Art 21(2) TEU: "The Union shall define and pursue common policies and actions … in order to … preserve peace, prevent conflicts and strengthen international security, in accordance with the purposes and principles of the United Nations Charter …"

Connected reminder: The lawless Trump regime is simultaneously violating "the principle of an independent judiciary" by attacking the International Criminal Court and sanctioning ICC judges... franceintheus.org/spip.php?art...

Kidnapping the leader of a foreign state without any declaration of war and announcing it via social media is full-on rogue state stuff. From the world’s number one superpower.

Lawlessness at home breeds lawlessness abroad

The road to autocracy is paved with false equivalences.

This is not a “duel,” which suggests both sides are equally culpable, but the latest salvo in the Trump administration’s ideological war on Harvard and higher education. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/24/u...

This was exactly Adolf Eichmann's job.

In 2020, the Trump administration invited Ahmed to talk about the rise of anti-semitism online. His mission has not changed, but they have. After Musk took over Twitter he unsuccessfully sued Ahmed for documenting the increase in online hate. Now the Trump admin is enabling Musk's censorship.

I did not understand this: one of the five Europeans the US has barred from traveling to the United States...is a permanent resident who lives with his family in the US. Now he is worried about being arrested and deported for the crime of monitoring online hate. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/25/u...

The government has broad authority to control admission but courts have held *repeatedly*, over more than half a century, that the First Amendment bars the government from denying visas to foreign citizens simply because it dislikes what they have to say. 1/ www.nytimes.com/2025/12/24/b...

The people who profited most from the cancel culture/free speech panic were less interested in actual freedom of speech than establishing their own control over public discourse. You don't even have to take my word for it. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...

A transatlantic showdown over tech policy (as opposed to, say, net zero) could actually have a unifying & galvanising political effect within the EU. The union’s digital regulations are broadly popular and many voters actually want more, not fewer, controls on Big Tech. yougov.co.uk/technology/a...

It begins. The EU lawmaker who was in charge of digital affairs during 🇪🇺President von der Leyen's first term has been banned from entering the United States, because the 🇺🇸 tech giants and government don't like the EU's tech laws. What will be the 🇪🇺President's response?

This is the first time Macron has retaliated so angrily against the provocations of his alleged "friend" Donald Trump. The policy of appeasement and flattery is breaking down.

Crucial point is that Europe does have retaliatory options against coercive action by the Trump administration. And *not* using those options is just as much of a choice - just as much of a signal - as using them. agendapublica.es/noticia/2047...

free speech news

"If needed, we will respond..." Just weak... and this has never been about freedom of expression as alleged by the Trump regime.. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...

MEDEL: [Trump/Putin] attacks "on the ICC, the international legal order and the Rule of law has not yet received an adequate response ... calls on the international community, the [EU] and its Member States to take all necessary measures to protect the role of the ICC" medelnet.eu/medel-stands...

Nina Jankowicz: “They’re not doing this because they have any evidence of censorship — they lost a Supreme Court case that made those claims… They’re doing this because the group of researchers and advocates have stood up to liars like Donald Trump and the platforms that enable them.”

The US govt wants to make the world safe for disinformation spread by US oligarchs. This is not about free speech.

Le régime de Trump frappe de sanctions personnelles : - Les juges qui agissent contre les crimes internationaux - Les responsables d'ONG luttant contre la haine (!) - Un ex-commissaire européen en raison d'un choix démocratique souverain. Ce régime est ennemi mortel de la démocratie libérale.

Good news, and a good example of European citizens standing up against big tech in defense of EU values while the @ec.europa.eu is busy taking orders from Trump and Musk. @noyb.eu

I expect US sanctions against @thierrybreton.bsky.social to force the EU to reverse its deregulation wave, starting with the #digitalomnibus—a gift to US companies and an own goal for European consumer and citizen protection. www.reuters.com/legal/govern... @vonderleyen.ec.europa.eu

After sanctioning ICC judges, the lawless Trump regime is targeting individuals for upholding EU law. Time for EU and its MS to grow a spine and respond to this non-stop authoritarian bullying - and perhaps I don’t know, start with easy step of leaving X before forcefully applying the law to it…

A fantastic NYT report: Donors to Trump get pardons, jobs, & access - and benefited from regulatory decisions the Trump admin has made. SUPER timely as SCOTUS is about to kill agency independence & give POTUS more control over agencies (likely to donors' benefit) www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Nearly one year ago, Roberts clapped back at critics for tainting the judiciary’s independence and threatening the rule of law. Roberts and his colleagues then spent the next 12 months embracing upheaval in the democratic system at the behest of one individual. www.courthousenews.com/court-watche...

The CBS investigation portrays a modern concentration camp, similar to the Soviet GULAG (like CECOT, an acronym): sadistic guards, 24 hour lighting, isolation cells. Americans once opposed this inhumane system. The Trump administration sent innocent people there to suffer.

Instead of "closely monitoring" the situation, the @vonderleyen.ec.europa.eu @ec.europa.eu should have activated both the pre-Article 7 procedure & the conditionality regulation months ago - see e.g. EPPO letter of Dec *2023* www.eppo.europa.eu/en/media/new...

📩 Over 50 academics and experts specialising have written to the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee to express their concern about misleading rhetoric that risks undermining constructive transatlantic dialogue on digital regulation. 👉 Read the letter here: lnkd.in/eYsjwzTv

This is a good message and it was no doubt emotionally satisfying to post it - but seriously, the European Commission and other EU institutions need to get off X.

"I think the main lessons are that the window for resistance closes in competitive authoritarian regimes over time" (Prof Scheiring) Worth reading piece. Includes comments by Professor Andrea Pető, Professor @kimlanelaw.bsky.social and others

After the rise of AI-generated fake case citations, we're now witnessing the proliferation of references to fake academic articles... www.rollingstone.com/culture/cult...

“We therefore dismiss their appeals without expressing any views on the merits of any charges or defenses in this apparently unprecedented prosecution.” That’s not exactly good language for the government. Now that Judge Dugan has been convicted, her immunity argument would seem ripe for a hearing."

"Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), a leading sponsor of the law requiring the Trump administration to release the full Jeffrey Epstein files, said Friday that the Justice Department is “grossly” violating its legal obligations." thehill.com/homenews/hou...

With comments by @profkochenov.bsky.social, @annawojcik.bsky.social, Prof Wojciech Sadurski & yours truly www.courthousenews.com/eu-court-say...

“They [The Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia] don’t have to pay — but we will make them pay for it [politically],” said a senior European official

A quick explanation of how this borrowing to assist Ukraine will work. "Enhanced cooperation" means EU law is being used, but some Member States opt out. The process has been applied a few times before, but never before re the EU budget. 1/

The essence of the #EUCO compromise is in the annexed doc. 26/25 : - The Reparations Loan is (indefinitely) postponed but still kept as a potential long-term option; - In the short-term we a have direct #EU loan of 90 € billion - Use of enhanced cooperation to do the trick

Good day for the rule of law today: In exceptional cases, the General Court must, in order to guarantee effective judicial protection of an applicant "which is fundamental in the [EU] as a Union based on the rule of law, make use of those powers to supplement the information it possesses" C‑136/24 P

This is extraordinary, heartbreaking, and a red alert warning sign for our democracy. These people are about to be federal judges, and they refuse to answer whether the U.S. Capitol was attacked on January 6. They say they can't comment because it's "a political controversy".

Dec 2017: "Today in Poland the constitutionality of legislation can no longer be guaranteed" following capture of Constitutional Tribunal (Commission) Dec 2025: 🇵🇱 (Un)constitutional tribunal ceased to be a court by Dec 2016 following process of irregular appointments starting in Dec 2015 (ECJ)

🇪🇺⚖️🇵🇱 Revenge is a dish best served cold (and after five years). Moments ago, CJEU, in the case Commission v. Poland, found that the Polish Constitutional Tribunal has not only violated EU law with its anti-EU rulings, but also was (is) not an independent court established properly by law. 1/

Dire state-of-the-DOJ report shows that the DC US attorney had a 21% dismissal rate on criminal complaints and that nearly 3,000 lawyers have left the dept so far in 2025. Justice is falling apart - in many ways. www.reuters.com/legal/govern...