By many Germany is regarded as a model student when it comes to human rights protection. However, this expectation remains unfulfilled in the abortion context since contrary to recommendations by international organizations (e.g. by the World Health Organization, the European Commissioner for Human Rights or the United Nations Human Rights Committee), Germany still criminalizes and […]

Where there is democratic backsliding, it is perhaps unsurprising that vulnerable groups, such as trans people, face particularly significant threats to their rights. Important questions surround the legality of Hungary’s recent attack on trans rights, namely Art.33 of the ‘omnibus Bill’, but this post also turns to the bigger picture of the EU’s management of […]

There seems to be a belief – especially persistent among some EU legal scholars – that even the largest political problems can be solved through the law. It suggests that any balance of authority and legitimacy between the EU and the Member States is, in fact, a mere technicality of institutional configuration, and a mere […]

Our 22 April post on the Verfassungblog about Viktor Orbán’s state of emergency generated a thoughtful reply from Dr. Dániel Karsai, a well-respected Hungarian lawyer.   We appreciate the chance to respond to his criticisms, alleging that we made some factual errors about the operation of Hungarian law. One of these mistakes is that, as he correctly notes, […]

Professor Christophe Hillion has published a stimulating and provocative blogpost suggesting that the Polish and Hungarian governments’ persistent refusal to observe the European Union’s (EU) key constitutional values can ‘arguably’ be interpreted as expressing their will to no longer apply the EU Treaties, and therefore as a notification of an intention to withdraw from the EU under Article […]