February 28 vote: Lawprofessors of Swiss universities are concerned
The academic legal profession in Switzerland is concerned about the enforcement initiative.
The popular initiative "Enforce the expulsion of foreign criminals", also known as the enforcement initiative, has led the academic legal profession in Switzerland to issue a joint statement ahead of the vote on 28 February.
More than 150 professors at legal faculties around Switzerland have declared that the initiative "constitutes in many respects a grave threat to the rule of law in Switzerland". They warn that the text of the initiative threatens "the key principles of the rule of law as guaranteed by the Swiss federal constitution", especially the principle of proportionality, the separation of powers and the validity of basic rights in the legal order as a whole.
At the same time, Matthias Mahlmann, professor of legal theory and public international law at the University of Zurich, has published a statement to highlight the fact that the initiative is in breach of basic principles of European law by which Switzerland is bound under the Agreement on the Free Movement of Persons. Mahlmann, who also acts as an expert for the National Research Council of the Swiss National Science Foundation, explains that the initiative, if accepted, would profoundly and negatively affect scientific research in Switzerland.