Nederlandse grondrechten: klaar voor de toekomst?: Modernisering van grondrechten in de Grondwet in het licht van het EVRM en het EU-Grondrechtenhandvest

The fundamental rights in the Dutch Constitution are urgently in need of amendment. At present, they are not in line with developments in technology and society. Some fundamental rights are formulated in such an outdated manner that they are barely comprehensible. Consider, for example, the right to freedom of expression. In the Constitution this right is described as ‘the freedom to publish thoughts and opinions through the press’. Is it possible to invoke this fundamental right in cases that involve spreading fake news or comments that incite hate on the Internet? And what effect does this fundamental right have in relation to legislation that forces social media platforms to apply filters in order to protect copyrighted materials? There is no clear answer. Other fundamental rights also display outdated formulations and a lack of practical manageability. The right to secrecy of communications, for example, is unable to provide adequate protection from the large-scale interception of communication data by government institutions. Moreover, a number of important fundamental rights are not even included in the Constitution. This applies for instance to the right to a fair trial and the right to good administration. The latter right requires that the government acts impartially and with due care towards citizens. This vague and incomplete protection of fundamental rights in the Constitution affects its very raison d’être. The Constitution is a legal remedy to safeguard the freedom of citizens. A powerful and unambiguous protection of fundamental rights is therefore imperative. The fact that the current fundamental rights no longer fulfil this role is unacceptable. Countering abuse of power by the government, after all, fosters citizens’ trust in the administration; trust that is necessary for the acceptance and effectiveness of government action. In a democratic state under the rule of law, like the Netherlands, this is essential. Thus, the catalogue of fundamental rights in the Constitution must be updated. This doctoral thesis sets out arguments for this position, and offers concrete proposals to achieve this modernisation

Process-based Fundamental Rights Review: Practice, Concept, and Theory

Courts regularly rely on process-based fundamental rights review. This means that they examine the diligence, fairness, and quality of legislative, administrative, and judicial procedures to determine whether fundamental rights have been violated. However, despite the frequent application of such review in practice, important questions about the meaning and value of procedural reasoning arise. Do courts provide sufficient protection of substantive rights when taking a procedural approach? Can they safeguard values of deliberative democracy and the rule of law through procedural reasoning? And can they rely on process-based review to avoid morally sensitive issues and cases concerning hard policy choices? This book engages with such questions with the aim of uncovering the potential and limitations of procedural reasoning in fundamental rights cases. To this end, it first discusses a number of concrete examples of application of this review by various courts. It then develops a context-independent definition of process-based fundamental rights review, which acknowledges the various uses of this type of review. On this basis, the book finally discusses the wide-ranging theoretical debates concerning procedural reasoning and identifies underlying explanations for the different views on the topic. The resulting in-depth and nuanced understanding of process-based fundamental rights review will support courts in developing well-balanced procedural approaches, and will assist scholars in studying procedural reasoning more systematically

De trias als doctrine, als praktijk en als regels van het politieke spel

De doctrine van de trias politica is een van de meest bekende en meest besproken concepten in de literatuur over staatsinrichting. Toch kan het sterk verschillen welke betekenis er in het wetenschappelijk discours aan de trias politica wordt gegeven en hoe macht en machtsuitoefening binnen deze kaders kunnen worden gekanaliseerd en gereguleerd. In een multidisciplinaire verkenning van dit concept worden drie betekenissen van ‘trias politica’ onderscheiden: (1) de trias als doctrine, (2) de trias als positiefrechtelijke praktijk en (3) de trias als een set regels van het politieke spel. Deze drie betekenissen weerspiegelen elk een eigen component in het onderzoek naar de trias, respectievelijk: normatief, beschrijvend en verklarend. In deze bijdrage wordt gekeken naar de mogelijkheden om in interdisciplinair onderzoek de drie betekenissen van de trias politica zorgvuldig te gebruiken en te combineren

Abstract and Concrete Reasonableness Review by the European Court of Human Rights

In many cases, the ECtHR is clearly asked to examine an individual decision, such as an administrative or court decision, but many other applications concern the reasonableness of interferences caused by national legislation. At present, there appears to be considerable confusion and controversy with the Court’s judges as to whether its review in the second category of cases should be concrete (focussing on the individual case only), abstract (focussing on the legislative system as a whole), or both (or a hybrid). This article presents a systematic and qualitative analysis of the Court’s case law to find out which approaches it takes to the reasonableness review of legislation in which types of cases. Based on the results of the analysis it further endeavours to answer the question of which approach would best fit the Court’s double role of delivering both individual and general justice

Corona: de crisis die de Grondwet doet wijzigen?

Op 15 april 2020 promoveerde Manon Julicher aan de Universiteit Utrecht op het proefschrift Nederlandse grondrechten: klaar voor de toekomst? In dit artikel vertelt ze over haar onderzoek, waarbij de coronamaatregelen als voorbeeld dienen

Een juridische onderzoeksmaster volgen - dat moet je doen!

Relatief weinig studenten kiezen voor een juridische onderzoeksmaster, en dat is jammer. Het zijn prachtige opleidingen die heel veel toekomstmogelijkheden bieden, zowel binnen de rechtswetenschap als daarbuiten. Het Sectorplan Rechtsgeleerdheid zorgt er bovendien voor dat er de komende jaren meer mogelijkheden komen om aan een onderzoeksmaster deel te nemen. Maar waarom zou je een onderzoeksmaster willen volgen, en wat houdt zo’n master eigenlijk in? Deze perspectiefbijdrage beoogt die vragen te beantwoorden