The history of how today’s Europe developed is presented from the present-day perspective, from that of the current form of European integration: a democratic, politically integrated structure based on the rule of law and economic freedoms, growing prosperity and voluntary membership. This structure is characterized by common values in the canon of classical rights to freedom and the obligation for peace. It reflects how, after 1945, the European integration process foreswore excessive violence, pronounced nationalism, and the policy of excessive and authoritarian state control that destroyed freedom during the first half of the century. Continue reading
Monthly Archives: April 2015
An Empire of Capital? ISDS in CETA and TTIP as the Institutionalization of Unjustified Privilege
I. The case against ISDS in CETA and TTIP: Hysteria or genuine concern?
Among those familiar with the field of investment arbitration, the strong political reaction against the investor state dispute settlement provisions (ISDS) included in the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement between the EU and Canada (CETA) and originally planned to be included in Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership between the EU and the US (TTIP) comes as a surprise. After all, European states have concluded more than 1400 BITS in the past. Continue reading
Between Democratic Security and Democratic Legality – Constitutional Politics and Presidential Re-election in Colombia
Why do some courts act independently and others do not? This is the basic question that posed itself when Colombia’s Constitutional Court barred the sitting president from another term in office. Continue reading