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Begin New Search Political Geography Europe Content Type Journal Article

1501. New Legal Instruments in a Changing World: Legal, Political and Cultural Developments in EU Judicial Cooperation

Author:
Daniela Piana
Publication Date:
03-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The International Spectator
Institution:
Istituto Affari Internazionali
Abstract:
At the closing of the 20th century, Europe decided the time was ripe to take bold steps towards the creation of a truly integrated European judicial space. Of its overall goals for the new millennium, judicial integration ranked at the top as this reflected shifting global challenges in an increasingly diversified world. After more than a decade, the reality is still that of a policy area in which multiple practices of cooperation coexist. Indeed, political and cultural factors matter in explaining how judicial decisions and practices are harmonised and integrated by EU member states. The article focuses on a number of socialisation mechanisms adopted by the EU to build mutual trust among national authorities and also looks at the European Arrest Warrant as an important test bed of the strengths and weaknesses of European judicial cooperation.
Political Geography:
Europe

1502. Breaking Free from Europe: Why Africa Needs Another Model of Regional Integration

Author:
Peter Draper
Publication Date:
03-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The International Spectator
Institution:
Istituto Affari Internazionali
Abstract:
Support for regional economic integration in Africa runs high amongst the continent's international development partners and African elites. However, its expression in European forms of economic integration is not appropriate to regional capacities and in some cases may do more harm than good. This lacuna is exacerbated by technical and theoretical analyses rooted either in economics or international relations literature. This article sets out to reconceptualise the foundations of African economic integration by reviewing key debates within each literature and comparing the results across disciplinary boundaries. Overall, it is concluded that a much more limited approach is required, one that prioritises trade facilitation and regulatory cooperation in areas related primarily to the conduct of business; underpinned by a security regime emphasizing the good governance agenda at the domestic level. Care should be taken to design the ensuing schemes in such a way as to avoid contributing to major implementation and capacity challenges in establishing viable and legitimate states. In doing so, the presence of regional leaders with relatively deep pockets - South Africa in the Southern African case - points to the imperative of building such limited regional economic arrangements around key states.
Topic:
Development, Economics, and Governance
Political Geography:
Africa, Europe, and South Africa

1503. Conclusion - Building Regions from Below: Has the Time Come for Regionalism 2.0?

Author:
Lorenzo Fioramonti
Publication Date:
03-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The International Spectator
Institution:
Istituto Affari Internazionali
Abstract:
In a changing world ridden with crises and characterized by a general redistribution of power, regional organizations need to reinvent themselves. Equally, the study of regionalism has to reject its traditional Eurocentrism to embrace new conceptual categories in order to describe more effectively the variety of regional processes across the world. Against this background, this article looks the European project and its current crisis before discussing other regional 'experiments' in Africa, Asia and Latin America, which rest on different principles but also manifest considerable shortcomings. The analysis points to need to look at regionalism with a critical eye, emphasizing the undeniably important achievements but also the hidden threats that a certain model of regional integration (for instance, the classical top-down elite-driven process adopted by the EU founding fathers) can pose to the sustainability of regional cohesion and the adaptability of this model to other areas of the world.
Political Geography:
Africa, Europe, Asia, and Latin America

1504. Overcoming the 'sui generis' Argument? A Look Abroad for EU Studies

Author:
Miguel Haubrich-Seco
Publication Date:
03-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The International Spectator
Institution:
Istituto Affari Internazionali
Abstract:
Review of: Rethinking EU studies : the contribution of comparative regionalism. A special issue of the Journal of European Integration, edited by Luk Van Langenhove and Alex Warleigh-Lack, Routledge, 2010
Political Geography:
Europe

1505. Integration Through Fear

Publication Date:
02-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Abstract:
Quos Deus vult perdere prius dementat! The manner in which Europe is addressing its grave crisis seems to be validating this piece of wisdom attributed to Euripides, Seneca and others.
Political Geography:
Europe

1506. Al-Skeini and Al-Jedda in Strasbourg

Author:
Marko Milanovic
Publication Date:
02-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Abstract:
The article analyses the European Court of Human Rights' recent judgments in Al-Skeini v. United Kingdom and Al-Jedda v. United Kingdom. The former is set to become the leading Strasbourg authority on the extraterritorial application of the ECHR; the latter presents significant developments with regard to issues such as the dual attribution of conduct to states and to international organizations, norm conflict, the relationship between the ECHR and general international law, and the ability or inability of UN Security Council decisions to displace human rights treaties by virtue of Article 103 of the UN Charter. The article critically examines the reasoning behind the two judgments, as well as their broad policy implications regarding ECHR member state action abroad and their implementation of various Security Council measures.
Political Geography:
United Kingdom and Europe

1507. International Courts and the European Legal Order

Author:
Matthew Parish
Publication Date:
02-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Abstract:
The growth of a range of different areas of international law gives rise to the possibility of conflict between them. International courts and tribunals created by one branch of international law may be called upon to adjudicate in other areas of the discipline. The risk of conflict presents a particularly acute problem to the EU legal order, because the Court of Justice of the European Union sees itself as the final, and exclusive, authority on questions of interpretation of EU law. On two occasions the Court has issued opinions prohibiting EU Member States from signing agreements creating international courts, because those courts' roles would necessitate construing EU law and their composition would mean they could not guarantee the 'homogeneity' necessary to EU law. The more recent of these opinions, concerning the European and Community Patents Court, sets an unusual legal test for the consistency of international tribunals with the EU legal order that, taken to its logical conclusion, would preclude several well-established international courts and tribunals to which EU Member States are parties. Ultimately this standard may fetter development of EU law, and the ECJ would do well to adopt a more flexible approach.
Political Geography:
Europe

1508. Editorial Note

Author:
Linos-Alexander Sicilianos and Thomas Skouteris
Publication Date:
02-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Abstract:
This symposium on interwar international law jurist Nicolas Politis is part of EJIL's long-standing project to reappraise the European tradition of international law. This brief Editorial Note has two aims. First, it casts an inward – if furtive – glance at the enterprise of intellectual history in international law at large. Secondly, it explains the choice of Nicolas Politis as the focus of this symposium as well as the part played by the five essays featured therein.
Political Geography:
Europe

1509. It Only Takes One to Tango

Author:
Moshe Behar
Publication Date:
01-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Palestine Studies
Institution:
Institute for Palestine Studies
Abstract:
Think of a prominent Arab-Jewish scholar who had published dozens of books about themes pertaining to the modern history of his native Middle East (for example Murad Farag or Avra-ham Elmaleh). Imagine further that al-though he did not have a command of Latin, English, French, or German, our heuristic Arab-Jewish author proceeded to write a book about the his-tory of Western European Jewry during the past fourteen centuries, titling it In Jesus' House: A History of Jews in Christian Lands. Would academic presses be likely to entertain publication of such a work? Would scholars of Western European Jewry be likely to view such a text favorably or as being authoritative? These were my first thoughts after reading Sir Martin Gilbert's staggeringly ambitious book, aiming to survey the history of Jews from Morocco to Afghanistan, notwithstanding his lack of Arabic, Persian, or Ottoman Turkish.
Political Geography:
Afghanistan, Europe, Turkey, Middle East, Arabia, and Germany

1510. Middle East Quartet, Statement Urging the Resumption of Israeli-Palestinian Peace Talks, New York, 23 September 2011

Publication Date:
01-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Palestine Studies
Institution:
Institute for Palestine Studies
Abstract:
With the approach of the annual UN General Assembly (UNGA) session and the Palestinians not yet completely de- cided on whether to go ahead with a bid for full membership in the world body, the U.S. in late August 2011 stepped up efforts to avert the move. These included pressure on the Palestinians to accept a proposal by the Middle East Quartet (the U.S., EU, Russia, and the UN) to revive Israeli-Palestinian peace talk in lieu of their statehood bid. U.S. envoys pre- sented several formulas, but the Pales- tinians found them insufficient and not serious, and said that even if a viable proposal were presented, the statehood bid would proceed (see Quarterly Update in this issue for details). The U.S. urged its Quartet partners to issue a statement on reviving talks nonetheless, believing it would give the U.S. leverage to argue that an alternative to the statehood bid still existed through negotiations, and that until all negotiating prospects were exhausted unilateral Palestinian steps should be opposed.
Political Geography:
Russia, United States, Europe, Middle East, Israel, Palestine, and United Nations