, das ungarische Verfassungssystem neu auszurichten. Dabei etabliert die Regierungspartei die Kontrolle über die Gerichte und das Justizsystem, die Medien und das Wahlsystem und erlässt zudem Regeln, die sicherstellen, dass auch bei veränderten Mehrheiten in der Zukunft die politischen Entscheidungen der Regierung nicht rückgängig gemacht werden können (Jan-Werner Müller und Kim Lane Scheppele haben dazu überzeugende Beschreibungen geliefert). Diese Hinwendung zu einem autoritären Nationalismus sollte, wo immer ... continue reading

29. Februar 2012

Rescue Package for Fundamental Rights: Comments by MATTIAS KUMM

Hungarian Premier Victor Orban and his ruling party Fidesz, after having received 53% of the votes in the previous election but 68% of parliamentary seats, have transformed Hungarian institutions, effectively asserting and entrenching control over courts and the justice system, the media and the electoral system to align them with the interests of the ruling party (Jan-Werner Müller and Kim Lane Scheppele have provided compelling descriptions). This slide to authoritarianism should be a concern to constitutionalists, wherever it occurs, but it should be of special concern to EU citizens.

29. Februar 2012

Rescue Package for Fundamental Rights: Further Comments from PETER LINDSETH

It is a tribute to the thoughtfulness of the Heidelberg proposal that it has stimulated such a provocative exchange of views so far. It is quite obvious that, regardless of one’s position vis-à-vis the merits of ›reverse Solange‹, there is widely shared concern regarding the evolution of the Hungarian regime. Therefore, at least on an instrumental level, the debate is primarily over the proper balance between judicial and political approaches in challenging that evolution, a debate that the Heidelberg proposal has stimulated quite nicely. But on a deeper level—one of principle—the debate has been over the character of European integration ... continue reading

28. Februar 2012

Rescue Package for Fundamental Rights: Comments by WOJCIECH SADURSKI

The Hungarian debacle is both a challenge and an opportunity for the EU. It is a challenge, because for the first time the EU faces the situation of one of its member states so blatantly and clearly violating certain principles of democracy and human rights protection, taken for granted as part of the moral values upon which the EU is built. (The first time, because the »Haider affair«, often invoked in this context, cannot be seen as a precedent, for reasons mentioned below.) But it is also an opportunity. An opportunity for the EU to demonstrate that it takes its ... continue reading

24. Februar 2012