The odious debt doctrine was envisaged by the Russian jurist Alexander Sack as an exception to the passing rule of a debt in case of state and government succession. An analysis of the practice indicates that this exception was often accompanied by some equitable solution. Although the 1983 Vienna Convention did not acknowledge the doctrine, the equitable distribution of assets and liabilities as a method of settling disputes may allow an application of the doctrine in disguise. This equitable method of settling could come into play if the doctrine found application beyond the strict boundaries of state succession. Such a step would imply the formalization of the doctrine in national legislation, with the result that a loan agreement tainted with odiousness would be illegal and unenforceable. Nevertheless, in common law countries, the laws of which usually govern financial transactions, a claim for recovering what transferred under an illegal contract could be denied based on public policy considerations. This denial of restitution would refrain these countries, traditionally sensitive to creditors’ rights, from acknowledging the doctrine in their legal systems. To overcome this impasse, the formalization of the doctrine should include an equitable approach based on the benefit for the population. This equitable approach would reflect the practice of state and government succession on which the doctrine is usually grounded.
{"title":"The Odious Debt Doctrine: The Equitable Rule","authors":"Mauro Megliani","doi":"10.1017/glj.2024.21","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/glj.2024.21","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 The odious debt doctrine was envisaged by the Russian jurist Alexander Sack as an exception to the passing rule of a debt in case of state and government succession. An analysis of the practice indicates that this exception was often accompanied by some equitable solution. Although the 1983 Vienna Convention did not acknowledge the doctrine, the equitable distribution of assets and liabilities as a method of settling disputes may allow an application of the doctrine in disguise. This equitable method of settling could come into play if the doctrine found application beyond the strict boundaries of state succession. Such a step would imply the formalization of the doctrine in national legislation, with the result that a loan agreement tainted with odiousness would be illegal and unenforceable. Nevertheless, in common law countries, the laws of which usually govern financial transactions, a claim for recovering what transferred under an illegal contract could be denied based on public policy considerations. This denial of restitution would refrain these countries, traditionally sensitive to creditors’ rights, from acknowledging the doctrine in their legal systems. To overcome this impasse, the formalization of the doctrine should include an equitable approach based on the benefit for the population. This equitable approach would reflect the practice of state and government succession on which the doctrine is usually grounded.","PeriodicalId":503760,"journal":{"name":"German Law Journal","volume":"31 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-05-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141120847","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Crime and Sanctions: Beyond Sanctions as a Foreign Policy Tool – ERRATUM","authors":"Anton Moiseienko","doi":"10.1017/glj.2024.13","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/glj.2024.13","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":503760,"journal":{"name":"German Law Journal","volume":" 23","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-04-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140687358","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The absolute implementation of the originator control principle (‘absolute originator control’) allows the EU Member States’ national intelligence services to block the access of the European Parliament to confidential information necessary for the effective exercise of joint parliamentary scrutiny at Europol. This research paper will demonstrate that this is a flawed practice in need of urgent reform, since it violates some of the basic tenets of EU constitutional law enshrined in Article 13 TEU and Article 9 TEU. This legal problem is reframed with the help of trust theory, which reveals that absolute originator control causes the Union to be confronted with a constitutional dilemma that is irresolvable in the EU legal order: the Union is revealed to be a trustee to two trustors – the EU Member States and the EU citizens; to protect the interests of one trustor, the Union would necessarily have to betray the trust of the other trustor.
{"title":"Trust and the Exchange of EU Classified Information: The Example of Absolute Originator Control Impeding Joint Parliamentary Scrutiny at Europol","authors":"Sofiya Kartalova","doi":"10.1017/glj.2023.104","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/glj.2023.104","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 The absolute implementation of the originator control principle (‘absolute originator control’) allows the EU Member States’ national intelligence services to block the access of the European Parliament to confidential information necessary for the effective exercise of joint parliamentary scrutiny at Europol. This research paper will demonstrate that this is a flawed practice in need of urgent reform, since it violates some of the basic tenets of EU constitutional law enshrined in Article 13 TEU and Article 9 TEU. This legal problem is reframed with the help of trust theory, which reveals that absolute originator control causes the Union to be confronted with a constitutional dilemma that is irresolvable in the EU legal order: the Union is revealed to be a trustee to two trustors – the EU Member States and the EU citizens; to protect the interests of one trustor, the Union would necessarily have to betray the trust of the other trustor.","PeriodicalId":503760,"journal":{"name":"German Law Journal","volume":"48 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-04-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140739605","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article discusses a currently hypothetical, but increasingly more likely, situation where Article 7(2) TEU is activated against more than one backsliding Member State at the same time. To prevent the offending Member States from teaming up to block the sanction mechanism, an extension of the exclusion from voting in Article 354 TFEU beyond “the Member State in question” is likely to be considered by the CJEU. However, such a use of this mechanism is contrary to the effet utile of Article 7 TEU, if interpreted in the context of trust. This interdisciplinary study uses insights from trust theory to demonstrate that the outcome will inevitably be further distrust and fragmentation between the EU and its Member States. This is why Article 7(2) TEU is not meant to be (and ought not to be) used against more than one Member State at the same time in this manner. This impression is reinforced considering that the existing legal solutions for implementing the extension of the exclusion from voting under Article 354 TFEU violate general principles of EU law and will therefore cause further distrust and fragmentation.
{"title":"Trust and the Procedural Requirements of Article 7(2) TEU: When More than One Bad Apple Spoils the Barrel","authors":"Sofiya Kartalova","doi":"10.1017/glj.2023.118","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/glj.2023.118","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 This article discusses a currently hypothetical, but increasingly more likely, situation where Article 7(2) TEU is activated against more than one backsliding Member State at the same time. To prevent the offending Member States from teaming up to block the sanction mechanism, an extension of the exclusion from voting in Article 354 TFEU beyond “the Member State in question” is likely to be considered by the CJEU. However, such a use of this mechanism is contrary to the effet utile of Article 7 TEU, if interpreted in the context of trust. This interdisciplinary study uses insights from trust theory to demonstrate that the outcome will inevitably be further distrust and fragmentation between the EU and its Member States. This is why Article 7(2) TEU is not meant to be (and ought not to be) used against more than one Member State at the same time in this manner. This impression is reinforced considering that the existing legal solutions for implementing the extension of the exclusion from voting under Article 354 TFEU violate general principles of EU law and will therefore cause further distrust and fragmentation.","PeriodicalId":503760,"journal":{"name":"German Law Journal","volume":"29 8","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-04-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140738897","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Oleksandr Babikov, Valerii Bozhyk, Olena I. Bugera, Serhii H. Kyrenko, Maksym Viunyk
The purpose of the Article is to analyze and compare certain aspects which define the limits of permissible interference with a person's private life in the legislation of Ukraine and other countries of the world in terms of ensuring the balance of interests of participants in criminal proceedings during covert measures to obtain information related to interference with a person’s private life. The Article uses general scientific and special research methods, in particular comparative legal, scientific categories, definitions and approaches, formal dogmatic (legal), dialectical. On the basis of the conducted research, generalized conclusions were made regarding general trends in the field of reforming the legal regulation of special measures for covertly obtaining information, and ways of their improvement. The forms and methods of departmental, judicial, and public control over the covert activities of law enforcement agencies have been determined separately, and the influence of terrorist threats and military actions on ensuring the balance of interests of participants in criminal proceedings has been investigated. According to the results of the research, ways of solving problematic issues of the regulation of criminal procedural legislation have been determined in order to ensure the balance of the interests of the participants in criminal proceedings during the organization, conduct, recording, storage, and use of the results of covert information-gathering activities. A comparative analysis of the ways of solving a number of legal regulation issues in the field of the use of informal forms of obtaining information, the determination of different approaches to the separation of departmental, judicial, and public control is being carried out for the first time and will provide a comprehensive and systematic approach to the improvement of legislation in the specified field in the conditions of martial law or during anti-terrorist activities.
{"title":"Balancing Interests: Criminal Proceedings & Private Life Interference Under Martial Law in Ukraine","authors":"Oleksandr Babikov, Valerii Bozhyk, Olena I. Bugera, Serhii H. Kyrenko, Maksym Viunyk","doi":"10.1017/glj.2024.12","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/glj.2024.12","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 The purpose of the Article is to analyze and compare certain aspects which define the limits of permissible interference with a person's private life in the legislation of Ukraine and other countries of the world in terms of ensuring the balance of interests of participants in criminal proceedings during covert measures to obtain information related to interference with a person’s private life. The Article uses general scientific and special research methods, in particular comparative legal, scientific categories, definitions and approaches, formal dogmatic (legal), dialectical. On the basis of the conducted research, generalized conclusions were made regarding general trends in the field of reforming the legal regulation of special measures for covertly obtaining information, and ways of their improvement. The forms and methods of departmental, judicial, and public control over the covert activities of law enforcement agencies have been determined separately, and the influence of terrorist threats and military actions on ensuring the balance of interests of participants in criminal proceedings has been investigated. According to the results of the research, ways of solving problematic issues of the regulation of criminal procedural legislation have been determined in order to ensure the balance of the interests of the participants in criminal proceedings during the organization, conduct, recording, storage, and use of the results of covert information-gathering activities. A comparative analysis of the ways of solving a number of legal regulation issues in the field of the use of informal forms of obtaining information, the determination of different approaches to the separation of departmental, judicial, and public control is being carried out for the first time and will provide a comprehensive and systematic approach to the improvement of legislation in the specified field in the conditions of martial law or during anti-terrorist activities.","PeriodicalId":503760,"journal":{"name":"German Law Journal","volume":"634 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140749390","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article explores how the political ideal of data interacts with the legal entitlement of autonomy in the care of pregnant people guided by feminist theory and critical approaches to data. Using Scandinavian legislation and administrative practice, it analyses how the presence or absence of data, namely scientific evidence, interacts with pregnant people’s legal autonomy in healthcare. Data –particularly scientific evidence - is shown as something that is not neutral but open to interpretation and misappropriation. First, administrative complaints illustrate that not only a lack of scientific studies on pregnant people but also patriarchal attitudes have implications for care. Second, Scandinavian legislation authorizes the involuntary detention of pregnant drug users despite an absence of evidence supporting such drastic actions. Third, complaints bodies are found to frame injury to pregnant bodies as a natural consequence of birth, despite clear evidence as to the duties of healthcare professionals in preventing harm. A relational approach that sees the pregnant body and fetus as integrated though quintessentially unequal is needed. Evidence is not the only answer; an approach that recognizes the dignity of pregnant people must be central. This requires eliminating coercion, recognizing the pregnant patient as the decision maker in healthcare choices and prizing the birthing patient’s voice as a valuable data source.
{"title":"Deviating from the Norm? The Pregnant Body in Scandinavian Health Law","authors":"Katharina Ó Cathaoir","doi":"10.1017/glj.2024.11","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/glj.2024.11","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 This article explores how the political ideal of data interacts with the legal entitlement of autonomy in the care of pregnant people guided by feminist theory and critical approaches to data. Using Scandinavian legislation and administrative practice, it analyses how the presence or absence of data, namely scientific evidence, interacts with pregnant people’s legal autonomy in healthcare. Data –particularly scientific evidence - is shown as something that is not neutral but open to interpretation and misappropriation. First, administrative complaints illustrate that not only a lack of scientific studies on pregnant people but also patriarchal attitudes have implications for care. Second, Scandinavian legislation authorizes the involuntary detention of pregnant drug users despite an absence of evidence supporting such drastic actions. Third, complaints bodies are found to frame injury to pregnant bodies as a natural consequence of birth, despite clear evidence as to the duties of healthcare professionals in preventing harm. A relational approach that sees the pregnant body and fetus as integrated though quintessentially unequal is needed. Evidence is not the only answer; an approach that recognizes the dignity of pregnant people must be central. This requires eliminating coercion, recognizing the pregnant patient as the decision maker in healthcare choices and prizing the birthing patient’s voice as a valuable data source.","PeriodicalId":503760,"journal":{"name":"German Law Journal","volume":"276 ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140750052","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Fundamental rights to positive state action are costly. An allocation in favor of one individual rightsholder always results in lower allocations in favor of others. The dominant approach in fundamental rights doctrine assumes these conflicts can be resolved judicially by balancing competing rights and other public needs. In practice, carrying out an in-depth balancing in resource allocation cases proves challenging but constitutional courts developed different strategies and concepts to deal with costly rights. The European Court of Human Rights applies a “wide” margin of appreciation and requires that positive state obligations do “not impose an impossible or disproportionate burden on the authorities.” Following the German Federal Constitutional Court, several constitutional courts have applied a concept known as the “proviso of the possible.” The proviso of the possible constrains positive rights and results in a wide margin of discretion granted to political authorities. This article attempts to investigate the specific meaning of the “proviso of the possible” in the context of European fundamental rights law by comparing it against alternative doctrinal concepts. The investigation aims to identify common legal principles and methods to deal with fundamental rights conflicts over scarce public resources.
{"title":"Fundamental Rights and Limited Possibilities: The Proviso of the Possible in European Fundamental Rights Doctrine","authors":"Lino Munaretto","doi":"10.1017/glj.2023.114","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/glj.2023.114","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Fundamental rights to positive state action are costly. An allocation in favor of one individual rightsholder always results in lower allocations in favor of others. The dominant approach in fundamental rights doctrine assumes these conflicts can be resolved judicially by balancing competing rights and other public needs. In practice, carrying out an in-depth balancing in resource allocation cases proves challenging but constitutional courts developed different strategies and concepts to deal with costly rights. The European Court of Human Rights applies a “wide” margin of appreciation and requires that positive state obligations do “not impose an impossible or disproportionate burden on the authorities.” Following the German Federal Constitutional Court, several constitutional courts have applied a concept known as the “proviso of the possible.” The proviso of the possible constrains positive rights and results in a wide margin of discretion granted to political authorities. This article attempts to investigate the specific meaning of the “proviso of the possible” in the context of European fundamental rights law by comparing it against alternative doctrinal concepts. The investigation aims to identify common legal principles and methods to deal with fundamental rights conflicts over scarce public resources.","PeriodicalId":503760,"journal":{"name":"German Law Journal","volume":"124 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-03-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140380845","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
When we think about constitutions, we tend to see them predominantly through the normative lens of legality, forgetting about the social implications of constitutions and the lives thereof. And even when we do study them from a more socio–legal perspective, we usually associate them solely with the state. This understanding of constitutions is the legacy of not only a state–centric approach in legal science but also of an institutional approach, particularly in political science. It shapes our understanding of constitutions as legal regulations of an institutional framework of the state and the conduct of politics. Moreover, the liberal tradition compels us to see constitutions as tools to restrain the power of the state and ensure the rights and liberties of individuals; that is, as tools of the liberal rule of law. However, as I argue in this Article, constitutions are a very powerful, and potentially effective, way of shaping the collective identities of not only the state but also of the political people. Therefore, they should be understood not so much as factors of restriction but as mediums for the articulation of collective experiences, self–understanding, goals, dreams, and fears—in other words, articulations of collective imaginaries. For this purpose, I shall discuss in the first part of this Article the importance of conceptualizing the state and the political people as autopoietic organizational systems and the consequences of such conceptualization. That is, both the state and the political people are, in fact, operationally closed organizations defined solely by the articulation of their collective imaginaries—by the decisions. In this way, constitutions are only one of the possible decisions and nevertheless one of the most influential. In the second part, I shall discuss the nature of constitutions as law decisions of the organizational system of the state with the example of the Czech Republic and its 1992 Constitution. The Czech example will demonstrate how the constitution articulates the constitutional imaginary of the membership of the state, how it articulates the understanding of the state’s constitutional identity, and, at the same time, shapes it. Moreover, the Czech example will show us the clear division between the constitution and “its” people; in other words, that it is not the people who makes or adopts constitutions, nor is the constitution an articulation of the political people’s collective identity or its nature. This distinction between the state and the political people is, in fact, one of the crucial arguments for the social systems theory approach to both the state and the political people as it enables us to not only distinguish between those two phenomena but also, and perhaps more importantly, to conceptualize their interrelationship—structural coupling—as I shall explain shortly. The third part of this Article focuses on how the constitution can shape the popular identity of the political people b
{"title":"Constitutions as Mediums of Collective Identities","authors":"Lukáš Lev Červinka","doi":"10.1017/glj.2024.8","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/glj.2024.8","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 When we think about constitutions, we tend to see them predominantly through the normative lens of legality, forgetting about the social implications of constitutions and the lives thereof. And even when we do study them from a more socio–legal perspective, we usually associate them solely with the state. This understanding of constitutions is the legacy of not only a state–centric approach in legal science but also of an institutional approach, particularly in political science. It shapes our understanding of constitutions as legal regulations of an institutional framework of the state and the conduct of politics. Moreover, the liberal tradition compels us to see constitutions as tools to restrain the power of the state and ensure the rights and liberties of individuals; that is, as tools of the liberal rule of law.\u0000 However, as I argue in this Article, constitutions are a very powerful, and potentially effective, way of shaping the collective identities of not only the state but also of the political people. Therefore, they should be understood not so much as factors of restriction but as mediums for the articulation of collective experiences, self–understanding, goals, dreams, and fears—in other words, articulations of collective imaginaries.\u0000 For this purpose, I shall discuss in the first part of this Article the importance of conceptualizing the state and the political people as autopoietic organizational systems and the consequences of such conceptualization. That is, both the state and the political people are, in fact, operationally closed organizations defined solely by the articulation of their collective imaginaries—by the decisions. In this way, constitutions are only one of the possible decisions and nevertheless one of the most influential.\u0000 In the second part, I shall discuss the nature of constitutions as law decisions of the organizational system of the state with the example of the Czech Republic and its 1992 Constitution. The Czech example will demonstrate how the constitution articulates the constitutional imaginary of the membership of the state, how it articulates the understanding of the state’s constitutional identity, and, at the same time, shapes it. Moreover, the Czech example will show us the clear division between the constitution and “its” people; in other words, that it is not the people who makes or adopts constitutions, nor is the constitution an articulation of the political people’s collective identity or its nature. This distinction between the state and the political people is, in fact, one of the crucial arguments for the social systems theory approach to both the state and the political people as it enables us to not only distinguish between those two phenomena but also, and perhaps more importantly, to conceptualize their interrelationship—structural coupling—as I shall explain shortly.\u0000 The third part of this Article focuses on how the constitution can shape the popular identity of the political people b","PeriodicalId":503760,"journal":{"name":"German Law Journal","volume":" 13","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-03-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140221193","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Despite the shock provoked by the Snowden revelations, mass surveillance is still a reality in the EU. However, over the past few years, it has been possible to observe a gradual constitutionalization of these practices. This Article maps the ongoing process of progressively defining the constitutional limits and societal affordances of mass surveillance in the EU by focusing on the three main actors who contribute to it. First, this Article presents civil society as the propeller of this trend. Civil society not only advocated for a ban on general surveillance systems in the aftermath of the Snowden revelations, but also promoted a series of strategic litigations to challenge state surveillance practices at national and EU levels. Second, it analyses CJEU case law as the main constitutionalizing engine of this process. The Court pragmatically ascertained that an absolute prohibition of mass surveillance did not appear to be a realistic solution and put significant effort into actively defining the legal boundaries of these practices by striving to find an equilibrium between Member State interests and citizens’ fundamental rights. Third, it considers the approaches taken by national legislators to be a slowing factor. States are still reluctant to incorporate the constitutional standards progressively developed by courts despite the now significant body of judicially created parameters in the field.
{"title":"Constitutionalizing Mass Surveillance in the EU: Civil Society Demands, Judicial Activism, and Legislative Inertia","authors":"Edoardo Celeste, Giulia Formici","doi":"10.1017/glj.2023.105","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/glj.2023.105","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Despite the shock provoked by the Snowden revelations, mass surveillance is still a reality in the EU. However, over the past few years, it has been possible to observe a gradual constitutionalization of these practices. This Article maps the ongoing process of progressively defining the constitutional limits and societal affordances of mass surveillance in the EU by focusing on the three main actors who contribute to it. First, this Article presents civil society as the propeller of this trend. Civil society not only advocated for a ban on general surveillance systems in the aftermath of the Snowden revelations, but also promoted a series of strategic litigations to challenge state surveillance practices at national and EU levels. Second, it analyses CJEU case law as the main constitutionalizing engine of this process. The Court pragmatically ascertained that an absolute prohibition of mass surveillance did not appear to be a realistic solution and put significant effort into actively defining the legal boundaries of these practices by striving to find an equilibrium between Member State interests and citizens’ fundamental rights. Third, it considers the approaches taken by national legislators to be a slowing factor. States are still reluctant to incorporate the constitutional standards progressively developed by courts despite the now significant body of judicially created parameters in the field.","PeriodicalId":503760,"journal":{"name":"German Law Journal","volume":"64 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-03-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140249548","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In this paper, I will examine the legal standards of gender persecution and the evolving descriptor gender apartheid as a way to describe the status of women in Afghanistan. The paper also examines other complementary forms of legal accountability procedures to vindicate Afghan women’s rights and hold perpetrators accountable under crimes against humanity. Although the current locus of the paper is focused on Afghan women, it has larger implications for all other crimes of gender persecution.
{"title":"Holding the Taliban Accountable for Gender Persecution: The Search for New Accountability Paradigms under International Human Rights Law, International Criminal Law and Women, Peace, and Security","authors":"Rangita de Silva de Alwis","doi":"10.1017/glj.2023.113","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/glj.2023.113","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 In this paper, I will examine the legal standards of gender persecution and the evolving descriptor gender apartheid as a way to describe the status of women in Afghanistan. The paper also examines other complementary forms of legal accountability procedures to vindicate Afghan women’s rights and hold perpetrators accountable under crimes against humanity. Although the current locus of the paper is focused on Afghan women, it has larger implications for all other crimes of gender persecution.","PeriodicalId":503760,"journal":{"name":"German Law Journal","volume":"22 6","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-03-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140262216","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}