Editorial | Volume 23 No. 9

Dear Readers,

 

What a year this has been! While many of us had the chance to get back together and experience the inspiring atmosphere of academic conferences taking place “in-person”, meeting friends and colleagues from all over the world, others suddenly had to deal with a war in their home country or at their doorstep, taking lives, shattering hopes and dreams.

 

Maybe this most recent issue of the GLJ, which we packed with great research on Public International Law and EU Law, will be good for some distraction, delivering new insights into the topics raised by our knowledgeable authors.

 

Jason Beckett in his piece “The Divisible: A Day in the Lives of Public International Law” analyzes the bifurcation of public international law into the material and the narrative form and its methodological fragmentation. Written from the Global South, the article aims at centralizing the under-developed states’ experiences of international law.

 

With the article “Conflicting Conceptions of Hate Speech in the ECtHR’s Case Law” Stefan Sottiaux takes on a very timely topic. He works out with great care that the ECtHR’s Case Law regarding hate speech lacks consistency; he proposes a new strategy the court should pursue, in order to avoid the allegation of applying double standards.

 

Marius Pieterse turns towards the rise of urban local government as domestic locus for state power and responsibility and thus an actor of increasing significance in international law. His article “Urbanizing Human Rights Law: Cities, Local Governance and Corporate Power” sheds light onto this role development, and how human rights law should and could reclaim primary normative relevance for governance.

 

The two last articles in this issue attend to topics arising from digitalization. With his article “Social Media Platforms within Internal Market Construction: Patterns of Reproduction in EU Platform Law” Miikka Hiltunen turns towards the challenges regarding governance of online platforms and the regulatory means the European Union adopted. Annelieke A.M. Mooij explores how the renewable energy targets, a secondary mandate of the European Central Bank (ECB), will impact the ECB’s decision making, when it comes to the digital euro, an energy intensive new monetary tool, in her Article “The Digital Euro and Energy Considerations: Can the ECB Introduce the Digital Euro Considering the Potential Energy Requirements?”

 

As you can see, the GLJ provides once again an interesting and inspiring selection of scholarship that we hope you will appreciate!

 

So if you’re in the Northern hemisphere, like me, get yourself some tea, make yourself comfortable on this long winter’s eves – or pour yourself some iced tea if you’re in the Southern hemisphere and chill through the summer night, but wherever you are: enjoy what the German Law Journal brings to you at this time!

 

Happy reading,

 

Emanuel V. Towfigh