Is There a Place for Islam in the West? Adjudicating the Muslim Headscarf in Europe and the United States

The short essay describes the two judgments (Achbita and Bougnauoi) of the CJEU that addressed the issue of the Islamic veil in the workplace. It explores its newness and implications, in the light of the American experience as well as of the European understanding of the public role of religion

Is Toufik Lounes another brick in the wall? The CJEU and the on-going shaping of the EU citizenship

This Insight tackles a recent judgment of the CJEU, Toufik Lounes (Court of Justice, judgment of 14 November 2017, case C-165/16, Toufik Lounes v. Secretary of State for the Home Department), where the CJEU was asked to rule on the case of a EU national, Ms García Omazábal, who had exercised her free movement rights, later acquiring the citizenship of the host State while also retaining her nationality of origin. The Court has further investigated the scope ratione personae of Directive 2004/38 and Art. 21, para. 1, TFEU, so to clarify whether, in the scenario above, the EU national and her third-country national spouse could still be considered “beneficiaries” under Directive 2004/38. The CJEU answered as follows: while Directive 2004/38 is not applicable in the situation above, Art. 21, para. 1, TFEU shall instead be applied so as to prevent the EU national holding a dual citizenship to be treated less favourably than a EU national having the citizenship of his country of origin only, and therefore having the EU national’s right to family life unreasonably disrupted. Against this backdrop, the Insight first highlights the merits of the decision, by also investigating its positive effects within the Brexit process. Secondly, it discloses a main shortcoming that is likely to weaken the overall protection granted to EU citizens, i.e. the CJEU choice to disregard the connection between the provisions on the EU citizenship and the respect of fundamental right

‘Facultative’ and ‘Functional Mixity’ in light of the Principle of Partial and Imperfect Conferral. College of Europe Research Paper in Law 03/2019

The concept of ‘facultative mixity’ as first coined by Allan Rosas3 has sparked a much heated debate.4 Is it a matter of political expediency in the EU Council to decide on the mixed nature, or not, of a given agreement in so far as it falls within shared competence of the EU and its Member States? Considered as such, this concept is offset against ‘obligatory’ or ‘compulsory mixity’ which would then arise only where the Member States retain an exclusive competence for part of the agreement. It is apparent that the concepts of facultative and obligatory mixity so understood both rest on the premise that the mixed nature of an agreement is to be determined solely on the basis of the division of competence under the EU Treaties. The crucial exercise then lies in the correct appraisal of the ‘partial nature’ of the conferral of competence under the EU Treaties which, of itself, may prove to be a difficult exercise not least in a post- Lisbon setting.

Privacy, Expression and the World Wide Web. Shall we Forget?

Google v Spain is an important judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union which has important implications for the rights of individuals’ privacy, the Court’s use of a purposive method of interpretation, the regulation of search engines based outside of the EU, the interaction between the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union and European Convention on Human Rights, and international laws. The case establishes that operators of search engines located outside of the EU may be subject to the EU data protection laws (Directive 95/46/EC) and individuals, in certain circumstances, have the right to request that links to personal data held on-line be removed

The EU's Accession to the European Convention on Human Rights: An International Law Perspective

Article 6(2) of the Treaty on European Union establishes that the Union “shall accede to the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.” In early 2013, negotiators of the 47 Council of Europe member states and the European Union finalised a draft Accession Agreement that would allow the EU to accede to the Convention. In this article I examine the issues and challenges that EU accession poses from an international law perspective. Much of the literature on the EU accession has focused on the effect that this process will have on the EU legal order, including questions regarding its autonomy. Yet EU accession also raises important issues for international law. It is another example of an international organization taking part in a legal system designed exclusively for participation by state parties. To what extent should the EU participate on an equal footing with the other contracting parties, and when are special rules required to take into account the nature of the EU legal order? The article explores the broader issues that arise when the EU seeks to participate in its own right in the international legal order. It is submitted that the EU’s accession to the ECHR is not only an important step for the EU legal order, but also a highly significant development for public international law

Legal, compliant and suitable: The ECB‘s Pandemic Emergency Purchase Programme (PEPP).BertelsmannStiftung/jacques Delors Centre Policy Brief 25 March 2020

The ECB has announced a 750-billion-euro purchase programme to fight the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. But like all ECB programmes in recent years, the new Pandemic Emergency Purchase Programme (PEPP) will likely be challenged in court. This policy brief assesses whether the PEPP will likely survive a legal challenge. It argues that the PEPP is compatible with EU law because it meets the three criteria the Court of Justice of the EU has established to check the legality of monetary policy measures: First, the PEPP falls within the ECB’s mandate. Second, it respects the principle of proportionality. And third, it does not violate the prohibition of monetary financing. This assessment even holds if the ECB were to relax some of the constraints in the PEPP like the issuer limit currently applicable to other bond-buying programmes

With No Deliberate Speed: The Segregation of Roma Children in Europe

In this study, by taking the advantage of both inorganic ZnO nanoparticles and the organic material chitosan as a composite seed layer, we have fabricated well-aligned ZnO nanorods on a gold-coated glass substrate using the hydrothermal growth method. The ZnO nanoparticles were characterized by the Raman spectroscopic techniques, which showed the nanocrystalline phase of the ZnO nanoparticles. Different composites of ZnO nanoparticles and chitosan were prepared and used as a seed layer for the fabrication of well-aligned ZnO nanorods. Field emission scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and infrared reflection absorption spectroscopic techniques were utilized for the structural characterization of the ZnO nanoparticles/chitosan seed layer-coated ZnO nanorods on a gold-coated glass substrate. This study has shown that the ZnO nanorods are well-aligned, uniform, and dense, exhibit the wurtzite hexagonal structure, and are perpendicularly oriented to the substrate. Moreover, the ZnO nanorods are only composed of Zn and O atoms. An optical study was also carried out for the ZnO nanoparticles/chitosan seed layer-coated ZnO nanorods, and the obtained results have shown that the fabricated ZnO nanorods exhibit good crystal quality. This study has provided a cheap fabrication method for the controlled morphology and good alignment of ZnO nanorods, which is of high demand for enhancing the working performance of optoelectronic devices