Es gibt in Deutschland bisher wenige Erhebungen dazu, wie Politiker:innen wissenschaftliche Erkenntnisse für ihre Arbeit nutzen. Um diese Kenntnislücke zu füllen, hat die Nationale Akademie der Wissenschaften Leopoldina eine Erhebung beauftragt, die sich an die Mitglieder des Deutschen...

Gegen den Landeshaushalt 2022 des Freistaats Thüringen bestehen nach Einschätzung von Helmut Siekmann erhebliche verfassungsrechtliche Bedenken. In einem Gutachten kommt Siekmann zu dem Schluss, dass sich die festgestellten globalen Minderausgaben im Vergleich zum gesamten Haushaltsvolumen...

We study the extent to which personal connections among legislators influence abstentions in the U.S. Congress. Our analysis is conducted by observing representatives' abstention for the universe of roll call votes held on bills in the 109th-113th Congresses. Our results show that a legislator's...

In this paper, we propose a new approach to the estimation of social networks and we apply it to the estimation of productivity spillovers in the U.S. Congress. Social networks such as the social connections among lawmakers are not generally directly observed, they can be recovered only using...

In most countries Parliamentary immunity protects lawmakers from civil or criminal charges while in office, and it shields them from prosecution for their political speech or political actions. This paper presents the first empirical analysis in the literature of the impact of Parliamentary...

Using data from a unique survey of members of parliaments in France, Germany and Italy in 2018, we estimate the effects of three dimensions on EU and euro area fiscal reform preferences: nationality, political ideology, and populism. We predict and confirm that a German populist party on the...

A wise man once said: ‘Just when you think things cannot get any worse, they will.’ The year 2019 was such a dramatic year for Turkey. The agenda was as loaded as ever. In early 2019, the stinging defeat of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in the municipal elections made...

This paper questions the relevance of constitutional law in legal systems. Comparative constitutional law scholars have become used to the assumption that constitutional law is a universal point of reference which can be addressed in comparison. If comparative constitutional law is intended to...

The importance of user-generated content is growing as media consumption is moving online; yet, investigations of media bias on user-generated content platforms are rare. We develop a novel procedure to detect coverage bias – i.e., bias in the amount of coverage certain topics or issues receive...

The year 2019 for the Iran jurisdiction, in a nutshell, was a year characterized by intense polarization, with a deterioration of recent critical developments in the jurisdiction. In 2019, the two fundamental characteristics of the Constitution, Islamic and Republican, representing the...

The last three decades have witnessed a sharp increase in the number of states with spilt Senate delegations, featuring two senators of different parties. In addition, there is evidence that senators of different parties do not cluster in the middle: they are genuinely polarized. We propose a...

Hard cases present a dilemma at the heart of constitutional law. Courts have a duty to decide them—to vindicate rights, to clarify law—but doing so leads to errors (judges do not know the “right answer”) and strains the credibility of courts as impartial decision makers. Theories of...

We link future members of Congress to the de-anonymized 1940 census to offer a uniquely detailed analysis of how economically unrepresentative American politicians were in the 20th century, and why. Future members under the age of 18 in 1940 grew up in households with parents who earned more...

Using data from a unique survey of members of parliaments in France, Germany and Italy in 2018, we estimate the effects of three dimensions on EU and euro area fiscal reform preferences: nationality, political ideology, and populism. We predict and confirm that a German populist party on the...

Fraus legis – defrauding or evading the application of law – is a phenomenon well-known to students of private law, but its application in public law, including constitutional law, remains largely unconsidered. To consider whether a transaction, or, it is submitted, an enactment, is an...

Die Studie analysiert die (verfassungs-)rechtlichen Möglichkeiten für den Bund unter der Schuldenbremse im Grundgesetz, Investitionen und in diesem Zusammenhang auch Infrastrukturinvestitionen durch Kreditaufnahmen jenseits der für den Bundeshaushalt festgelegten Grenze von strukturell 0,35 %...

This article considers the constitutional nature of socio-economic rights under the Hong Kong Basic Law, principally through the lens of article 39 which mandates the implementation of the International Covenant on Social, Economic and Cultural Rights into domestic law. So far, the Hong Kong...

Predominantly a European phenomenon, the study of legal iconography has expanded to the common law world and informed approaches to Anglo-American legal development. European painting, sculptures, and other artwork were used in forensic settings to channel behavior of judges, lawyers, and...