Comprehensive Agreement Research Articles

International Soft Law Governance of Artificial Intelligence: Advantages, Approaches, and Credibility

Given the transnational nature of data and algorithms associated with artificial intelligence, individual countries often face challenges in developing an effective governance system. Ensuring a healthy, stable, and sustainable AI ecosystem requires international communication, cooperation, and interaction. However, in the emerging and fast-changing interdisciplinary field of AI, internationally binding laws like treaties and agreements cannot be easily established overnight. Multilateral negotiations and local consultations are necessary, as each provision must be carefully considered and weighed, a process that is time-consuming and slow in yielding results. Therefore, it is clear that non-coercive soft law methods are necessary to achieve rapid international consensus and facilitate action. Soft law intervention provides practical space in the current landscape of Internet governance and is both necessary and feasible. At the very least, soft law can initiate the process of legalizing Internet governance. The application of soft law can encourage countries to reach some foundational and framework agreements, enabling practical and effective preparations for future, more comprehensive agreements that may be reached.

The securitisation of international economic law and ‘global security’: an analysis of the EU law approach through the prism of the Common Commercial Policy

The so-called ‘securitisation’ of international economic law is largely premised and enacted on grounds of defensive security exceptions, whereby governments invoke their national security interests to depart from their international economic obligations. This article aims to contribute to the ongoing debate on the compatibility of such security-driven unilateral measures with international law and within the current system of global governance, by exploring whether legal patterns tackling essential security interests under international economic law may reach beyond State-centred national security interests to also encompass concerns arising from global security threats (such as environmental security). In doing so, this article focuses on the relevant approaches taken by the European Union (EU), particularly in the operation of the EU Common Commercial Policy (CCP) under Article 207 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. The EU enjoys broad exclusive competence in framing and implementing its trade and investment policy under the CCP, both in terms of its internal regulation and external action. In this context, security considerations are bound to arise. This article explores a series of relevant legal instruments originating from or concluded by the EU, and analyses how these incorporate security considerations and the EU’s understanding of the concept of security thereunder. After considering security under EU primary law, the article reviews the position taken by the EU as a bilateral treaty player, by reference to the Trade and Comprehensive Agreement with the United Kingdom, and as a member of the World Trade Organization, notably on the interpretation of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade security exceptions clause. It also looks into EU internal action on foreign direct investment screening, export control and foreign subsidies regulations, as well as the EU’s proposed ‘anti-coercion mechanism’ and its ‘global human rights sanction regime’. The analysis of the EU’s multifaceted practice shows that while global security concerns may increasingly underlie obligations to cooperate and coordination clauses, existent security-related legal patterns in bilateral and multilateral treaty practice remain ‘national security’-centred; and despite the increasing ‘enlargement’ of the scope of national security to encompass additional non-military threats, the vast array of global security threats and vulnerabilities are hardly covered by this expansion.

THE IMPLEMENTATION OF PACTA SUNT SERVANDA PRINCIPLE AS A BASIS FOR MAKING MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING

Memorandum of Undersatanding is an initial agreement that regulates and provides an opportunity for the parties to conduct a feasibility study before arriving at a more comprehensive agreement. Making a Memorandum of Undersatanding requires the implementation of the principle of pacta sunt servanda to show that the parties have a binding agreement with each other. This research aims to find out how the implementation of pacta sunt servanda principle as the basis for making Memorandum of Undersatanding and how the legal position of Memorandum of Undersatanding. Using normative juridical legal research method with qualitative analysis. The results of this study conclude that the implementation of the principle of pacta sunt servanda as the basis for making Memorandum of Undersatanding is very important to ensure that the parties fulfill their promises and commitments and the agreement is respected and fulfilled by the parties. The legal position of the Memorandum of Understanding from the perspective of contract law is as an informal agreement that is not legally binding, but has strategic and diplomatic importance.

Impact assessment of Community Engagement Programs of San Beda University in Pactil, Bauko, Mountain Province

The study is a follow-through analysis of past research among St. Bede Mushroom and Vegetable Growers Association (SBMVGA) stakeholders which seeks to determine the impact of the Community Engagement Programs initiated by San Beda University concerning its economic, social, educational, spiritual, and psychological dimensions. It was guided by an “ex-post” impact assessment framework conceptualized by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and anchored on the theory of change provided by UNDG-UNDAF (United Nations Development Group – United Nations Development Assistance Framework). The research aims to: (1) analyze past studies on SBU community engagement programs via documentary analysis; (2) conduct an impact assessment survey and analysis among SBMVGA beneficiaries and analyze using Excel Data Analysis and Jamovi; and (3) generate recommendations for the CEC-SBU to further strengthen community engagements and partnerships moving forward. Upon completion, the key findings include the following: (1) the beneficiaries are willing and able to implement the SBU-CEC initiated programs on their own; and (2) spiritual dimensions had the highest and strongly significant value in terms of impact while economic dimensions had the lowest yet still significant value in terms of impact. Based on the findings obtained the recommendations for SBU as an institution to consider include the following: (1) a gradual and phase-based turnover of the SBU-CEC programs to the local government unit in Pactil, Bauko, Mountain Province is encouraged; and (2) a targeted and comprehensive agreement and undertaking should still be done by the CEC-SBU concerning its service assistance, monitoring and evaluation – capitalizing on SBU’s various clusters and colleges towards its partner communities.

Chunlei Zhao: International investment and dispute settlement: understanding the China-European Union Comprehensive Agreement on Investment

Chunlei Zhao: <i>International investment and dispute settlement: understanding the China-European Union Comprehensive Agreement on Investment</i>

Trade, Businesses, and Economy of U.K. Post-Brexit— A Quantitative Analysis

Many studies have been carried out on Brexit’s economic impact on the UK, EU27, the US, and the rest of the world. Depending on the assumption of whether Brexit will be a hard Brexit or a soft Brexit, almost all studies predicted Blows to the economies of the UK and the EU, with a more severe blow to the UK economy. With the Trade Co-operation Agreement signed by the end of the year 2020 and the actual divorce of the UK from the EU with effect from 01-01-2021, the actual effects of Brexit came to reflect in various economic data reported by various national and international agencies. This paper makes an effort to analyse these hard data and examine the Brexit impacts on various sectors. It has also taken clues from the various surveys on the problems faced by businesses on the border, shortage of labour, etc. In February 2023, a protocol on Northern Ireland was finalized which became a part of the EU-UK withdrawal agreement that now ensures that a hard border is avoided for the UK export items on the island. This protocol was agreed upon between the United Kingdom, Northern Ireland (UK), and the European Union (EU) as the final settlement designed to protect Ireland’s economy and Belfast Agreement. The study concludes that the UK has done a relatively good job of managing the inevitable Brexit disruptions, including transitional measures for border softening. In order to achieve the laudable goal of having the best border in the world by the year 2025, the UK will require streamlining the Regulatory Control Systems. The UK has also entered into a Comprehensive Agreement with Trans-Pacific Partnership. But much is still to be done on the Domestic Regulatory Reforms front. Unless the UK uses the coming years to engage in putting in place proper, meaningful, and comprehensive regulatory reforms, the opportunities for Brexit may be wasted.

Tax Cooperation Between the European Union and China

In this article, the author outlines the initiatives that are being taken to increase cooperation between China and the European Union, including the European Union-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment and China’s Belt and Road Initiative. In particular, the author focusses on tax cooperation as a starting point for furthering cooperation in other areas, an example of which is the Belt and Road Initiative Tax Administration Cooperation Mechanism (BRITACOM).

EU – WESTERN BALKANS: PROBLEMS OF INTEGRATION

The article examines the results of December EU-Western Balkans Summit and the EU strategy concerning EU – Western Balkans integration. It notes that the summit became a new step in realization of the EU integration strategy in relation to the Western Balkans states. At this stage the strategy is focused on strengthening its political and economic influence in the region and on alignment of the Western Balkans states with the priorities of the EU common security and defense policy, including on the questions of the Ukrainian conflict and related sanctions. At the same time the EU integration strategy creates incentives aimed at realization of necessary reforms in the region with the purpose of strengthening internal stability in the region and prevention of potential conflicts inside of the Western Balkans states as well as among them and first of all between Serbia and Kosovo. The author analyzes the main conflicts in the region which negatively affect stability and security in the Western Balkans and the integration process in general. Special attention is devoted to the escalation of conflict between Serbia and Kosovo which could create serious threat to stability in the region and jeopardize the integration process itself as well as the EU mediation efforts aimed at normalization of relationships between Serbia and Kosovo. The author considers that further EU strategy would be developed on two parallel tracks – acceleration of integration process with the Western Balkans states and increasing effectiveness of the EU mediation mission aimed at achieving comprehensive agreement on normalization of relations between Serbia and Kosovo.

Ten reasons why research collaborations succeed—a random forest approach

The state of research in the Science of Team Science is characterised by a wide range of findings on how successful research collaboration should be structured. However, it remains unclear how the multitude of findings can be put into a hierarchical order with regard to their significance for the success of cooperation. This is where the article comes in: based on the state of research, the question of which intra- and interpersonal factors are most significant for the success of a research team is investigated. In order to explore the ten most important reasons for the success of a research collaboration, a Random Forest classifier is specified that predicts the success of research collaborations on the basis of 51 input variables. The analyses presented in the paper are based on representative survey data on n = 1.417 principal investigators and spokespersons of ongoing and completed research clusters funded by the German Research Foundation. The success of a research cluster is operationalised as the extent to which it has achieved the goals that it communicated to the funding agency before it began. Highly realistic and clear research objectives are central to the success of research clusters, as are comprehensive agreement on objectives, close interconnection of the subprojects’ research work and a fair and trusting cooperation climate.

The EU-China road to the Comprehensive Agreement on Investment

For about ten years, both the European Union and China have decided to embark on a "not easy" road to reach an investment agreement. So, two different cultures, two international powers, set out to regulate the main aspects of the investment mechanism between them. The road to this agreement is perhaps the most difficult in the recent history of the field, largely because of the narrow loopholes through which the negotiating parties must pass. The only good path for the parties on this road is the public international law governing the treaties, while foreign policies should retain their position as auxiliaries with a limited role. This article aims to analyse the legal aspects of the procedure required by such a treaty, taking into account its particularities. The method used for the elaboration of this study is specific to differentiated comparison and introspection.

НАПРЯМИ ТОРГІВЛІ СПОЖИВЧИМИ ТОВАРАМИ В РАМКАХ ПВЗВТ МІЖ УКРАЇНОЮ ТА ЄС

The national interests of Ukraine as a participant in international economic relations are impossible without active foreign trade and strengthening the competitiveness of domestic products on international markets. Ukraine's international trade with the countries of the European Union expands annually on the basis of trade preferences enshrined in the Agreement on a Free Trade Area between Ukraine and the EU and related documents. A deep and comprehensive free trade area between Ukraine and the EU is an integral part of the Association Agreement, which gives Ukraine the opportunity to diversify its economy. The EU's "in-depth" trade program is a comprehensive and flexible multifaceted structure designed to achieve long-term policy goals related to Ukraine's integration into the single market and the transition of its market economy. The article defines the positive and negative impact on Ukrainian exports and imports with EU member states under the conditions of the in-depth and comprehensive agreement on the free trade area between Ukraine and the EC, an analysis of the state and dynamics of Ukraine's trade with the European Union since the entry into force of the said agreement. The development of export and import of consumer goods in the "Ukraine-EU" format was analyzed. As a result, a significant impact of the FTA on the activation of exports of goods and services to the EU, including consumer goods, was established. The article defines: the main positive consequences for foreign trade of Ukraine within the framework of the Agreement on a free trade zone are the diversification of sales markets, expansion of the range of exporters and product range, strengthening of trade ties with the EU; he main negative consequences of the Agreement – the raw material orientation of Ukrainian exports does not allow producing enough added value, the policy of protectionism of a number of European Union countries regarding Ukrainian exports; the main ways of eliminating the negative consequences are the further continuation and activation of institutional and structural reforms in the national economy of Ukraine.

ОБ’ЄДНАНА РОЗВІДКА, СПОСТЕРЕЖЕННЯ ТА РЕКОГНОСЦИРОВКА ЯК ПРІОРИТЕТНА СФЕРА ТРАНСФОРМАЦІЇ НАТО

Russia's horrific war against Ukraine has radically changed international security. NATO will need to continue bolstering its Deterrence and Defence Posture, which is essential to ensuring the collective defense of Allies and to continue investing in crisis management and cooperative security while adapting these tasks to meet its changing security needs and globally integrated hybrid environment. The Alliance should pay a strong emphasis on retaining and strengthening technological edge, in particular, improving strategic forecasting and situational awareness, the ability to understanding, monitoring and prediction the actions of potential adversaries using means of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance based on comprehensive agreements in this sphere. The purpose of the study is to analyze the development, improvement and application experience of NATO's Joint Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (JISR) as a priority area of the Alliance's transformation in terms of improving capabilities, as well as the significance for future operations and the decision-making process There were determined definitions, content, main components and means of the system of NATO's Joint Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance. Conceptual and doctrinal documents for the implementation of NATO's obligations in this area have been studied. The security conditions, the process of formation based on experience and best practices, vulnerabilities and key areas of the system, which combines the potential of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance based on phased approach were analysed. There were considered the projects that provide gather of data and information, which JISR brings together, such as NATO’s Alliance Ground Surveillance (AGS) system, NATO Airborne Warning &amp; Control System (AWACS) surveillance aircraft and national JISR assets from the space, air, land and maritime domains/ Highlighted are the key aspects of the process of interpretation and analysis of information, requirements for the professional level of experts and the importance of the final product for the decision-making process. There were indicated further development and improvement of JISR capabilities in training and education, doctrine and procedures and networking environment spheres. Considered are methods to practice and evaluate technical and operational concepts for conducting NATO`s Joint Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance. An overview of the possibilities of applying Ukrainian innovative developments tested in combat conditions in terms of situational awareness as well as Ukraine's cooperation with NATO in this field was made. The result of the research is conclusions on the development and improvement of JISR capability to facilitate rapid decision-making in several main areas, including the Readiness Action Plan, enhanced Forward Presence, the hybrid warfare strategy, and the overall Deterrence and Defence Posture. Keywords: NATO, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, situational awareness, NATO Ground Surveillance System, Airborne Early Warning and Control System, Deterrence and Defence Posture, enhanced Forward Presence, decision-making process, operation and mission.

Perspectives on The Suspension of the Eu-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment.

Perspectives on The Suspension of the Eu-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment.

A new right: the Swedish parliamentary election of September 2022

The Swedish parliamentary election of 11 September 2022 led to the removal of a Social Democratic government and the installation of a right-of-centre coalition. The change was made possible by the mainstream right’s abandonment of the previous cordon sanitaire around the radical-right Sweden Democrats (SD). The new government, consisting of the Moderates, the Christian Democrats and the Liberals, concluded a comprehensive agreement with SD. In this article, we sketch the background to the election; describe how the campaign unfolded; and interpret the results and outcome.

Graph-based research field analysis by the use of natural language processing: An overview of German energy research

To stop climate change caused by the anthropogenic greenhouse effect, the amount of research project funding to develop and demonstrate solutions for carbon emission reduction has increased. Focused topics and procedures of research projects are always presented in text-based descriptions. Natural language processing offers the possibility to process and analyze data like this. In this work, we used natural language processing to extract keywords from descriptions of energy research projects with the algorithms TextRank and TF-IDF which has not been done for this kind of data basis before. A survey-based validation showed TF-IDF to be better suited for our data basis. Extracted keywords were used to conduct a keyword network analysis and calculate static and dynamic indices of the words concerning their recent importance and development over the past two decades. Further insights are shown by allocating the research projects’ amounts of funding to the extracted keywords. We found energy research to be more focused on individual components in the past. The last years were characterized by projects on energy systems and the interaction of renewable energy technologies and their integration into existing infrastructure. Finally, the results were compared with governmental research programs and we could analyze a comprehensive agreement.

Time for a New Atlanticism: The EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment and the International Order

ABSTRACT There has been no shortage of critiques of the EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI) signed on 30 December 2020. Many have perceived the CAI as a snub in the face of the Biden administration, which has the potential to jeopardise one of the most important strategic goals of the transatlantic alliance: setting aside four years of Trump’s populist economic policy and working in close coordination with a view to developing a united front to contain China. While the CAI does indeed indicate that the EU considers itself a fully autonomous international economic player, however, such a display of autonomy need not be incompatible with a stronger transatlantic alliance. In fact, the CAI may be an opportunity for the transatlantic alliance to evolve into a partnership among equals that is necessary to successfully navigate the uncharted waters of the coming global (dis)order.

WTO Joint Statement Initiative: Conflicts Analysis and the Impact on Future Negotiations

The increasing digitalization of economic activities has created new electronic commerce operations, and the development of digital trade has created new demands for international trade rules. However, these developments also generated trade conflicts and regulatory issues between countries in the world. In response to the new demands and the need to resolve conflicts and issues, many countries from the World Trade Organization (WTO) initiated a Joint Statement Initiative (JSI) on e-commerce, aiming to achieve a consensus on e-commerce-related global trade topics. Due to the difference in economic development and policy concentration, the proposals from each signatory face economic, safety, and cultural value disputes. Developed economies are competing for a dominant position in the digital world to set the rules for e-commerce. Thus, a deep insight into the process of JSI negotiation and an analysis of several large debatable topics, such as cross-border data flow, market access, and intellectual property protection, need to be provided for future reference. Under such a situation, opportunities are also created for countries and enterprises to gain a competitive edge, and detailed future considerations can be explored as new topics for the signatories to include in the negotiation process in order to produce a comprehensive agreement.

Reforming Investment Protection: A Comparative Analysis of the EU and China

This article provides a comparative analysis of the European Union’s (EU’s) and China’s approaches to international investment law reform. While the EU has been referred to as a ‘systemic reformer’, which promotes significant institutional reform, China’s emerging model of investment protection remains unclassified. In the first part, this article describes the progressive emergence of China’s investment law regime. It argues that the Chinese model of investment protection may be viewed as an outright tool of foreign economic policy. Accordingly, China’s reform’s approach is a middle ground between systemic and incremental reforms. By contrast, due to its democratic nature, the EU has adopted a value-driven model. In this respect, this article posits that the political science scholarship on democracy may shed a different light on the EU’s institutional approach, and thus enrich the debate on investment law reform. The second part analyses the proposed Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (Proposed CAI) between the EU and China, which has been signed but not ratified. After showing that convergence was achieved on substantive protection, it argues that democratic imperatives explain the EU’s preference for a court system. Nevertheless, non-democracies often do not face the same incentives, which may generate disagreements regarding the dispute settlement design for investment claims. European Union, China, CAI, international investment law, democracy, dispute settlement

Implementing Gender Provisions: A Study of the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro in the Philippines

Abstract While scholars on gender provisions have focused on why and how this type of peace agreement clause gets incorporated, few studies have sought to improve our understanding of the implementation process. Addressing this gap empirically, this study utilizes unique interview material to analyze the initial stages of realizing the 2014 Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro in the Philippines. The article bridges and expands on key theoretical insights based on three explanations suggested by previous research: 1) state capacity on promoting gender equality; 2) the mobilization of women’s organizations; and 3) gender awareness of international actors. We find that the strategic actions of women’s organizations combined with state capacity accelerated the implementation. However, their influence was dependent on whether or not the government prioritized the gender provisions, and whether international actors provided financial support to the agreement infrastructure.

Market access for investment and services under the EU–China comprehensive agreement on investment: an appraisal

ABSTRACT The EU–China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI or the Agreement) is a politically win-win deal for the EU, driven by the urgency of addressing asymmetries of its investment relationship with China, and China, which wants to safeguard the EU’s openness to its investors. Economically, however, the impact of its market and liberalization offers remains to be seen admit the increased geopolitical tension between the EU and China. Still, Section II of the principally agreed text of the CAI supports the case for rule-based investment liberalization, advocating a level playing field for investors, mainly EU investors in China. At the same time, given its predominant emphasis on market access for investment, the Agreement stands out amongst investment treaties that principally concentrate on investment protection. Similarly, it is unique among Chinese investment treaties that do not (firmly) provide for market access for investment, marking a further step in the EU’s emergent investment treaty-making practice that focuses beyond investment protection.