Tag Archives: Crisis

Gegen obrigkeits­staatliche Tendenzen in der Krise. Massive Freiheitseingriffe und deren Grundrechtliche Rechtfertigung

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I. Der massiv eingreifende Staat unter grundrechtlichem Rechtfertigungsdruck

Die Grundentscheidung vor ĂŒber vier Wochen, der Corona-Pandemie mit einem weitgehenden Lockdown zu begegnen, war trotz der fĂŒr die Nachkriegszeit prĂ€zedenzlosen GrundrechtseinschrĂ€nkungen – bei aller berechtigter Kritik an FormalitĂ€ten (siehe hier und hier) und auch einiger Einzelmaßnahmen (siehe hier und hier) – grundsĂ€tzlich verfassungsrechtlich gerechtfertigt. Mehr noch, hĂ€tten die Bundes-und Landesregierungen einen Kurs verfolgt, der auf GrundrechtsbeschrĂ€nkungen verzichtet hĂ€tte und der Pandemie freien Lauf gewĂ€hrt hĂ€tte, um schnellstmöglich weitreichende ImmunitĂ€t und damit das relativ schnelle Ende der Pandemie bei möglichst geringem wirtschaftlichen Schaden zu erreichen, wĂ€re eine solche Lösung auf der Basis der zum Entscheidungszeitpunkt vorliegenden Datenlage möglicherweise eine verfassungswidrige Verletzung der staatlichen Schutzplicht gegenĂŒber dem Recht auf Leben und körperlicher Unversehrtheit potentieller Opfer der Krankheit. Continue reading →

The EU under Transnational Law – A Pluralist Appraisal

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The past decade has been one of the most turbulent times in the process of European integration. In this period, the European Union has risen to the stars and fallen back from the heavens. The beginning of the new millennium was marked by enviable achievements. The EU carried out a successful enlargement to the East. It adopted a single currency and experienced a boom in economic growth. The objective, laid down in the Lisbon strategy, was to make the EU “the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world, capable of sustainable economic growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion.” This goal ought to have been met by 2020. However, the developments taking place since 2000 have made the attainment of this objective anything but possible. Rather than becoming the leading economy in the world, since 2009 the EU has been in permanent economic crisis. And, while the crisis has been tamed, it is far from resolved. Its consequences for the most affected member states in the South and in the East have been grave. They have shaken up the foundations of the well-ordered societies that these member states have at least tried or pretended to be. Continue reading →

Reversing the Decline of Constitutional Democracy in Europe

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Constitutional democracy is a system of government in which all powers are exercised under a constitution which grows out and is dedicated to the protection of equal human dignity. The latter requires that each and every individual is recognized an equal right to self-fulfilment within the scope of the same right recognized and exercised by others. By making equal human dignity a point of departure as well as the ultimate objective of its functioning, a polity characterized as a constitutional democracy is necessarily permeated by pluralism. Continue reading →

Civil Liberty in Crisis? Evidence from a Comparative Empirical Study

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Is there a fundamental trade-off between collective security and individual liberty? This question is by no means a new one for democratic societies. Long before the Islamist terror threat scenarios of the 2000s, Western democracies had been menaced by domestic terrorism, violent separatism, and organized crime and their reaction was always the same: security laws were tightened, new tools for keeping citizens under surveillance were created, the rights of suspects, accused persons, and convicts were restricted. Continue reading →