Articles for category: Europa

Due Diligence Around the World

On 23 February 2022, the EU Commission released its draft Directive on Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence (CSDDD). It follows – and seemingly takes inspiration from – several national mandatory human rights and environmental due diligence (HREDD) laws, notably in France, (“LdV”) Germany (“GSCDDA”) and Norway (“Transparency Act”). It provides a strong legal basis and innovations to enhance corporate accountability, to strengthen stakeholder value and to create a European and possibly global standard for responsible and sustainable business conduct.

15. März 2022

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Über die Grenzen des Rechts

Der Angriffskrieg Putins gegen die Ukraine hat in den vergangenen Tagen eine Welle der Empathie und Solidarität ausgelöst. Die Reaktionen haben aber auch deutlich gemacht, dass es Hierarchien darin gibt, wem solche Empathie und Solidarität entgegengebracht wird – und wem eher nicht. Diese Hierarchien sind Ausdruck von strukturellen und institutionellen Rassismen. Das Recht hat in diesem Zusammenhang eine ambivalente Rolle, indem es zugleich rassistische Strukturen (re)produziert und dazu einlädt, eben diese zu hinterfragen und zu überwinden.

14. März 2022

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Sanctions for Abramovich, but Schröder Goes Scot-Free

What is the role of citizenship – Russian and European – in the context of the deployment and operation of the sanctions? The question is far from trivial. Indeed, effective rights-focused judicial review of such measures is very weak, allowing the matters of foreign policy and perceived political expediency and retribution to override core constitutional principles and guarantees of the European legal systems at all levels. Let us start with history, to understand what is going on and give it a legal assessment.

11. März 2022

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Sendeverbot durch Sanktionen

Die Europäische Union hat eine Reihe von Sanktionen gegen russische Staatsmedien erlassen. In normalen Zeiten wäre ein (quasi-)staatliches Verbot von Medien wohl erheblichen Einwänden ausgesetzt gewesen. Doch unter dem Eindruck der immer rücksichtsloseren Invasion Russlands in der Ukraine erhält die EU breite Zustimmung bei nur wenigen kritischen Stimmen. Trotzdem muss auf europäischer Ebene eine tragfähige und geeignete Rechtsgrundlage für den Kampf gegen staatliche Propaganda entwickelt werden. Statt auf das Sanktionsrecht sollte hierfür auf das Medienrecht gesetzt werden. Dafür sollte auf Unionsebene das Medienrecht nach deutschem Vorbild weiterentwickelt werden.

10. März 2022

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On the Brink of a New Refugee Crisis

The EU Council decision on temporary protection adopted on 4 March not only conveys a political message of solidarity with the Ukrainian people; it also reveals the awareness that the 2015 refugee crisis was mainly an administrative crisis and that, this time, a more pragmatic approach is required to prevent the national asylum systems from being overwhelmed. Moreover, a less hostile view of secondary movements seems to emerge, with potentially far-reaching consequences. At the same time, temporary protection is not a silver bullet for what is a complicated and long-lasting challenge.

10. März 2022

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Big Tech War Activism

The war in Ukraine is live. It’s not only live on CNN or Al Jazeera but it’s live on different social media platforms, for better and worse. In this context, Big Tech platforms are not neutral. Rather, along with their users, they are giving rise to a new wave of tech war activism, siding with Ukraine. While many of these initiatives may be well intended, this new form of tech activism raises questions about the role of social media in times of war.

10. März 2022

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»The Ever Closer Union among the Peoples of Europe« in Times of War

The war in Ukraine has brought a moment of the constitutional reckoning and the ultimate test of belonging for the Europeans. The ill-fated politics of appeasement and dialoguing with a criminal has come crushing down. Finally, Europe seems to take a more strategic and long-term view of its own politics at least when it comes to common foreign policy and defense. A true re-appraisal and reinvigoration of European ideals will however not be complete if the Union keeps looking the other way, dithering, procrastinating when its own axiological foundations are under attack by one of its own member states.

8. März 2022

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The EU’s »Ban« of RT and Sputnik

Denouncing Russian authorities‘ “muzzling“ of independent media and reiterating its support for media freedom and pluralism, the European Union banned two Russian media outlets in March 2022. This apparent contradiction between a statement of principle and concrete action can be resolved. While the ban can be legally justified as a measure designed to suppress “propaganda for war”, European institutions should not try to justify it by pointing to these outlets’ track record of “disinformation” or simply “propaganda”. To address legitimate questions of double standards that will come up in the wake of the inevitable whataboutism, it should be stressed that the Union’s measures differ decisively from any authoritarian censorship by virtue of the Union’s character as a community of law.

8. März 2022

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Temporary Protection for Ukrainians

One might have expected that the activation of the Temporary Protection Directive would witness a remake of the toxic disputes about ‘burden sharing’ following the mass influx of 2015/16. None of this happened, although the contents of the Implementing Decision is quite different from what many might think intuitively. Inter-state distribution keys or quotas give way to a simple allocation mechanism: ‘free choice’ is the surprise outcome of Thursday’s Council meeting.

5. März 2022

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Time for Military Integration in the EU?

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For decades, the EU’s security and defence policy was largely looked at as a theoretical piece in the overall puzzle of the Union’s external role. During the past week, however, the unthinkable happened, and European defence policy has taken a significant leap forward. This brings to fore questions about the legal nature of the security and mutual assistance provisions in the EU Treaties, including the relationship between aligned and non-aligned States in EU defence policy.

3. März 2022

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