Up for Debate

“We made a lot of mistakes. They happen. And then you correct.”

Michael Ignatieff
Michael Ignatieff

Human Rights have had a hard time in Europe lately. In some countries – particularly in the UK, where you have lived and taught for a long time – the very concept of transnational human rights is met with downright hostility in parts of the public sphere. Why is that? Why has the relation between human rights and some nation states so deteriorated? The deterioration in Britain is actually a very old story. That is the deep resistance in parliamentary democracies to constitutionalized rights. The common law traditions are very hostile to something which continental systems take for granted, which more ...

Constitutional Renewal in Turkey: Some Questions Concerning Constitutional Theory

Ali Acar
Ali Acar

Turkey is currently undergoing a process of drafting a new constitution. The lack of legitimacy of the present, 1982, constitution, which was originated from the 1980 military coup d’état, renders adoption of a new contitution necessary in the public opinion. There are high public expectations for the new constitution in terms of assuring democratic standards. The process for the new constitution officially started on 19th October, 2011. In order to carry out the task of drafting, a parliamentary committee of constitutional reconciliation was established. The committee is composed of an equal number (three) members from each of the four political more ...

 Focus  Hungary: Taking action

The Crisis of Democracy in Hungary and Romania – Learning from Weimar?

Edward Kanterian
Edward Kanterian

Hungary’s political development under the Orbán government is by now a familiar topic. In April Barroso confirmed the European Commission’s concern that Hungary’s new constitution infringe EU legislation and the rule of law. Indeed, some commentators speak of ‘the corrosion of constitutional democracy’ or even a possible dictatorship in the EU. Romania is another problematic case. Its slide towards authoritarianism has not been (yet) enshrined in a new constitution. But its 2012 political crisis has seen by some as a coup d’état, during which Ponta’s government aimed at removing all checks and balances on its power to impeach President Băsescu. more ...

Discourse Theory and International Law: An Interview with Jürgen Habermas

Armin von Bogdandy, Jürgen Habermas
Armin von Bogdandy

AvB: Dear Professor Habermas, we have had four days of intense discussions on international order based on your landmark book Between Facts and Norms. On that basis, I want to ask you some questions that might be of interest to the members of the European Society of International Law. Your writings on international order usually contain two main parts. One part consists of reconstructions of such important concepts as sovereignty, human rights or constitutionalism. The other part consists of policy proposals, for example a certain reform of the Security Council or the General Assembly. Some readers might be puzzled to more ...

 Focus  Hungary: Taking action

The Hungarian Dilemma from a Pluralist Perspective

Matej Avbelj
Matej Avbelj

The constitutional and political developments in Hungary in the last few years have stirred a lot of controversies and also raised significant academic attention. This blog has provided not only a wonderful forum for an exchange of different views, but it has also produced original and thought-provoking proposals for tackling the Hungarian problem. However, the “reverse Solange” idea, the call for the establishment of a special Copenhagen Commission, for a straightforward supremacy of the Charter and other insightful proposals, all appear to be addressing the Hungarian dilemma from within the constitutional register. This is, of course, a legitimate choice, but more ...

The Politics of Space: Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum

Philip Liste
Philip Liste

Law is a ‘politics of space.’ The last week’s Supreme Court decision in ‘Kiobel’ significantly cuts the possibilities to sue human rights violators before courts in the United States, particularly when the relevant conduct occurred on the territory of a foreign sovereign. The decision builds upon a highly territorialized notion of law and points to what may be called a ‘nationalization’ of international law—with repercussions for the transnational law of public and private global governance. In the Kiobel case transnational oil corporations (Royal Dutch Petroleum/Shell) were accused of having aided and abetted in massive violations of human rights in Nigeria, more ...

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