Wem gehört mein digitaler Körper?
In den letzten Wochen haben dunkle digitale Zwillinge das Recht herausgefordert. Mit „Deepfakes“ degradieren Menschen andere Menschen mithilfe von Künstlicher Intelligenz zu bloßen Objekten abgründiger, zumeist männlicher Gewaltfantasien. In dieser dunklen digitalen Welt lösen sich die Körpergrenzen immer weiter auf. Es ist an der Zeit, das Schutzgut „Körper“ grundlegend neu zu denken und auch auf den digitalen Körper auszuweiten.
Continue reading >>
After the War in Iran
The war in Iran and the illegal attacks on the leadership of the religious and military regime indicate a desire to change the political system from outside. Yet the road to a meaningful change lies elsewhere. The beginning of the ceasefire, even temporary, encourages to think about the day after the war. Any reform scenario for Iran that limits itself to macroeconomic stabilization misses the core of the problem. What is needed is not radical liberalization, American style reforms, but a gradual sequenced transition toward a social market economy.
Continue reading >>
A Bad Bet for Judicial Vetting
In 2022, Moldova launched an ambitious judicial vetting process to fight corruption in the justice system. To that end, it created special commissions tasked with reviewing the integrity of members of judicial self-governing bodies, as well as senior judges and prosecutors. Because such bodies exercise far-reaching powers over judicial careers and discipline, their own independence is crucial. This independence is now at stake: the ruling majority in Parliament lowered the threshold for appointing members to a simple majority – thereby risking the legitimacy of the vetting process itself.
Continue reading >>
Judging the Judges
On 12 March 2026, Korea’s new crime of “legal distortion” (법왜곡죄) entered into force. Judges and prosecutors who intentionally misapply the law to benefit or harm another person now face up to ten years’ imprisonment and suspension of their professional qualifications. The reform comes at a time of fragile public confidence in the judiciary: recent surveys show that trust is shallow and particularly low among younger generations. Yet this remedy risks deepening the very crisis it purports to address.
Continue reading >>
Winning an Election Doesn’t Give the Right to Disobey
Barbara Zeller argued on this blog that the way of re-liberalizing the Hungarian democracy is disobeying its Fundamental Law. She finds constitutional disobedience not only justified, but even legally required. I disagree. Disobeying the Constitution is neither politically opportune nor legally permissible. In a democratic society it might even be counter-productive and, as such, dangerous. To overcome the biggest challenge of the incoming government – dealing with the politically packed institutions – I propose cooperation, continuance, and reform rather than disobedience.
Continue reading >>
Verordnete Werte
Der Europäische Gerichtshof hat am 21. April 2026 ein ungarisches Gesetz für unionsrechtswidrig erklärt, das in die Rechte nicht-heterosexueller Menschen eingreift. Erstmals bejaht das Gericht einen eigenständigen Verstoß gegen Art. 2 EUV, eine Norm, die die Werte aufzählt, auf denen die Union ruht. Damit baut das Gericht die Reichweite seiner Wertejudikatur erheblich aus und verschiebt die Statik des europäischen Verfassungsverbunds zulasten der Mitgliedstaaten. Das kann weder dogmatisch noch legitimatorisch überzeugen.
Continue reading >>A Second-Class Right
The Spanish Government has recently approved a project for a constitutional amendment to protect the right to a voluntary termination of pregnancy (abortion). This amendment would add a new paragraph to Article 43, on the right to healthcare. While the discussion of constitutional reform is welcome, the current amendment falls short of its promises.
Continue reading >>
Eine verkorkste Norm
Ende 2025 kehrte mit § 3 Abs. 2 Wehrpflichtgesetz eine alte Regel zurück: Auslandsreisen von Wehrpflichtigen sind wieder genehmigungspflichtig. Die hastig nachgeschobene „allgemeine Ausnahme“ aus dem Bundesverteidigungsministerium mag Reisepläne junger Männer vorerst gerettet haben, klärt aber nicht, wozu es diese Genehmigungspflicht eigentlich braucht. Die Regelung besteht, ohne dass ihre Funktion je überzeugend geklärt worden wäre. Aus rechtshistorischer Perspektive überrascht das kaum.
Continue reading >>Swastika in the Polish Parliament
In a recent incident in the Polish Parliament, an extreme right-wing MP, Konrad Berkowicz, displayed a modified Israeli flag bearing a swastika in place of the Star of David while accusing Israel of committing genocide. The ECHR protects severe criticism of governments, allegations of international crimes, and speech that “shocks, offends or disturbs”. Yet the question is whether the use of a Nazi symbol remains protected political expression in a constitutional order shaped by the legacy of Nazism and the Holocaust. In our view, it does not.
Continue reading >>
The Question of Democracy Before the Inter-American Court
The Inter-American Court of Human Rights has been asked a question that could reshape the relationship between democracy and human rights in the Americas. In 2024, Guatemala submitted a request for an Advisory Opinion on the legal status of democracy under the Inter-American human rights system, in a regional context marked by democratic backsliding, institutional fragility, and growing tensions between elected governments and judicial institutions. The issue is not simply how to define democracy, but how democracy operates within the Inter-American human rights system and what obligations States have in relation to it.
Continue reading >>
CURRENT DEBATES
Reflexive Globalisation and the Law
In October 2025, a new Centre for Advanced Studies was established at the Humboldt University of Berlin’s Law Faculty. Named “Reflexive Globalisation and the Law: Colonial Legacies and their Implications in the 21st Century” (RefLex), the Centre explores the premise that the globalisation of law and legal discourse has entered a reflexive phase: one in which law and knowledge production about law are less and less one-directional exports from or within the Global North but rather dynamic, multidirectional exchanges that confront colonial legacies, epistemic hierarchies, and enduring asymmetries of power. This blog symposium, co-edited by Philipp Dann, Florian Jeßberger, and Kalika Mehta, aims to present and extend these interactions to a broader, accessible dialogue with a wider community beyond the university setting. Featuring contributions from a range of different disciplines and regions, the symposium serves as a public prelude to its official launch, which can be watched live here.
Read all articles >>Wem gehört die Wissenschaft?
Wem gehört die Wissenschaft – und wem sollte sie gehören? Obwohl Wissen als öffentliches Gut prinzipiell unbegrenzt teilbar ist, wird der Zugang zu wissenschaftlichen Publikationen und Infrastrukturen durch ökonomische und rechtliche Strukturen beschränkt. Zwischen kommerziellen Verlagsmodellen, staatlicher Finanzierung und Community-getragenen Open-Access-Initiativen stellen sich grundlegende Fragen nach Eigentum, Verantwortung und Unabhängigkeit wissenschaftlicher Arbeit. Das Blog-Symposium „Wem gehört die Wissenschaft?“ greift diese Frage auf und beleuchtet Facetten der Organisation von Wissenschaft als Gemeingut, der Eigentums- und Machtverhältnisse im Publikationssystem und der Bedingungen offener und freier Wissensproduktion.
Read all articles >>ADVERTISEMENT
Volume 7,Issue 2
July 2025
JUS COGENS
-
Killing Hitler Word by Word: The Oath as Apocalyptic Lawmaking
GREGOR NOLL
-
Adjudicating Climate Protest as a Tool of Modern Republicanism
DMITRII KUZNETSOV
OUR LATEST PUBLICATION
Jakob Gašperin Wischhoff, Till Stadtbäumer (eds.)
In Good Faith: Freedom of Religion under Article 10 of the EU Charter
Freedom of religion, its interaction with the prohibition of discrimination, and the self-determination of churches are embedded in a complex national and European constitutional framework and remain as pertinent and contested as ever. This edited volume examines the latest significant developments from an EU perspective, placing freedom of religion at the centre of analysis and critically assessing its operationalisation and interpretation in light of the EU Charter.
Discover the Open Access digital edition here.
PROJECTS
VB Security and Crime
In cooperation with:
VB Security and Crime is a cooperation of the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Crime, Security and Law (MPI-CSL) and the Verfassungsblog in the areas of public security law and criminal law. The MPI-CSL Institute is a member of the Max Planck Law network.
Das Justiz-Projekt
Weltweit gerät die unabhängige und unparteiische Justiz unter den Druck des autoritären Populismus.
Wie verwundbar ist die rechtsprechende Gewalt in Deutschland – im Bund und in den Ländern?
VB Security and Crime
In cooperation with:
VB Security and Crime is a cooperation of the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Crime, Security and Law (MPI-CSL) and the Verfassungsblog in the areas of public security law and criminal law. The MPI-CSL Institute is a member of the Max Planck Law network.
EDITORIAL
Cheers, Dear Friends!
Viktor Orbán, as it turns out, can indeed be voted out. And to that I raise my glass of champagne. Cheers, dear friends! The haunting is over – this particular haunting, at any rate. And yet: how much we learned from it and through it and about it. How many concepts were coined in its study. What is populism? That, right there, what they were doing in Hungary.
Continue reading >>Prost, ihr Lieben!
Viktor Orbán kann man, wie sich herausstellt, sehr wohl abwählen. Und darauf erhebe ich mein Glas. Prost, ihr Lieben! Der Spuk hat ein Ende, dieser spezielle Spuk jedenfalls. Was haben wir nicht alles gelernt von und durch und über ihn. Was haben wir nicht alles begriffen. Was ist Populismus? Das da, was die in Ungarn machen.
Continue reading >>