Thema: Demokratie & Institutionen

Verfassungsrechtliche Rahmenbedingungen für demokratische Regierungsführung, Gewaltenteilung, institutionelles Design und demokratische Prozesse. Umfasst die verfassungsrechtlichen Strukturen für Legislative, Exekutive und Judikative, Wahlsysteme, Föderalismus und verfassungsrechtliche Mechanismen demokratischer Rechenschaftspflicht.

The ECtHR Steps into the Ring

For the last two years, the fight for safeguarding the principle of the rule of law in Poland has been dominated by the ECJ’s case law. During this, the Strasbourg Court has mostly been sitting in the bleachers. Yet, with its Xero Flor judgment of 7 May, it strapped on its gloves and stepped into the ring. It concluded that the Polish Constitutional Tribunal, in its current composition, cannot be seen as a tribunal established by law. The decision will undoubtedly have major political and legal consequences.

10. Mai 2021

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What Should and What Will Happen After Xero Flor

On 7 May 2021, the European Court of Human Rights issued a judgment in a case concerning irregularities in the personal composition of the Polish Constitutional Tribunal. The ECtHR found a violation of “the right to a tribunal established by law” due to fact that the decision on the discontinuation of the proceedings concerning a constitutional complaint filed by a Polish company was issued by the Constitutional Tribunal with the participation of a person who was unlawfully elected to the position of judge. The said judgment is the first ruling of an international body finding that the irregularities in the functioning of the Polish Constitutional Tribunal violate international law.

9. Mai 2021

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Klimaschutz aus Karlsruhe

Das Bundesverfassungsgericht fordert in seinem historischen Klima-Beschluss, über 2031 hinaus zu definieren, wie Emissionen zu reduzieren sind. Die Pointe dieser Konstruktion liegt darin, dass der Gesetzgeber hier nicht nur punktuelle Änderungen für den Zeitraum ab 2031 vornehmen kann, ohne mit anderen Vorgaben Karlsruhes in Konflikt zu geraten.

5. Mai 2021

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Das ist Alles von der Kunstfreiheit gedeckt

Ein Ende März veröffentlichter Song des Rappers Danger Dan und eine darauf bezogene schriftliche Anfrage des Bundestagsabgeorndeten Frank Pasemann aktualisieren das Thema „Kulturkampf von Rechts“ im Kontext der staatlichen Kulturförderung. Die AfD verfolgt nämlich eine gefährliche Strategie, die nicht nur die geförderten Künstler:innen sondern auch die staatliche Kulturförderung systematisch diskreditieren soll.

3. Mai 2021

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Democracy and the Global Pandemic

What’s the future of the free world? What does the ‘free world’ even mean? Recent reports from leading democracy assessment bodies depict a shrinking democratic atlas that is more fragmented than it has been for decades after a steep decline in every world region.

1. Mai 2021

After Orbán

With a view to the 2022 elections, there is a serious contradiction in Hungarian public opinion: There should be a regime change away from Orbán's Fidesz, but the Basic Law, which they have undermined and weaponized, should not be touched. This will not work. In any case, it is necessary to get rid of the present Hungarian constitution.

29. April 2021

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How the EU is Becoming a Rule-of-Law-less Union of States

The most recent attempt by Poland's executive to undermine the very foundations of the Union legal order speaks volumes about how far the politics of resentment have come since 2015. With the Constitutional Tribunal about to hand the government its desired excuse to ignore interim measures of the Court of Justice of the European Union, a point of no return might have been reached. This new phase sees the dismantling of the rule of law on the domestic front being reinforced, aided and abetted now by the legitimizing inaction and/or spineless bargaining at … the supranational level. The EU through its institutions is playing the game according to the rules dictated by the smart autocrats.

28. April 2021

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Bad Tandem

With its ruling of 15 April 2021, the Polish Constitutional Tribunal willingly accepts the role of substitute lawmaker. The result is an inelegant, clumsy judgment that creates more problems than it solves. The Constitutional Court as the executor of the parliamentary majority destroys not only its reputation but also the purpose of the negative legislator. In the case of the Commissioner for Human Rights, the solution of a political problem is once again transferred to the Constitutional Court.

27. April 2021

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A Securitarian Solange

There is sigh of relief across Europe after the BVerfG has rejected the injunction order by the plaintiffs against the Own Resources Decision. But a decision by the French Conseil d’Etat taken on the same day might be the far more important political decision. Indeed, the French Court goes further than the BVerfG by openly resisting the application of EU law. In this case, the French Government will indeed reject EU law for an extended (and potentially unlimited) period of time.

25. April 2021

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The Conseil d’Etat refuses to follow the Pied Piper of Karlsruhe

The Conseil d’Etat categorically rejected the proposal that the courts of the member states, in particular their supreme (or constitutional) courts, would be entitled to review an "ultra vires" of the European institutions. The wording of the judgment is an implicit acknowledgement that there is a monopoly of the EU Court of Justice in the authentic interpretation of the Treaty - unlike the German Federal Constitutional Court in the Weiss case and the doctrine of constitutional identity and protection of national security.

24. April 2021

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