Jean Monnet Saar

Der EuGH und der EGMR – Lösung in Sicht für den EMRK-Beitritt der EU?

Dieser Beitrag untersucht, warum der erste Entwurf zum EU-Beitritt zur EMRK 2014 spektakulär am EuGH scheiterte und wie der neue Entwurf von 2023 versucht, diese zentralen Hürden auszuräumen. Zugleich zeigt er, weshalb das ungelöste GASP-Problem weiterhin den entscheidenden Stolperstein bildet und nun ein erneutes Gutachtenverfahren vor dem EuGH angestoßen wurde.

Environmental Due Diligence as a Precondition to Treaty Protection: Reframing International Investment Law Through Corporate Governance Norms

This article argues that environmental due diligence (EDD) should become a mandatory precondition for investment treaty protection. Drawing on the ICJ’s 2025 Climate Advisory Opinion, it calls for linking investor rights to environmental compliance reshaping international investment law into a framework of reciprocal responsibility aligned with global sustainability goals.

Rethinking Corporate Social Responsibility in Times of Armed Conflict

This contribution introduces the emerging concept of “geopolitical responsibility,” arguing that companies can actively shape or intensify international conflicts through their economic activities. It traces how existing soft law instruments, such as the UN Guiding Principles and OECD Guidelines, already call for heightened corporate due diligence in conflict-affected areas. Yet, binding frameworks like the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive overlook this geopolitical dimension, leaving a growing gap between theory and corporate practice.

Ist das Völkerrecht wirklich ohnmächtig?[1]

In Prof. Giegerichs neuem Beitrag, der auf seinen Vortrag im Rahmen der Veranstaltung „Die Ohnmacht des Völkerrechts – Die Rückkehr des Kriegs und der Menschheitsverbrechen“ in der Villa Lessing zurückgeht, widerspricht der Autor entschieden der Annahme, das Völkerrecht habe angesichts aktueller globaler Krisen seine Wirkungskraft verloren. Er zeigt, dass das Völkerrecht trotz struktureller Schwächen seit Jahrhunderten als Ordnungskraft besteht und sich in jeder großen Krise weiterentwickelt hat.

The Stateless Worker Problem: Linking Nationality Law Discrimination to EU Corporate Due Diligence

This contribution examines how gender-discriminatory nationality laws create stateless populations excluded from formal labor markets, revealing a major blind spot in corporate governance and due diligence frameworks. By linking this issue to the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD), it calls for expanding the directive’s scope to address nationality-based exclusion as a core human-rights risk.

27. Oktober 2025 Online-Symposium: Tackling Human Rights, Environmental Protection and Business – A Multilevel Approach

The Contested Soul of Corporate Accountability: Navigating the CSDDD’s Ambition and Its Political Unravelling

The first contribution to our Symposium analyses the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) as a landmark step in the EU’s move from voluntary corporate responsibility to binding accountability. It traces how this ambitious project, once seen as a breakthrough, is now facing systematic political rollback that threatens to undermine its enforcement mechanisms and weaken its promise of effective corporate justice.

27. Oktober 2025 Online-Symposium: Tackling Human Rights, Environmental Protection and Business – A Multilevel Approach

Welcome to the Symposium!

Here you can find an overview of the contributions published as part of the Völkerrechtsblog and Jean Monnet Saar Online Symposium.

21. Oktober 2025 Aktuelles / Allgemein / EuGH / Europarecht / Saar Case Notes

Swissgrid AG versus European Commission (C-121/23 P)

This Case Note on Swissgrid v Commission analyses the Court of Justice’s interpretation of what constitutes a challengeable act under Article 263 TFEU and the admissibility of actions brought by non-EU undertakings. It summarises the case’s factual and procedural background and evaluates the judgment’s implications for judicial review in administrative decision-making and procedural rights in EU energy and competition law.

13. Oktober 2025 Allgemein / EuGH / Europarecht

From Search Engines to Large Language Models: Re-evaluating the Right to Be Forgotten in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

This Saar Blueprint examines whether the EU’s Right to Be Forgotten (RTBF), first established in Google Spain, can and should apply to Large Language Models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT. By comparing search engines and LLMs, it highlights the new legal and technical challenges these AI systems pose for data protection under the GDPR. The author concludes that while RTBF could in principle extend to LLMs, effective enforcement will depend on clearer legal guidance and technological solutions.

7. Oktober 2025 Allgemein / EGMR / Europarecht / Globaler Menschenrechtsschutz / Völker- und Europarecht / Völkerrecht

Thomas Giegerich’s book “The Human Right to Democracy in Multilevel Systems at a Time of Democratic Backsliding – Global, Regional and European Union Perspectives” has just been published online by Springer Nature (open access).

Thomas Giegerich’s new open access book “The Human Right to Democracy in Multilevel Systems at a Time of Democratic Backsliding” explores how human rights can protect democracy within global, regional, and EU frameworks. It analyses the interdependence between national and international democracy and the EU’s role as a model multilevel system. The book offers a comprehensive legal perspective on how to counter democratic backsliding.

4. September 2025 EuGH / Europarecht / Stellungnahme

The European Parliament & Whistleblowers: Case analysis of the General Court ruling TU v European Parliament (T-793/22)

This Saar Brief analyzes the EU General Court’s judgement in Case TU v Parliament (T-793/22), which concerns whistleblower protection in the European Parliament. In addition to a detailed description of the ruling and its implications, the impact of the ruling on whistleblower protection in EU institutions is examined.