Articles for category: Focus

Killing Locally or Killing Globally

The pandemic status is also a political exercise and a way to phrase a crisis according to political interests. As long as some diseases do not reach a pandemic level, they would not elicit the immediate financial help and international cooperation, which has at least been promised (if not delivered) during COVID.

Webinar: Beyond the State – Global Health Governance

Amid contention that global governance was unprepared and incapacitated in its response to the COVID-19 pandemic, this November, a special session of the World Health Assembly will convene to discuss a potential international instrument on pandemic preparedness and response. Marking the launch of the 'International Pandemic Lawmaking: Conceptual and Practical Issues' Symposium, this webinar will bring together leading scholars to critically discuss cross-cutting themes of the Symposium, and key points of contention and recommendation for the future of global pandemic governance.

Governance Needs for Pandemic Preparedness and Response (PPR)

The COVID-19 pandemic has been characterized by mistrust in science, the manipulation of science for political purposes, the “infodemic” of mis- and disinformation, and a repeated failure to base policy decisions on scientific findings. The crisis of confidence in scientific analysis is paradoxical and disquieting, particularly in light of increasing international regulation to manage acute or systemic risks and its reliance on science.

International Pandemic Lawmaking

The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has brought global health structures into sharp relief: it exposed the gross inequalities and inequities of health care access, as well as the symbiosis between human rights, health care, politics, economics, and the law. This symposium, “International Pandemic Lawmaking: Conceptual and Practical Issues,” was convened with two primary aims: to shed light on the inequities and imbalances exposed by global pandemic response, and to advocate recommendations on which principles should guide the framing and drafting of a potential international instrument on pandemic preparedness and response.

Klimaschutz oder Sozialstaat?

Die Entscheidung des Bundesverfassungsgerichts zum Klimaschutz vom 24. März 2021 hat der Bundestag mit Gesetzesbeschluss vom 24. Juni 2021 mit dem Ziel umgesetzt, den monierten verfassungswidrigen Zustand zu beseitigen. Parallel zur Umsetzung nimmt eine Debatte über die soziale Dimension des Klimaschutzes Fahrt auf: Der soziale Ausgleich müsse beim Klimaschutz mit bedacht werden.

So that the Name Hungarian Regain its Dignity

We believe that the replacement of the Fundamental Law is necessary, with a rule of law constitution that restores freedom. The new document should be one created by a democratic constituent power according to newly enacted rules, making every effort to avoid civil war and its usually accompanying violence. In its process of drafting the role of the 1989 round table can be a model, even if we cannot count on the acceptance of its new constitutional draft by 2/3 of the parliament elected in 2022.

»Elfes« Revisited?

So überzeugend der Klimabeschluss des BVerfG im Hinblick auf die strukturelle Koppelung der planetaren Grenzen in Form des 1,5-2 Grad-Ziels mit Art. 20a GG im Ergebnis ist, so sehr wirft doch der grundrechtliche Weg dahin in rechtsdogmatischer Hinsicht viele Fragen auf. Ich konzentriere mich in diesem Beitrag auf die Frage, ob der Erste Senat die berühmte, aber zugleich auch umstrittene „Elfes“-Konstruktion fruchtbar macht und in diesem Rahmen einen im Hinblick auf die Grundrechtsdogmatik tragfähigen und zukunftsweisenden Weg beschritten hat.

Administrierte Freiheitschancen

Klimaneutralität als alternativloses Ziel politischen Handelns hat jetzt das höchstrichterliche Plazet. Zugleich befördert die neue intergenerationale Vorwirkungsdogmatik einen klimapolitischen Unilateralismus, der so manche ökonomische Binsenweisheit in den Wind schlägt: Trittbrettfahren und carbon leakage werden bei unilateralem Vorpreschen noch für klimapolitische Ernüchterung sorgen.