Articles for category: Regionen

Dodik’s Defiant Secessionist Constitution

The new Draft Constitution, passed by the National Assembly of Republika Srpska on March 13, 2025, represents the culmination of the tensions between the sub-national entity and the central government of BiH. The Draft Constitution is more than an attempt to shield Republika Srpska President Milorad Dodik from criminal responsibility in light of his active arrest warrant. Instead, the sweeping changes introduced in the Draft Constitution mark one of the most drastic attempts to date to use legal reform to defy the constitutional order and institutions of BiH.

8. April 2025

, , ,

The Tipping Point in BiH’s Constitutional Struggle

On 26 February, the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina sentenced the President of the Republic of Srpska, Milorad Dodik, to one year in prison, with an additional six-year prohibition from holding office. Dodik was found guilty of failing to comply with the decisions of the High Representative in BiH, the office instituted in Annex 10 of the Dayton Peace Agreement. The verdict marks the conclusion of the ongoing tensions between Milorad Dodik and the Office of HR, reflecting broader calls of the former for a return to the “original Dayton”.

8. April 2025

, , , ,

Kreative Kassenführung à la Karlsruhe?

Nach den Sondervermögen nun ein Sondervotum: Das BVerfG bestätigte die Verfassungskonformität des sogenannten Solidaritätszuschlags, Richterin Wallrabenstein hält den „Kontrollanspruch des Senats darüber, ob vom Gesetzgeber angeführte Finanzbedarfe (fort)bestehen, [...] für verfehlt.“ Entscheidung und Sondervotum verdeutlichen ein grundlegendes Dilemma der „gespenstischen“ deutschen Finanzverfassungspolitik: Ihr zugleich überkonstitutionalisierter und erratischer Charakter macht sie störrisch gegenüber den globalen Umbrüchen der finanz- und geopolitischen Ökonomie, verführt genau darum aber diverse Interessenten zu verfassungsrechtlich innovativen Instrumentalisierungen.

8. April 2025

, , , , ,

Why Recognizing the Right to a Healthy Environment Would Strengthen the Environmental Human Rights Framework under the European Convention on Human Rights

The ECtHR lacks a mandate for general measures aimed at redressing or preventing environmental harm as such. Only the introduction of the environment as the object of human rights protection, through the Right to a Healthy Environment, could trigger the necessary conceptual shift and legitimise the Court and the CoE Committee of Ministers to require member States to take measures such as mitigation of environmental risks and ecological redress.

7. April 2025

, , , ,

Enforcing the Law of Democracy

It was a political bombshell. On Monday, 31 March 2025, Marine Le Pen, leader of the far-right party Rassemblement National (National Rally) in France, was convicted of misappropriation of public funds in the so-called “parliamentary assistants” case. The judgment is marked by an unusual degree of judicial creativity, particularly in its underlying conception of democracy, which may be understood through the lens of militant democracy. Although it does not constitute a political judgment in the traditional, partisan sense, its constitutional and symbolic significance is substantial—and the backlash it has provoked against the judiciary is a cause for concern.

7. April 2025

, , , ,

Fake oder Fiktion?

KI trennt die Stimme von der Zunge, das Gesicht vom Körper und macht sie zu beweglichen Instrumenten in den Händen anderer. Unsere digitalen Replikate können in lebensechten und doch völlig künstlichen Szenarien eingesetzt werden – sei es in ausgeklügelten Täuschungen oder offen fiktiven Inszenierungen. Beides wird gemeinhin als „Deepfake“ bezeichnet. Nun fordert eine Gruppe von Künstlern ihr generelles Verbot. Das würde zwar Missbrauchsgefahren reduzieren, aber auch den künstlerischen Einsatz der neuen Technik übermäßig stark einschränken. Denn Deepfakes genießen als Kunstwerke den Schutz der Kunstfreiheit.

7. April 2025

, , ,

Öffentlichkeitsarbeit als Verfassungsschutz

Zum Schutz der Verfassung dürfen Ministerpräsidentin und Landesregierung sich im Rahmen ihrer Öffentlichkeitsarbeit auch gegen verfassungsfeindliche Parteien positionieren – so urteilte das Landesverfassungsgericht Rheinland-Pfalz am 2. April 2025. Diese Neubestimmung und Eingrenzung des bislang streng verstandenen Neutralitätsgebots für staatliche Stellen und Amtsträger ist folgerichtig und könnte in der Auseinandersetzung mit der AfD große Bedeutung gewinnen.

7. April 2025

, , ,

Dictatorship of the Court vs. Will of the People?

On March 31st, French politician Marine Le Pen was convicted for embe-zzlement of public funds – and sentenced to ineligibility to run for office for five years, effective immediately. Since then, the RN incessantly gathered outrage, calling out the “tyranny of judges” and claiming that the verdict end-angers democracy. After a week, it’s time to take a closer look at “the scandal”. Spoiler alert: There is no “political death” that might be the fault of a court – if at all, it was a (easily avoidable) suicide.

7. April 2025

, , , , ,

Frozen Russian State Assets

In February 2022, a coalition of states including all G7 economies froze approximately US$300 billion in Russian state assets. Over the past three years, debates have been unfolding as to how these funds can be used to enforce Russia’s obligation to pay reparations to Ukraine. With the prospect of EU sanctions unravelling in July 2025, legal debates over countermeasures and state immunities appear to be ceding stage to concerns over whether CBR assets ought to be ring-fenced in a separate fund to keep it out of Russia’s reach.

4. April 2025

, ,