Challenge

This author's articles

• German coalition parties prevent parliamentary scrutiny over new security measures

  3 December 2007
  Opposition parties in the German Bundestag complained that the ruling coalition parties SPD and CDU effectively circumvented parliamentary scrutiny in the adoption of an amendment to the German Federal Police Act extending the storage time of video surveillance material from 48 hours to thirty days. The amendment is part of the German implementing act of the US-EU PNR agreement. Following media reports, the crucial amendment was circulated to Parliamentarians late in the evening by fax.

• Class-action law suit against data retention planned in Germany

  19 November 2007
  After implementing legislation of the EU data retention directive has passed German Parliament on 9.11.2007, a mass class-action challenging this act before the German Constitutional Court is currently under preparation. In a press release of the German privacy NGO Arbeitskreis Vorratsdatenspeicherung it is stated that until 16.11.2007 already 13.000 citizens have joined this class-action which is unprecedented in German constitutional law.

• IV CHALLENGE Training School : « Integration, Immigration & Citizenship: European, National & Local Responses »

  23 October 2007
  The Training School will address the European, national and local responses to integration, immigration and citizenship. What is the role, functions and vulnerabilities of integration in the contexts of immigration, citizenship and asylum at the various levels of governance? What are the social impacts of their intersection in processes of inclusion? What is the role of religion and culture? The Training School seeks to address these and other related questions. It brings together young researchers to deepen and widen their knowledge on the issues at stake along with key academics and policy makers.

• US Supreme Court refuses to hear El-Masri Case

  15 October 2007
  On 9th October 2007 the US Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal filed on behalf of the German citizen of Lebanese descent Khaled el-Masri. He claims to have been abducted by US agents and then tortured by them while imprisoned in Afghanistan. The fate of Mr el-Masri has been subject to intensive scrutiny in the investigations of the Council of Europe and the European Parliament on the involvement of European authorities in CIA activities on European territory. Represented by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Mr el-Masri had brought a lawsuit in US federal courts against George Tenet, director of the CIA from 1997 to 2004, seeking damages for illegal treatment.

• Conference Proceedings: Democratic Control and Judicial Accountability in Area of Freedom, Security and Justice

  10 September 2007
  The event included presentations examining the way in which current institutional mechanisms, bodies and procedures applicable to this policy area have an impact on the changing relationship between freedom and security. At the heart of these discussions are the implications of new security policies for individual liberties. The event also served as a forum to present the Mid-Report of the CHALLENGE project gathering its main findings and policy recommendations of the first half of the project’s time span.

• Symposium on «Security and Migration: Challenges to the Liberal State»

  23 July 2007
  The CHALLENGE project and the University of Edinburgh are organising a Symposium on «Security and Migration: Challenges to the Liberal State». The Symposium will take place on 27th August 2007. It will explore the impact of changing practices of security and migration control on liberal norms and institutions in European states.

• A SZABADSÁG ÉS BIZTONSÁG VÁLTOZÓ ÖSSZKÉPE EURÓPÁBAN : A Challange-projekt eredményeiről szóló időközi beszámoló

  2007. július 2.
  A Challange-projekt a jelenlegi liberális kormányok antiliberális joggyakorlatáról alkotott, széles körben elterjedt nézetekre reagál. E gyakorlatok főként a globális mértékben egyre inkább elterjedő biztonság megbomlásból származnak, olyan jelenségekből, melyek széles körben úgy értelmezhetők, mint kötelező intézkedések a hatóságok részéről, következésképpen, mint tulajdonképpeni új korlátok a törvény által biztosított szabadság és az egyén ártatlanságának vélelmének ellenében. A kutats célja olyan ellentmondások vizsgálata, amelyeket azon állítások idéznek elő, miszerint „a biztonság az első számú szabadságjog», ezért új egyensúlyt kell kialakítani, hogy felmérhessük korunk globális veszélyeinek széles skáláját. A projekt első számú tárgya azon irányelvek, illetve veszélyre és megelőzésre hivatkozva kialakított korlátozó intézkedések vizsgálata, amelyek a radikálisan átalakuló környezetben jönnek létre, továbbá ezen intézkedések hatásának vizsgálata a polgári szabadságjogokra, politikai jogokra, illetve a társadalmi kohézióra.

• Challenge Conference : Democratic Control and Judicial Accountability in an Area of Freedom, Security and Justice

  12 June 2007
  Although a majority of the Member States has ratified the draft Constitutional Treaty, which would provide a clear new institutional framework for the EU, its future has just been resolved at the end of June. The construction of an Area of Freedom, Security and Justice represents an important example where an improved institutional framework is desirable not only to improve coherency and transparency of the decision-making processes, but also in order to enhance the degree of democratic control and judicial accountability applying to these policies.

• EU, US and Russia trilateral meeting on counter-terrorism, border management and Afghanistan

  17 April 2007
  A high level meeting comprising inter alia Commission Vice-President Franco Frattini, US Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and the Russian Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev took place the 4th of April in Berlin on the invitation of JHA Council President and German Minister of Interior Wolfgang Schäuble.

• The Changing Landscape of European Liberty and Security: Mid-Term Report on the Results of the CHALLENGE Project

  20 February 2007
  The CHALLENGE project responds to widespread concerns about the resort to specific illiberal practices by contemporary liberal regimes. These practices are linked with the identification of increasing insecurities globally, insecurities that are widely interpreted as obliging sterner policies from the authorities and, consequently, new constraints on principles of liberty under law and presumptions about the innocence of individuals. Specifically, the project examines tensions created by claims that ‘security is the first freedom’ and that a new ‘balance’ has to be established to manage the global scale of contemporary dangers.

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