Pekka Pohjankoski
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Pekka Pohjankoski
@pekkapohjankoski.bsky.social
Lawyer and legal academic (PhD) @ Turku Uni, researching EU law + legal and intellectual history. Studied @ Harvard, Helsinki, Sorbonne. Formerly civil servant @ EU Court, FIN MFA.
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How to uphold #primacy of #EU law? Increasingly the answer in practice has been: via offsetting. I wrote an Op-Ed for EU Law Live on this!

Open access for the next few days: eulawlive.com/op-ed-guaran...
Op-Ed: “Guaranteeing Primacy of EU Law via offsetting, again: General Court upholds the Commission’s Recovery of EUR 320 million in Interim-Measure Penalties (T-830/22 & T-156/23, Poland v Commission;...
Introduction: Poland’s Last-Ditch Challenge to Primacy of EU Law On 5 February 2025, the General Court confirmed in T-830/22 & T-156/23, Poland v Commission, and T-1033/23, Poland v Commission …
eulawlive.com
Reposted by Pekka Pohjankoski
The full list of all 18,500 children killed in Gaza, in video form.

www.washingtonpost.com/world/intera...
August 4, 2025 at 6:28 PM
In peak-of-summer interview my comments to Finnish News Agency (STT) on Poland’s decision to reintroduce border checks on its German and Lithuanian borders (in 🇫🇮).
🇩🇪 🇱🇹 🇵🇱🇪🇺🚨🚔 ⚖️🎤☀️
www.ksml.fi/uutissuomala...
Puola aloittaa rajatarkastukset Saksan ja Liettuan vastaisilla rajoillaan – onko kyse uudesta normaalista Euroopassa?
Puola aloittaa maanantaina väliaikaiset rajatarkastukset Saksan ja Liettuan vastaisilla rajoillaan estääkseen laittoman maahantulon.
www.ksml.fi
July 6, 2025 at 8:56 AM
A very insightful piece on weaponizing and undermining the nature of 🇺🇸 legal pro bono work

www.nytimes.com/2025/05/15/o...
Opinion | There’s a Darker Reason Trump Is Going After Those Law Firms
www.nytimes.com
May 17, 2025 at 5:45 AM
Reposted by Pekka Pohjankoski
Brilliant piece-one of the best on the overall meaning of Donald Trump’s second term. verfassungsblog.de/trump-2-0-as...
Trump 2.0 as ‘Dual State'?
verfassungsblog.de
May 6, 2025 at 12:03 PM
Reposted by Pekka Pohjankoski
Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp said his government is "drawing a line in the sand" over the Gaza humanitarian aid blockade, which he says goes against international humanitarian law.

#EuropeNews
The Netherlands pivots on Israel, asking for EU trade deal review
Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp said his government is "drawing a line in the sand" over the Gaza humanitarian aid blockade, which he says goes against international humanitarian law.
l.euronews.com
May 8, 2025 at 4:52 PM
Reposted by Pekka Pohjankoski
"I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."
May 4, 2025 at 2:22 PM
New publication! 🇪🇺⚖️🔔 I recently published in Maastricht Journal of European and Comparative Law (MJECL, open access) the piece "Bolstering federal execution of EU law: Case C-123/22 Commission v. Hungary (Reception of applicants for international protection II)" 🧵 1/3
May 4, 2025 at 8:44 AM
In our lifetime, it’s never been as easy to know where the right side of history is

www.nytimes.com/2025/04/30/u...
Behind Trump’s Deal to Deport Venezuelans to El Salvador’s Most Feared Prison
New details deepen questions about the deportations, showing that El Salvador’s president pressed for assurances that the migrants were really members of the Tren de Aragua gang.
www.nytimes.com
April 30, 2025 at 3:32 PM
And today #EU Court of Justice did just that 👌🏻✨ A very important judgment!
curia.europa.eu/juris/docume...
April 29, 2025 at 7:49 PM
Reposted by Pekka Pohjankoski
For nearly 60 days, no food, fuel, medicine or other items has entered the Gaza Strip, blocked by Israel.

Aid groups are running out of food to distribute. Markets are nearly bare.

Palestinian families are left struggling to feed their children.
For nearly 60 days, Israel has blocked food from Gaza. Palestinians struggle to feed their families
For nearly 60 days, no food, fuel, medicine or other item has entered the Gaza Strip, blocked by Israel.
bit.ly
April 27, 2025 at 5:00 PM
The ⁦EU Court of Justice‬⁩ will have a wonderful opportunity to empower the #EU #citizenship in its upcoming judgment while condemning the system of the Maltese ‘golden’ passports, the corrupt character of which is well laid out by ⁦‪@FT‬⁩

#EUlaw 🇪🇺⚖️

www.ft.com/content/b6ac...
Maltese ‘golden’ passports were sold to Russians with Ukraine war links
Paid-for citizenship that could be banned by European court was handed to people who later faced sanctions
www.ft.com
April 27, 2025 at 3:02 PM
’Governments consistently fail to recognise “that a citizen with a legal problem needs to be treated, like somebody with a health problem”’

www.ft.com/content/1db3...
Broken Justice: how Europe let its courts decay
Underfunding of the continent’s justice systems is a threat to democracy, senior lawyers warn
www.ft.com
April 27, 2025 at 6:36 AM
Reposted by Pekka Pohjankoski
Not only does this entire article send shivers up my spine, but I learned this morning that Clay was also fired from his job after this article came out.

slate.com/news-and-pol...
The Courage to Be Decent
The goal isn’t to police all behavior at all times. It’s to make us fearful to the point that we police our own behavior.
slate.com
April 25, 2025 at 1:59 PM
An incredibly outspoken, powerful opinion that deserves to be read first-hand
NEWS: Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson, a Reagan appointee, assails the Trump admin’s behavior in the Abrego Garcia case in a unanimous opinion rejecting DOJ’s request for the Fourth Circuit to block Judge Xinis’s order that the government “facilitate” his return. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
April 17, 2025 at 8:44 PM
Reposted by Pekka Pohjankoski
NEW 🧵

The number of people travelling from Europe to the US in recent weeks has plummeted by as much as 35%, as travellers have cancelled plans in response to Trump’s policies and rhetoric, and horror stories from the border.

Story: www.ft.com/content/6dc1...
April 11, 2025 at 7:03 PM
Reposted by Pekka Pohjankoski
Professor criticizes various judicial behavior:

Gets accused by right-wing judges and commentators of jeopardizing judicial independence and even provoking death threats against specific federal judges.

Speaker of the House proposes dismantling federal courts:

Crickets.
“We do have authority over the Federal Courts. We can eliminate an entire district court. Desperate times call for desperate measures and Congress is going to act. So, stay tuned for that”

—Mike Johnson
March 29, 2025 at 2:35 PM
Reposted by Pekka Pohjankoski
The Trump administration's assault on the rule of law is increasingly focusing on institutions of knowledge and law.

VICKI C. JACKSON (@harvard.edu) on a "multipronged attack", why knowledge institutions are crucial for democracies - and why it is time to resist.

verfassungsblog.de/education-de...
March 29, 2025 at 1:06 PM
Reposted by Pekka Pohjankoski
The Massachusetts governor, the city, and the university needs to drop everything to locate and free this girl and make sure this doesn't happen again.

This is DEFCON-1. If they do this to someone who wrote an op-ed in a college newspaper, they will do this to anyone they don't like.
Video of the international student at Tufts being arrested by "federal authorities" in Massachusetts has been released and it's terrifying.

They're not even uniformed officers. Just secret police thugs in hoodies and masks.

From WCVB: youtu.be/PuFIs7OkzYY
March 26, 2025 at 6:57 PM
How to uphold #primacy of #EU law? Increasingly the answer in practice has been: via offsetting. I wrote an Op-Ed for EU Law Live on this!

Open access for the next few days: eulawlive.com/op-ed-guaran...
Op-Ed: “Guaranteeing Primacy of EU Law via offsetting, again: General Court upholds the Commission’s Recovery of EUR 320 million in Interim-Measure Penalties (T-830/22 & T-156/23, Poland v Commission;...
Introduction: Poland’s Last-Ditch Challenge to Primacy of EU Law On 5 February 2025, the General Court confirmed in T-830/22 & T-156/23, Poland v Commission, and T-1033/23, Poland v Commission …
eulawlive.com
March 24, 2025 at 8:17 AM
Trump administration assumes wartime powers (Alien Enemies Act 1798) for internal peacetime policies (immigration). What could possibly go wrong?

www.nytimes.com/live/2025/03...
A judge moves to immediately halt deportations, ordering any planes be turned around.
The order declared that unauthorized Venezuelan immigrants who are at least 14 years old and part of the Tren de Aragua gang can be “apprehended, restrained, secured and removed.”
www.nytimes.com
March 16, 2025 at 5:40 AM
International or constitutional currents? My talk (in 🇫🇮) *The Finnish Legal Order and the Currents of European Integration: From Free Trade to Federative Constitution* at Finnish Lawyers’ Association Feb event is available here (from 1’04”56): tinyurl.com/4c3rs343
🇪🇺🇫🇮⚖️🌊🎤🎥
#EU #constitutionallaw
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tinyurl.com
February 26, 2025 at 7:14 AM