Publications
JA6
Heterogeneous Electoral Constituencies Against Legislative Gridlock. (Forthcoming)
Res Publica.
Geographic electoral constituencies are used in many democracies to elect a set number of representatives to the national legislature. In the absence of a viable alternative, democratic theorists have largely refrained from questioning the geographic definition of electoral constituencies. Yet, new technologies offer the opportunity to create heterogeneous electoral constituencies, which are not restricted to territory and are as diverse around social identities as the entire electorate. In this paper, I argue that replacing geographic constituencies by heterogeneous constituencies may contribute to preventing legislative gridlock, which threatens the collective decision-making capacity in democracies around the world. I show that geographic constituencies are likely to crystallise cleavages that reinforce geographic divisions, whereas heterogeneous constituencies can be expected to enable the politicisation of multiple cross-cutting cleavages. Reinforcing cleavages heighten political conflict, whereas cross-cutting divisions moderate political conflict and, thereby, facilitate processes of bargaining and coalition-building. Heterogeneous electoral constituencies should therefore be considered as part of an institutional response to the democratic problem of legislative gridlock.
JA5
Denizenship and Democratic Equality. (Forthcoming)
Critical Review of Social and Political Philosophy.
Democracy is assumed to require the equal political inclusion of denizens, as sustained political inequalities between members of society seemingly undermine the democratic ideal of equal freedom. This assumption is prominently expressed by Walzer’s Principle of Political Justice, according to which democratic institutions must attribute equal political rights to denizens in order to sustain their equal protection from domination and the recognition required for free agency. This paper rejects this influential assumption. We argue that denizenship constitutes a social position, in which equal freedom can be enjoyed without political inclusion on equal terms to citizens. Many denizens are citizens somewhere else, and enjoy status, rights, and protections in virtue of their external citizenship, which can protect them from domination and provide them with the recognitional basis of self-respect. The cross-border relationships between denizens and their home country, as well as between the host country and the home country, must therefore be considered when evaluating claims to political inclusion. Accepting the democratic legitimacy of the partial political inclusion of denizens allows us to focus on the most pressing political claims, such as those of refugees and stateless persons. Partial inclusion schemes can also make less restrictive immigration policies more rational and desirable for citizens.
BC3
Legislative Secrecy in Deliberation and Voting. (2023)
In: D.M. Mokrosinska, Secrecy and Democracy: A Philosophical Inquiry, Routledge: 83-103.
@inbook{mokrosinska2024legislative,
title={Legislative secrecy in deliberation and voting},
author={Mokrosinska, D.M. and Bloks, S.A.},
booktitle={State Secrecy and Democracy},
pages={83--103},
year={2023},
publisher={Routledge},
}JA4
The Impact on National Sovereignty of Mutual Recognition in the AFSJ. Case-Study of the European Arrest Warrant. (2021)
German Law Journal 22(1): 45-64.
National sovereignty has been the key consideration for basing judicial cooperation in the European Union on mutual recognition. More than one decade after the creation of the Area of Freedom Security and Justice (AFSJ), this contribution assesses whether mutual recognition-based EU legislation in civil and criminal law indeed respects national sovereignty. To this end, it studies the Framework decision on the European Arrest Warrant (EAW), the EU’s flagship instrument in the AFSJ. We distinguish two elements of national sovereignty: (a) the protection of the State and its basic structures (its statehood); (b) the State’s values, principles and fundamental rights (its statehood principles), and assess the EAW from a dynamic perspective: from its initial inception, in which mutual trust primarily implied little interferences with the laws and practices of issuing states, to the current state of affairs which is marked by what could be called a ‘mutual trust supported by harmonization’- approach. Especially in the judge-driven harmonization of the EAW and the dialogue between judicial authorities we witness important (and oftentimes overlooked) elements that impact national sovereignty. At the end, the findings of the article are put in the context of the current rule of law crisis in the EU.
@article{bloks2021impact,
title={The Impact on National Sovereignty of Mutual Recognition in the AFSJ. Case-Study of the European Arrest Warrant},
author={Bloks, Suzanne Andrea and van den Brink, Ton},
journal={German Law Journal},
volume={22},
number={1},
pages={45--64},
year={2021},
}BC2
The Impact on Sovereignty: Assessing an Essentially Contested Concept. (2018)
In: S. Hardt, A.W. Heringa and A. Waltermann (eds.), Bevrijdende en Begrenzende Soevereiniteit, Boom Juridische Uitgevers: 51-72.
The impact of European institutions and legislation on national sovereignty is often asserted without a clear conceptualisation of sovereignty. This article sheds a new light on the debate over the impact of European institutions and legislation on national sovereignty and the debate over the concept of sovereignty itself. Contestants in both debates are shifting sands, as they are unaware that the essentially contested nature of sovereignty makes it impossible to have an overall accepted definition of the concept. The essentially contested nature is examined and used to argue for a more fruitful approach towards conceptualising sovereignty, namely examining its function in a particular use by a particular group of users. The proposed approach is applied to the use of sovereignty by national constitutional courts in order to give an account of the issues that might be at play when an impact of European institutions and legislation on national sovereignty is claimed.
@incollection{bloks2018sovereignty,
title={The impact on sovereignty: Assessing an essentially contested concept},
author={Mokrosinska, D.M. and Bloks, S.A.},
booktitle={Bevrijdende en Begrenzende Soevereiniteit},
editor={S. Hardt and A.W. Heringa and A. Waltermann},
pages={51--72},
year={2018},
publisher={Boom Juridische Uitgevers},
}JA3
Are Referendums and Parliamentary Elections Reconcilable? The Implications of Three Voting Paradoxes. (2019)
Moral Philosophy and Politics 6(2): 281-311.
In representative democracies, referendum voting and parliamentary elections provide two fundamentally different methods for determining the majority opinion. We use three mathematical paradoxes – so-called majority voting paradoxes – to show that referendum voting can reverse the outcome of a parliamentary election, even if the same group of voters have expressed the same preferences on the issues considered in the referendums and the parliamentary election. This insight about the systemic contrarieties between referendum voting and parliamentary elections sheds a new light on the debate about the supplementary value of referendums in representative democracies. Using this insight, we will suggest legal conditions for the implementation of referendums in representative democracies that can pre-empt the conflict between the two methods for determining the majority opinion.
@article{bloks2019referendums,
title={Are Referendums and Parliamentary Elections Reconcilable? The Implications of Three Voting Paradoxes},
author={Bloks, Suzanne Andrea},
journal={Moral Philosophy and Politics},
volume={6},
number={2},
pages={281--311},
year={2019},
}JA2
De Wet Raadgevend Referendum Afschaffen of Verbeteren? (2018)
Nederlands Juristenblad (2): 85-91.
Bij het besluit om de WRR af te schaffen duiden de genoemde argumenten op noodzaak tot verbetering van de WRR in plaats van noodzaak tot afschaffing. Het gebrek aan inhoudelijke overwegingen over het ontwerp van referenda volgt een trend die is ingezet bij het instellen van de WRR. De introductie van de opkomstdrempel in de WRR geeft dit beeldend weer. Dit artikel maakt inzichtelijk hoe wijziging van de opkomstdrempel in de WRR de werking van raadgevende referenda kan verbeteren. Dit laat zien dat er mogelijkheden zijn om het niet-bindende raadgevend referendum door middel van aanpassingen een beter democratisch instrument te laten zijn.
@article{bloks2018wet,
title={De Wet raadgevend referendum afschaffen of verbeteren?},
author={Bloks, Suzanna Andrea},
journal={Nederlands juristenblad},
volume={2018},
number={2},
pages={85--91},
year={2018}
}JA1
The Regulation of Transfats in Food Products in the US and the EU (2019)
Utrecht Law Review 15(3): 57-77.
The regulation of trans fats sets an interesting precedent for the regulation of other legal but harmful food ingredients, such as salt, sugar and saturated fat. In this paper, we distinguish three regulatory measures to reduce such ingredients in food and population intakes: the labelling of an ingredient, a limit on the amount of the ingredient in food products and a ban on the production technology that creates the ingredient. We will compare the regulations promulgated in the US and in the EU to reduce trans fats in food and population intakes. This comparison will identify a common focus on scientific risk assessment and precautionary action but a different orientation towards regulating the internal market and towards producer interests. The comparison also lays bare differences in the regulatory systems of the US and the EU that may inspire US and EU regulators to reflect on possible improvements for future fights against legal but harmful food ingredients.
@article{bloks2019regulation,
title={The regulation of trans fats in food products in the US and the EU},
author={Bloks, Suzanne Andrea},
journal={Utrecht Law Review},
volume={15},
number={3},
pages={57--77},
year={2019},
}BC1
De Regulering van Transvetten in Levensmiddelen: Vergelijkend onderzoek tussen de VS en de EU. (2018)
In: A.L.M. Kierse, R.S.B. Kool and R. Ortlep (eds.), Ongezond en (on)geoorloofd: Publiek- en privaatrecht & legale maar gezondheidsbedreigende producten, Boom Juridische Uitgevers: 337-368.
In deze studie worden de verschillen en overeenkomsten tussen de VS en de EU in reguleringsmaatregelen tot beperking van transvetten in voedsel besproken. Daarnaast is onderzocht of de sociaaleconomische gerichtheid op economische consumentenbelangen in de VS en op producentenbelangen in de EU een verklaring vormt voor verschillen in reguleringsmaatregelen.
Uit het onderzoek blijkt dat de VS op federaal niveau een aantal beperkende maatregelen heeft getroffen die gericht zijn op het informeren van de consument. Tevens zijn PHO’s, waarin industrieel geproduceerde transvetten voorkomen, onveilig verklaard en vanaf juni 2018 verboden. Lokaal zijn er soms wettelijke bepalingen die limieten stellen aan de gebruikte hoeveelheid transvetten door restaurants. Vanuit de EU zijn geen beperkende maatregelen genomen, maar er zijn voornemens tot een limitering of verbod op toevoeging van transvetten. Wel hebben sommige Europese lidstaten een wettelijke limitering op de hoeveelheid toegevoegde transvetten voor alle geproduceerde verpakte- en niet-verpakte levensmiddelen ingevoerd en zijn er in verschillende lidstaten vrijwillige maatregelen door producenten genomen.
De EU is in haar oriëntatie op maatregelen vooral gericht op het harmoniseren van de interne markt en het verkleinen van sociaaleconomische gezondheidsverschillen binnen de EU. De VS, die al een langere geschiedenis dan de EU kent van strijd tegen gezondheidsbedreigende voedingsmiddelen, lijkt vooral gericht te zijn geweest op maatregelen die de marktwerking en het aanbod niet verstoren. De conclusie wordt getrokken dat bij de maatregelen in de VS op zowel federaal als lokaal niveau het economische consumentenbelang een belangrijke rol speelt terwijl er in de EU een gerichtheid is op het beschermen van de producent. In de EU moeten beperkende maatregelen daanaast vooral leiden tot harmonisering van de interne markt. Op nationaal niveau staat de bescherming van de gezondheid van de consument boven het economisch consumentenbelang.
@incollection{bloks2018transvetten,
title={De regulering van transvetten in levensmiddelen. Vergelijkend onderzoek tussen de VS en de EU},
author={Bloks, S.A.},
booktitle={Ongezond en (on)geoorloofd: Publiek- en privaatrecht \& legale maar gezondheidsbedreigende productenBevrijdende en Begrenzende Soevereiniteit},
editor={A.L.M. Kierse and R.S.B. Kool and R. Ortlep},
pages={337--3368},
year={2018},
publisher={Boom Juridische Uitgevers},
}