Testing Europe: COVID-19 and the rule of law
“Sovereign is he who decides on the exception,” wrote the notorious constitutional law scholar Carl Schmitt in 1922 in his work Political Theology, “exception” understood as measures undertaken in a state of emergency. The democratic constitutions of Europe are grounded on the notion of popular sovereignty; Article 20 of the German Basic Law, for example, states that “[a]ll state authority is derived from the people”. The Treaty on European Union …
Lost in translation
Varying German-language versions of international treaties and documents
“Of course, international law is the same everywhere, so it’s not a problem, right?” is the response I often get when talking about my transition into German academia. Anthea Roberts prominently made the case that this is not necessarily true. Surprisingly, I discovered that some of it differs even between Austria and Germany. Teaching international law courses at a German University, I expected to simply draw from my previous years …
Völkerrecht verstehen – Wie gewinnen wir die anderen 99%?
Kein anderes Rechtsgebiet eignet sich so gut wie das Völkerrecht, um Studierende dort abzuholen, wofür sie sich im Alltag und in ihrer Freizeit interessieren und begeistern. Zudem können Analogien und Abgrenzungen zu anderen Fächern – die Besonderheiten des Völkerrechts, die oftmals als Schwachstellen wahrgenommen werden – für das Verständnis der Materie nutzbar gemacht werden.