Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law

Armin von Bogdandy about the erosion of democracy in Poland and Hungary, parallels with Latin America, and  the EU’s rule of law

What options are there for holding those accountable who are responsible for the Ukraine war? In an interview, International Law expert Christian Marxsen explains which courts are responsible and what the impact of a guilty verdict over the perpetrators might be

Conditions in Greek EU hotspots and German arrival centres violate fundamental rights and EU directives

Legal experts at the MPI for Comparative Public Law and International Law examine the respone of WHO in curbing the coronavirus pandemic

Eleven legal experts from different European countries argue in favour of European bonds to help with economic recovery

The Maldives, Kiribati, Tuvalu, and parts of the Solomon Islands: if the sea level continues to rise, several island states will vanish under the sea within a few decades. As things stand today, the residents will lose their homelands – with little chance of asylum or replacement territory. Lawyer Tom Sparks of the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law searches for solutions for sinking states.

Europe is currently experiencing the largest movement of refugees since the Second World War. However, unlike 2015, when many people from Syria and Afghanistan sought shelter in Europe, there are currently no demands to turn back refugees at the border. How does the situation today differ from then? And what lessons can we learn from this for the future? Our author Dana Schmalz searched for the answers to these questions.

Thus far, most industrialized countries have taken only half-hearted measures to limit their CO₂ emissions, and the effects of global warming are becoming increasingly apparent. At the same time, the pressure on governments is growing as climate activists are increasingly taking the matter to court. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute Luxembourg for International, European and Regulatory Procedural Law and the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law are looking into how jurisprudence and legislation could help to counter climate change.

The fight against COVID-19 appears to be taking place mainly at a national level, while the World Health Organization (WHO) has repeatedly been the subject of criticism. However, according to Lauren Tonti and Pedro Villarreal, the role of the WHO is often underestimated. They explain from a legal point of view what action the organization is taking during the pandemic, and where there is a need for reform.

Mariela Morales Antoniazzi has challenged corruption in Latin America and mobilized its citizens. The Venezuelan-born lawyer is currently conducting research at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law in Heidelberg to investigate why human rights are the prerequisite for any democracy – and how to defend them.

Wildlife, livestock, and other animals are the neglected victims of armed conflicts. The project is the very first legal analysis of the weak protection of animals during warfare. It examines which concepts, principles, and rationales of international humanitarian law can be applied and adapted for a better protection of animals and how this can be accomplished. It suggests measures to be taken by national and international authorities in order to improve implementation and enforcement of the legal regime. 

Concerns with population numbers have a long history. Yet only in the past 120 years, the world population is a topic in academic and public debates. Linked to population developments are several normative questions. In my research, I am exploring how debates around population numbers shaped modern law, and how in particular in the phase between 1945 and 1980, the issue of global and regional population growth played a role in the developments of international law. A key observation is that law was not only a tool for regulating population developments but also a site of narrative authority.

In international law, due diligence obligations require states to upgrade their procedures and institutional capacities for risk management. Such obligations contribute to enhancing states’ accountability. Simultaneously, the focus on due diligence threatens to dilute substantive legal obligations and thereby to weaken the international legal order. Our book analyses the rise of due diligence obligations in various areas of international law. It also places this development in the context of a current trend towards procedural, as opposed to substantive, obligations.

International Economic Law can hamper the realization of a transformative constitutionalism aiming to overcome structural social problems in Latin America. A project at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law analyses the issue and sketches possible solutions.

In the context of the Ukraine crisis in 2014, the OSCE awoke from its yearlong hibernation and rose again to the position of a leading security actor in Europe. This revival, however, also resuscitated longstanding legal problems deriving from the unclear legal status and the unsettled legal framework of the Organization under international law. These complex problems were addressed in the first comprehensive interdisciplinary analysis of the legal framework of the OSCE, which reassessed competing reform proposals and developed further proposals for strengthening its legal framework.