What Are Human Rights For? – Model Slux

18 March 2025

The emergence of digital networks over the previous many years has introduced an issue for copyright exploiters. Thus, they resorted to strategic enforcement concentrating on particular person customers. Nevertheless, the customers would usually stay nameless as a result of lack of entry to visitors knowledge revealing their identification. However the resolution in La Quadrature du Internet II – allowing retention and disclosure of visitors knowledge for minor offences – has the antagonistic impact: it incentivises enforcement methods concentrating on customers and requiring platforms handy over such knowledge.

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11 February 2025

Our symposium ‘Musk, Energy, and the EU’ has developed in parallel with the inauguration of the brand new US administration and has been marked by quite a few and unprecedented assaults on the European Union. Amid a flurry of bulletins difficult the established order – usually with brutal disregard, even towards conventional allies – the European Union, together with the best way it workout routines energy, immediately seems because the antithesis of the brand new America. But does the EU have what it takes to withstand such an expansionist and plutocratic projection of energy, which now threatens Europe’s safety, way of life and general existence? 

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10 February 2025

Elon Musk’s company empire spans a formidable array of markets and industries. This empire contains SpaceX (and its subsidiary Starlink), Tesla, Neuralink, The Boring Firm, X, xAI, and the Musk Basis. These firms are linked and interlinked, making a cross-corporate energy construction. Competitors legislation, which focuses on market energy in narrowly outlined related markets – say, a marketplace for booster rockets – has very restricted attain to protect towards the doable detrimental results of such multifaceted concentrated energy within the palms of some on open democratic societies.

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07 February 2025

Elon Musk appears to many in Europe to represent the daybreak of a digital dystopia. I argue, nevertheless, that this view could also be incorrect in a number of respects. With the Digital Companies Act (DSA) and its new “systemic instruments,” the EU has a possibility to handle the technological roots of Musk’s highly effective place within the digital sphere. On this context, Musk (probably) utilizing his platform (or AI) to deliberately affect the entry, distribution, and presentation of knowledge is “merely” a manifestation of dangers which are already inherent within the systemic place of sure digital companies.

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03 February 2025

After Elon Musk’s assaults on European politicians, Emmanuel Macron warned of digital tycoons threatening democracy. This publish examines how tech giants have developed from EU allies to political actors shaping coverage and public debate. It questions whether or not present laws can curb their rising affect whereas balancing free speech and platform neutrality.

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27 January 2025

Viewing Elon Musk’s current forays into (electoral) politics in Europe primarily as a geopolitical wake-up name to European leaders, our evaluation focuses on the promise and relative weaknesses of legislation and coverage options in addition to institutional preparations the EU has put in place to guard European democracies from overseas interference. The EU and its Member States should adapt rapidly to the brand new worldwide realities if they don’t wish to be norm-takers reasonably than norm-shapers on main worldwide dossiers.

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24 January 2025

Seeing Elon Musk with Donald Trump on the latter’s inauguration, it will be tempting to single him out as a novel and overbearing menace to a variety of EU pursuits, akin to its on-line atmosphere, election integrity and regulatory capability. However that may be to overlook the purpose of a bigger pattern; what Joe Biden has termed the “tech-industrial advanced” shouldn’t be restricted to the US. It, and an related worldwide oligarchy, is converging with ascendant ultra-nationalist political agendas to pose wide-ranging challenges.

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24 January 2025

Populist authoritarianism is a worldwide phenomenon. Nevertheless, the US is the one so-called consolidated democracy the place its ascent has been eased by the systematic dismantling of authorized limits on marketing campaign donations. US elections are actually not solely the world’s most expensive, however they’re additionally instantly topic to the inordinate affect of rich people and firms. The Supreme Courtroom of the USA’ 2010 Residents United v. Federal Election Fee ruling has paved the best way for the emergence of so-called “tremendous” PACS (political motion committees) that, whereas formally barred from coordinating with candidates or events, can settle for limitless company contributions.

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23 January 2025

The urgency of Europe’s creep in direction of plutocracy requires a equally pressing response. Competitors legislation, given its historical past and potential as a device of anti-domination, is a pure match to guard and revitalise democracy in Europe from the threats posed by extreme concentrations of personal energy. For it to be efficient for that objective, competitors students should clearly articulate which democratic values, like non-domination, competitors legislation ought to search to pursue, and clear-mindedly design mechanisms by which to channel them.

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22 January 2025

How can we make sense of the return of Donald Trump, who once more satisfied sufficient US voters of his populist bonafides? Populist authoritarianism has made inroads world wide. Solely Trump’s model, nevertheless, most likely brings collectively a lot wealth and energy, with super-rich enterprise executives now on the helm.

Right here I faucet a superb however uncared for e book, The Folklore of Capitalism (1937), by the authorized scholar and New Deal trustbuster, Thurman Arnold (1891-1961), to know this exceptional improvement. Folklore of Capitalism helps clarify Trump’s large attraction, regardless of the citizens’s disagreements with a lot of his coverage preferences.

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21 January 2025

On January 7, 2025, and within the days following, the founder and CEO of Meta, Mark Zuckerberg, made a sequence of statements that framed Meta’s earlier and future content material coverage with an evidently strategic intention. The change of content material moderation coverage, as described in three complete factors in his private announcement on his personal platforms, might even sound cheap, as mentioned beneath. Nevertheless, the reasoning and the framing of those adjustments seem to point out that Meta is as much as one thing totally totally different from simply additional optimizing its curation of content material on its platforms.

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20 January 2025

When fascinated about this present second in time when main currents of political and financial energy appear to circulate into one another in distinctive and maybe unparalleled methods, it is likely to be helpful to tease out in some extra element how precisely plutocracy 2025 differs from the entanglements of financial and enterprise energy which have come earlier than. Right here is one distinction that appears significantly hanging. Plutocracy in 2025, in contrast to its typical predecessors,  shouldn’t be actually engineered in discrete vogue behind the scenes by deep-rooted dynasties of political and financial life. As a substitute, it’s a full-frontal brash assault proper on the general public stage.

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19 January 2025

On the daybreak of 2025, liberal democracy is confronted with a substantial problem: Huge Tech bosses seem to leverage their market energy for far-reaching political affect, with none democratic legitimisation to take action. As somebody engaged on problems with market energy within the digital economic system, one can’t assist however surprise: shouldn’t competitors legislation have the ability to include (a few of) this unseeming wielding of market energy?

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17 January 2025

On this blogpost, I situate and tackle Musk’s place throughout the broader EU debate on freedom of expression. The aim of this symposium is to elucidate facets that make Musk, his affect, and his provocations to the EU authorized order, problematic below EU legislation, and, ought to we take into account his affect as undesirable, dangerous or unlawful, whether or not EU legislation can present solutions to it. This publish centres on three factors: (i) Musk’s adjustments to X’s content material moderation course of, (ii) Musk’s utilization of X to amplify choose political candidates and (iii) Musk’s possession of Starlink. It ends with a notice on how this matches in a grander theme, which has been dubbed by commentators akin to Paul Bernal because the ‘techbrocracy’.

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17 January 2025

At a time when requires the EU to answer Musk’s provocations multiply, vital questions on whether or not, why, and the way the EU might react stay largely unanswered. Musk’s conduct, which spans sectors as various as social media (X, previously Twitter), AI (xAI), satellite tv for pc know-how (Starlink), house rockets (SpaceX), and electrical automobiles (Tesla), pose distinctive challenges to current authorized frameworks. His multi-industry affect offers rise to profound questions concerning the limits of particular person affect and energy accumulation in a posh geopolitical panorama.

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02 December 2024

Though digital anonymity is related to a variety of alternatives, it additionally stands in the best way of profitable legal prosecution. The best to respect non-public and household life below the the EU Constitution in addition to the proper to safety of non-public knowledge are of elementary significance for pure individuals. Nevertheless, since life is more and more happening on-line, anonymity may be exploited to unfold hate, discriminatory content material, and faux information. Contemplating these dangers, the ECJ has opened the door to knowledge retention in Europe and thereby restricted digital anonymity.

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02 December 2024

La Quadrature du Internet II has been criticized for permitting generalized metadata retention measures. Nevertheless, it’s important to not lose sight of the truth that the legislation should not change into a mechanism for safeguarding criminals. The size of on-line rights violations are an actual drawback. P2P networks are usually not solely a menace to copyright safety, but in addition an atmosphere for the distribution of content material associated to critical crime. It’s due to this fact essential to strike a stability between these two considerations and to suggest options that adequately shield customers with out guaranteeing impunity for criminals.

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02 December 2024

La Quadrature du Internet II, which permits for the final retention of IP addresses to fight copyright infringements dedicated on-line, shouldn’t be seen as carte blanche for normal knowledge retention measures by the Member States. As a substitute of watering down elementary rights safety on a case-by-case method, Member States ought to agree on ensures and safeguards in addition to a listing of great crimes permitting solely the restricted use of focused knowledge retention in particular instances.

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29 November 2024

After the most important shift in surveillance practices from state energy and management to huge tech firms and monetisation, we’re presently witnessing one more Zeitenwende: Surveillance practices as a method of hybrid warfare, with the AI-driven imaginative and prescient of accessing what individuals suppose and really feel. This sort of surveillance produces data that not solely claims to disclose what persons are prone to do sooner or later but in addition what they really feel and suppose. The results of this epistemological bending are probably grave.

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29 November 2024

These days, knowledge is usually collected not by state actors however by companies. In 2010, the German Constitutional Courtroom held that the legislator has to guage the general degree of surveillance in Germany earlier than enacting new knowledge retention obligations. In mild of the current rejuvenised discussions about knowledge retention and a normal surveillance account, this textual content explores whether or not such an account wants to contemplate non-public knowledge swimming pools and what’s required for a profitable analysis.

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28 November 2024

This weblog publish compares the European and US method to metadata surveillance and highlights some challenges that come up therefrom. It goals at shedding mild on the principle authorized points which will come up for the way forward for world counterterrorism. The important position of courts in hanging and retaining a stability between safety and safety of human rights is additional examined in mild of the judgement in La Quadrature du Internet II. Efforts needs to be made to keep away from that the financial energy of the US would decrease the privateness requirements in relation to metadata surveillance.

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28 November 2024

The Courtroom of Justice’s Quadrature du Internet judgements mark one other key second within the advanced and long-lasting authorized debate on mass knowledge retention within the European Union. This blogpost critically discusses the “constitutionalisation path” outlined by the EU Judges in addition to the fragmented roads taken by Member States, with particular consideration to Italy. In the end, it demonstrates the necessity for a decisive EU legislators’ intervention, in a position to attract the longer term path of knowledge retention regimes.

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28 November 2024

Is normal and indiscriminate knowledge retention permissible below the EU elementary rights framework? In La Quadrature du Internet II, the Courtroom tilts the metaphorical scale in direction of knowledge retention. The take-away might contribute to the enlargement of privatised surveillance that rests on a generalised pre-emptive knowledge retention scheme. The ECJ’s findings might cement intrusive practices rising from the counter-terrorism narrative to common state observe on the expense of elementary rights safety.

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27 November 2024

The basic story about the proper to privateness and knowledge safety within the EU is considered one of a excessive degree of safety. But, this unique rosy picture is more and more fading away, most visibly within the La Quadrature du Internet litigation, which is a continuation of two dynamics. First, the Courtroom continues to be cleansing up the residual mess that lingers on from the now annulled Information Retention Directive. Second, in so doing, it’s incrementally permitting the Member States indiscriminately retain private knowledge. Therefore, the Courtroom is carving out house for Member States’ preferences to the detriment of the safety of the person.

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27 November 2024

Die jüngeren Urteile des EuGHs zur Vorratsdatenspeicherung sind nicht als „kopernikanische Wende“ zu verstehen, in der der EuGH sein Selbstverständnis als Grundrechtsgericht aufgegeben hätte. Sie sind keine autoritär motivierte Abkehr von einer vormals grundrechtsfreundlichen Rechtsprechung. Vielmehr fügen sich die Urteile ein in die komplexe Entwicklung des ursprünglich nationwide geprägten Sicherheitsverfassungsrechts. Diese Einordnung bedarf eines genaueren Blickes.

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27 November 2024

The current judgements of the CJEU on knowledge retention shouldn’t be considered an authoritarian transfer in direction of a much less elementary rights-sensible place of the Courtroom. Moderately, the case legislation adapts the ever extra advanced improvement of the constitutional safety legislation, which was initially dominated by the Member States. As a European court docket, the CJEU can’t merely ban sure police measures however should respect the complexity and heterogeneity of nationwide legislation enforcement companies.

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26 November 2024

Mass knowledge retention is on the rise. Within the present heyday of safety packages in Germany, we are actually witnessing a “tremendous grand coalition” in favor of necessary IP tackle retention. Some are calling for better safety for victims by knowledge retention. But, what one usually overlooks is the next: The investigative capacities of legislation enforcement authorities have by no means been higher, and the digital knowledge swimming pools that may be analyzed have by no means been bigger. Therefore, victims should be protected with out mass surveillance.

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26 November 2024

Mass knowledge retention is all about proportionality. The menace degree determines the proportionality of the means – each of that are topic to the perpetual flux of time. Information retention is meant to guard victims of digital crimes. To guard freedom on-line, our safety companies urgently want to have the ability to entry saved IP addresses. The alarming developments in our safety state of affairs are calling many certainties from the previous into query. This additionally entails a re-evaluation of visitors knowledge retention.

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26 November 2024

Ten years after its groundbreaking judgment declaring the Information Retention Directive incompatible with the EU Constitution, the Full Courtroom considerably eased its beforehand strict necessities. On 30 April 2024, it issued La Quadrature Du Internet II and, for the primary time, declared the final and indiscriminate retention of IP addresses permissible for the aim of preventing normal crime. Given the CJEU’s elementary change of coronary heart, we have now gathered a variety of students to contextualize the judgment and situate it throughout the broader debate on mass knowledge retention, on-line surveillance, and anonymity.

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05 November 2024

In Opinion 2/13 the Courtroom of Justice held that accession to the ECHR should not intrude with the operation of the precept of mutual belief as this is able to have an effect on the autonomy of EU legislation. I provide a distinct studying: mutual belief shouldn’t be a normal precept able to having autonomous authorized results. Moreover, mutual belief is buying a novel worth for the progressive operationalisation of the foundational values ex Article 2 TEU. Learn on this means, it has then the potential to boost elementary rights safety and is actually no bar to accession to the ECHR – it’s the canine of core values that wags the tail of mutual belief and never vice versa.

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04 November 2024

The diverging requirements of safety regarding the proper to a good trial, as interpreted by the CJEU and the ECtHR, stay a vital impediment to the EU’s renewed try at accession to the ECHR. On this area, the 2 Courts appear to be drifting additional aside reasonably than converging, resulting in unresolved conflicts between the usual of elementary rights safety and mutual belief obligations within the EU. Besides within the unlikely occasion of a course-correction by the CJEU, because of this we aren’t any nearer to accession right now than we had been ten years in the past, when the now-infamous Opinion 2/13 was handed down.

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04 November 2024

The EU ought to guarantee elementary rights’ compatibility of EU laws earlier than its adoption. To that impact, we suggest three distinct paths to enhance the EU management mechanisms. While mechanisms to make sure high quality management do exist, primarily within the type of impression assessments, these principally stay a merely formal train. Henceforth, we propose strengthening the ex ante elementary rights evaluation of EU laws by enhanced involvement of FRA within the legislative course of.

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03 November 2024

The Council of Europe has adopted the Framework Conference on Synthetic Intelligence – the primary of its variety. Notably, the Framework Conference contains provisions particularly tailor-made to allow the EU’s participation. On the identical time, the EU has developed its personal framework round AI. I argue that the EU ought to undertake the Framework Conference, making an important first step towards integrating the safety of elementary rights of the EU Constitution. In the end, this could create a typical constitutional language and bridge the EU and the Council of Europe to strengthen elementary rights in Europe.

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02 November 2024

The position of the EU Constitution in disputes regarding elementary rights requirements between the EU and Member States has been characterised by ambiguity ever for the reason that Constitution’s inception. Because the EU deepens integration of Member States to successfully face the challenges forward, I advocate for a pluralistic interpretation of Article 53 of the Constitution that enables for a better diploma of lodging of nationwide particularities. In that means, one would cut back constitutional tensions and discover that there could also be unity in range in spite of everything.

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01 November 2024

In mild of the more and more established autonomous European constitutional legality, nationwide constitutional courts are actually compelled to rethink their roles. By way of a progressive enlargement of its direct applicability by nationwide bizarre judges, the Constitution of Basic Rights dangers fostering the marginalization of nationwide constitutional courts. I argue that the answer lies in a extremely differentiated consolidation of constitutional legalities that integrates and embraces the distinctive roles of nationwide constitutional courts of their respective programs of adjudication.

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01 November 2024

The three seemingly trivial observations that observe inform three substantive proposals concerning the safety of elementary rights throughout the EU. To deal with the challenges confronted by nationwide constitutional courts and the CJEU, it’s important to leverage current procedural instruments inside home authorized programs. Moreover, increasing the applicability of those versatile instruments and contemplating a structural revision of the judicial our bodies might facilitate the creation of hybrid entities that might collaboratively tackle main points, thereby steering constitutional developments within the EU.

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31 October 2024

In 2014, the European Courtroom of Justice clearly prioritised the EU’s place on the unity and effectiveness of EU legislation over the safety of elementary rights (Opinion 2/13). Ten years later, in October 2024, a judgment pitting soccer towards the media appears to have turned the tables. In Actual Madrid vs Le Monde, the Courtroom held that extreme defamation damages might breach the liberty of the press and set off the general public coverage exception. This can be a important shift, prioritising elementary rights safety over the standard goal of seamless judicial cooperation throughout the EU.

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31 October 2024

This weblog publish argues that essentially the most fascinating facet of the Constitution of Basic Rights in the mean time is its impression on treatments in nationwide legislation. Virtually 15 years since its entry into drive, it isn’t uncommon to fulfill home attorneys and judges who will voice doubts as as to whether the Constitution actually issues in observe. But, by the proper to an efficient treatment below Article 47, the Constitution opens up home legislation for brand spanking new (or modified) treatments, thus inserting nationwide procedural autonomy below better constraint than it was from the ideas of effectiveness and equivalence.

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30 October 2024

So, has the Constitution come of age, now that it’s nearing its quarter century, and has been binding in drive for practically 15 of these years. Not is the Constitution a “sleeping magnificence”, and now not are elementary rights mere epiphenomena in EU legislation – offshoots framed within the amorphous class of “normal ideas of legislation” – creations of the EU’s earlier need for legitimacy in its quest for better integration. The EU Constitution comprises the essence of a typical language, a foreign money that each one can perceive. And the EU is healthier with it than with out it.

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30 October 2024

Since its inception, the Union has grown right into a tremendously highly effective political actor by ever-increasing authorized harmonization. This improvement has considerably marginalized the position of nationwide apex courts – the lighthouses of democracy. Furthermore, the globally noticed trajectory of authoritarian forces is shaking EU’s roots and questioning the imaginative and prescient of an enduring European polity. To fend off all these challenges, the Union needs to be centred across the hard-won humanistic freedoms and customary values outlined within the Constitution, serving as a foundation for frequent identification and a canvas to undertaking shared visions of a political entity.

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