Articles for tag: Sanktionen, Strafrecht, Verhältnismäßigkeit

How a Boat Trip to Estonia Challenged the Foundations of the Finnish Sentencing System

In August 2015, a Finnish citizen embarked on a tour from Finland to Estonia and back on a pleasure boat. The private boat trip quickly evolved into a matter of great significance. His journey not only challenged the foundations of the Finnish sentencing system but also shed new light on the requirements of proportionality that EU law may impose on national sentencing systems more broadly. The boatman was fined for not carrying his passport. He contested the penal order, and the case was heard by the district court before being escalated to the Supreme Court of Finland. The Supreme Court sought a preliminary ruling from the European Court of Justice (ECJ), which delivered a verdict that struck at the very core of the Finnish sentencing system.

23. August 2023

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The Folly of the Israeli Government in Restricting Reasonableness

On Monday, July 24, the Israeli legislature passed a constitutional amendment that would constrain the courts’ ability to use the reasonableness doctrine. The reasonableness doctrine is a common law doctrine developed by the Israeli courts to review executive decisions. Without the reasonableness doctrine, Israel is more conflicted than ever, and vulnerable to the spread of the scourge of corruption. The government shot itself in the foot both domestically and internationally.

26. Juli 2023

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An Unreasonable Amendment

Amidst massive protests taking place in Jerusalem and throughout the country, on July 24th the Knesset (Israeli parliament) passed  Amendment Number 3 to Basic Law: The Judiciary, curtailing the power of Israel’s Supreme Court. The amendment determines that no court, including the Supreme Court seating as the High Court of Justice, may engage with and/or pass judgment on the reasonableness of any “decision” of the government, the prime minister, or any minister; nor may a court give an order on the said matter. The coalition government’s choice to go ahead with the legislation notwithstanding the internal and external pressures may now only deepen the multi-layered crisis the country has been in since January.

24. Juli 2023

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Did Israel Lose its Sanity?

Israel is in the midst of an acute struggle over its constitutional identity. We are witnessing a government adamant about revolutionizing Israel’s constitution (“Basic Laws”), which may typically be amended by a simple majority of the legislature and is thus prey to the whims of an extreme government. The most recent move on the government’s agenda, passing a constitutional amendment that would severely restrict the reasonableness doctrine, would bring Israel closer to the brink of constitutional chaos. In this blog, I explain the theoretical arguments in favor and against the proposal and lay out the implications, should this proposal go through, given the government’s true, concerning motivations that are already evident on the grounds.

12. Juli 2023

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Verhältnismäßigkeit, Normenklarheit und § 129 StGB

Der Anwendungsbereich von § 129 StGB wirft mehr Fragen auf, als er klare Antworten gibt; dabei kreist die strafrechtliche Diskussion erkennbar um das „Ob“ und „Wie“ der Begrenzung eines zu weit geratenen oder jedenfalls als zu weit empfundenen Tatbestands. Daraus resultiert offenbar auch, dass die Frage, inwieweit die Unterbrechung von Routinen und täglichen Abläufen durch Aktionen der „Letzten Generation“ sich unter diese Norm subsumieren lässt, allgemein als offen angesehen wird. Schon diese Gegebenheiten legen jedoch nahe, dass es geboten ist, den gordischen Knoten strafrechtsdogmatischer Erwägungen mit dem scharfen Schwert des Verfassungsrechts zu durchschneiden: § 129 StGB ist in seiner derzeitigen Form verfassungswidrig!

26. Mai 2023

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„Like Handing My Whole Life Over“

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On 16 February 2023, the German Federal Administrative Court (BVerwG) ruled that the practice of regularly analysing data carriers, including mobile phones, by the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) when registering asylum applicants is illegal (BVerwG 1 C 19.21). The judgement arrives after the Gesellschaft für Freiheitsrechte’s (GFF) efforts to reveal this practice’s details and take legal action against its use in the asylum procedure. In this post, we briefly overview this practice and analyse this judgement and its implications. We argue that although this judgement represents an important victory for asylum seekers’ and refugees’ data protection and privacy, some controversial aspects of this practice still require clarification.

28. Februar 2023

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Verhältnismäßig politisch

Mit Urteil vom 15. Juni 2022 hat der Zweite Senat des Bundesverfassungsgerichts festgestellt, dass die Äußerungen der Bundeskanzlerin Angela Merkel, die sie im Rahmen einer Südafrikareise anlässlich der Wahl Thomas Kemmerichs zum Ministerpräsidenten in Thüringen tätigte, sowie deren anschließende Veröffentlichung auf der Webseite des Bundeskanzleramts gegen die Chancengleichheit der politischen Parteien verstoßen. In der Entscheidung nimmt der Senat nicht nur eine administrative Perspektive auf Regierungshandeln ein, sondern weitet seine Anwendung von Verhältnismäßigkeitsmaßstäben auf staatsorganisationsrechtliche Konstellationen weiter aus. Er entfernt sich damit weiter von einer Berücksichtigung der politischen Dimension des Regierungshandelns.

16. Juni 2022

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Property, Proportionality, and Marginality

On 31 January 2022, the Irish Supreme Court delivered a landmark judgment that collapsed, at least in respect of remedies, a previously rigidly-drawn distinction between the private law rights and the public law obligations of housing authorities. The judgment breaks important new ground in emphasising the underprivileged and marginalised status of the Travelling community, and furthermore, in identifying that status as a factor that could weigh against the granting of an injunctive remedy.

4. Februar 2022

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