EU Conflict Research Articles

Strategies for Traceability to Prevent Unauthorised GMOs (Including NGTs) in the EU: State of the Art and Possible Alternative Approaches

The EU’s regulatory framework for genetically modified organisms (GMOs) was developed for “classical” transgenic GMOs, yet advancements in so-called “new genomic techniques (NGTs)” have led to implementation challenges regarding detection and identification. As traceability can complement detection and identification strategies, improvements to the existing traceability strategy for GMOs are investigated in this study. Our results are based on a comprehensive analysis of existing traceability systems for globally traded agricultural products, with a focus on soy. Alternative traceability strategies in other sectors were also analysed. One focus was on traceability strategies for products with characteristics for which there are no analytical verification methods. Examples include imports of “conflict minerals” into the EU. The so-called EU Conflict Minerals Regulation requires importers of certain raw materials to carry out due diligence in the supply chain. Due diligence regulations, such as the EU’s Conflict Minerals Regulation, can legally oblige companies to take responsibility for certain risks in their supply chains. They can also require the importer to prove the regional origin of imported goods. The insights from those alternative traceability systems are transferred to products that might contain GMOs. When applied to the issue of GMOs, we propose reversing the burden of proof: All companies importing agricultural commodities must endeavour to identify risks of unauthorised GMOs (including NGTs) in their supply chain and, where appropriate, take measures to minimise the risk to raw material imports. The publication concludes that traceability is a means to an end and serves as a prerequisite for due diligence in order to minimise the risk of GMO contamination in supply chains. The exemplary transfer of due diligence to a company in the food industry illustrates the potential benefits of mandatory due diligence, particularly for stakeholders actively managing non-GMO supply chains.

Regional organizations and ethnic conflict prevention: The EU and Kosovo conflict

AbstractThe prevention, management, and resolution of ethnic conflicts comprises an important challenge to the regional peace and stability. This case study explores the role of the EU, as a regional organization, in ethnic conflict prevention in different stages of the Kosovo conflict. It aims to understand the strategies, policies, and mechanisms used by the EU in its engagement throughout different conflict stages. In addition, it offers an evaluation of the capabilities, achievements and failures of the EU in dealing with this type of conflict. The study highlights the efforts of the EU in shifting its strategies to become a leading actor in handling this conflict. The findings of the research reveal progress in the EU’s approach to conflict prevention but highlight the lack of the consensus among member states as an obstacle to EU’s success in conflict prevention.

Extraterritorial trade sanctions: Theory and application to the US–Iran–EU conflict

AbstractUnder extraterritorial sanctions the sanctioning country extends its policies to trade of third countries with the sanctioned country. An example is President Trump's decision in 2018 to leave the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), a multilateral agreement with Iran. In this article, I develop a game‐theoretic model to explain the emergence of extraterritorial sanctions. Such trade sanctions (i) do not arise when the harmful activity of the sanctioned country (“build a nuclear bomb”) is verifiable even if monetary transfers are ruled out, but (ii) emerge if a second activity (“sponsor international terrorism”) is not verifiable, and the sanctioning countries differ in their gains from trade with the sanctioned country, their harm from the non‐verifiable activity, and their cost from abandoning the international economic order. In the context of the US–Iran–EU conflict, I argue that the oil and gas fracking boom in the US together with former President Trump's ignorance of his international reputation are key factors in the emergence of extraterritorial trade sanctions.

Preventing What for Whom?: EU Conflict Prevention Efforts in Pursuit of Autonomy

Conflict prevention has formed an integral part of the European Union’s (EU’s) Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) since the early 2000s, with investments in civilian peacebuilding and conflict prevention competences suiting well with the Union’s ‘civilian’ or ‘normative’ power role. The transforming international order is, however, changing the strategic environment also for the Union’s and its Member States’ conflict prevention and peacebuilding efforts. This article analyses the implications of the evolving strategic autonomy debate for the EU’s role conception and concrete action in the realm of conflict prevention. While the search for a more capable EU in security and defence does not automatically counter the Union’s selfconception as a conflict preventor and peacebuilder, it does appear to introduce meaningful shifts in the core objectives and values guiding its external action in conflict situations. An analysis of the EU’s rhetoric and concrete uses of its institutional conflict prevention and peacebuilding tools in recent years in Africa suggests a growing centralization of security and geopolitical considerations at the expense of the core ethos of conflict prevention. EU, Conflict prevention, Strategic autonomy, CFSP- Arica, Instrument contributing to stability and peace (IcSP)

상법상 회사에서의 이해상충 규율에 관한 일고찰 - 주식회사의 이사를 중심으로 -

Conflict of interest has caused much controversy in many areas and has been discussed continuously in recent years. Under the company law, it can be evaluated that discussions on duty of loyalty and conflicts of interest took place before and after the establishment of the usurpation of corporate opportunity in the 2011 Commercial Act.<BR> There will also be a number of conflicts of interest in the legal relationship with the company, but the most central part of which is the conflict of interest between the corporation and directors. Representative contents of the conflict of interest regulation are competition, usurpation of corporate opportunity, self-dealing etc., which are understood as a system aimed at preventing directors from pursuing their own interests based on the company’s assets or opportunities.<BR> In this study, first, the concept of a conflict of interest is examined, the provisions related to the conflict of interest in our legal system are also surveyed, and the legal principle of the fiduciary duty is also briefly summarized in this regard. Next, an overview of the UK and EU conflict of interest rules is provided. Finally, the rules on conflicts of interest under the Commercial Act were reviewed with a focus on the directors of a corporation.

Evaluating critical metals contained in spintronic memory with a particular focus on Pt substitution for improved sustainability

Thanks to their unique combination of properties: non-volatility, speed, density and write endurance, spintronic memory called spin transfer-torque Magnetic Random Access Memory (STT-MRAM) is expected to play a major role in the future development of the Internet of Things (IoT) and more generally in information and communication technologies. This type of spintronic device is usually made of materials, some of which can be classified as critical. Recent studies have evaluated critical materials contained in magnetic random access memory (Ku, 2018; European Commission, 2020 [1,2]). However, in those cases the type of memory analyzed belongs to the first generation of MRAMs developed in the early 2000s. Nowadays, the memory devices are magnetized perpendicularly to the plane of the layers and contain a synthetic antiferromagnet (SAF) that provides a high coercivity to the STT-MRAM reference layer with reduced stray field. This SAF is typically made of cobalt (Co) and platinum (Pt) multilayers antiferromagnetically coupled across a thin ruthenium (Ru) layer. Due to the high-embodied energy of platinum group metals (PGMs), a common concern when evaluating these materials is the environmental risk associated with their production. An evaluation of the environmental and economic risks of using such multilayers is first reported here, followed by a discussion of its supply risk. Substitution of Co/Pt multilayers by Co/Ni multilayers can lead to a reduction by 3–4 orders of magnitude in terms of energy requirements or global warming potential (GWP) associated with the use of these multilayers. An alternative concept based on perpendicular shape anisotropy (PSA) can also yield a reduction by 1–2 orders of magnitude in these quantities. However, for the case of STT-MRAM, tiny quantities of PGM layers are used in comparison with the mass of the silicon wafers on which these type of devices are grown. Therefore, the environmental and economic impact of the silicon wafer fabrication is found to be much higher than that of the PGM materials incorporated in the STT-MRAM stacks. Nonetheless, the high supply risk associated with PGMs remains a reason for awareness. One explored possibility is a SAF structure based on Co/Ni multilayers which can have similar performance. A second more challenging alternative is also proposed based on the aforementioned PSA concept. Finally, we address the case of several other metals identified by the European Commission as critical and used in MRAM such as W or Ta, both recently included in the EU's Conflict Minerals Regulation released in January 2021 (https://ec.europa.eu/trade/policy/in-focus/conflict-minerals-regulation/regulation-explained/, 2020 [3]).

Making the Case for a Rome V Regulation on the Law Applicable to Companies

There is significant legal variation and uncertainty in the conflict of laws rules applicable to companies in the EU. While the case law of the Court of Justice on the freedom of establishment has clarified some questions, it is evident that case law cannot provide for an adequate level of legal certainty. The main recommendation of this paper is that private international company law in the EU should be harmonised. The paper discusses the main challenges that a future regulation to this effect – called here ‘Rome V Regulation on the Law Applicable to Companies’ – would have to overcome. Some of those are of a political nature: for instance, countries may fear that it may become easier for companies to evade domestic company law (eg, rules of employee co-determination), and there are specific considerations that concern companies established in third countries. Another challenge is that a future regulation on the law applicable to companies has to be consistent with existing EU conflict of laws rules as regards, for example, insolvency and tort law, while also complying with the freedom of establishment of the Treaty. It is the aim of this paper to discuss these questions in detail, notably the general considerations for harmonisation in this field, a potential harmonisation based on the ‘incorporation theory’, how it may be possible to overcome some contentious issues such as the definition of the lex societatis or the relationship between the lex societatis and other areas of law, and the prospects of future international harmonisation.

Making the Case for a Rome V Regulation on the Law Applicable to Companies

Abstract There is significant legal variation and uncertainty in the conflict of laws rules applicable to companies in the EU. While the case law of the Court of Justice on the freedom of establishment has clarified some questions, it is evident that case law cannot provide for an adequate level of legal certainty. The main recommendation of this article is that private international company law in the EU should be harmonized. The article discusses the main challenges that a future regulation to this effect—called here ‘Rome V Regulation on the Law Applicable to Companies’—would have to overcome. Some of those are of a political nature: for instance, countries may fear that it may become easier for companies to evade domestic company law (eg, rules of employee co-determination), and there are specific considerations that concern companies established in third countries. Another challenge is that a future regulation on the law applicable to companies has to be consistent with existing EU conflict of laws rules as regards, for example, insolvency and tort law, while also complying with the freedom of establishment of the Treaty. It is the aim of this article to discuss these questions in detail, notably the general considerations for harmonisation in this field, a potential harmonization based on the ‘incorporation theory’, how it may be possible to overcome some contentious issues such as the definition of the lex societatis or the relationship between the lex societatis and other areas of law, and the prospects for future international harmonization.

THE PITFALLS OF UNILATERAL LEGISLATION IN INTERNATIONAL LAW: LESSONS FROM CONFLICT MINERALS LEGISLATION

AbstractThis article examines the compatibility of the extraterritorial application of unilateral legislation with the project of international law. Focusing on two instruments, the Dodd-Frank Act passed by the United States Congress and intended to regulate the activities of US listed companies operating in the Congo and the EU conflict minerals legislation, the article challenges their underlying premises that revenues from natural resources perpetuate conflict and resulting human rights abuses. In so far as these instruments make no provision for meaningful participation by the foreign populations which are the objects of legislation, it is argued that there is a tension between these unilateral instruments and the basic premises of law-making in international law as a democratic enterprise centred around governmental representation. By exclusively directing sanctions and other disciplinary measures at rebels, both legislative instruments have the problematic effect of strengthening the exploitation of natural resources by kleptocratic regimes and undermining the right of populations in conflict zones to civil disobedience as an inescapable component of their right of self-determination.

The European Union security policy

Problem setting. In spite of the presence of numerous conventions, treaties and organizations in the world today, the issue of security is still a very acute issue for the world community. There are many reasons for this: the presence of nuclear powers, serious disputes between countries that are justly considered world leaders, the existence of numerous local conflicts and wars of a more global nature across the globe. These and other factors are pushing states around the world to allocate budget funds to ensure effective security policies. Given today’s realities, one can trace the tendency of several countries to pool their own efforts and resources to pursue a common security policy. The European Union is one of the clearest examples of this behavior. This intergovernmental organization is committed to maintaining peace, diplomacy, trade and development around the world. The EU also promotes cooperation with neighboring countries through the European Neighborhood Policy. Target research. The aim of the research is to study the role of the European Union’s institutional mechanism in the exercise of its powers to ensure the defense and foreign policy cooperation of the Member States. Analysis of recent research and publication. Many domestic and foreign scholars, including B. Tonro, T. Christiansen, S. Morsch, G. Mackenstein, and others. The institutional basis of foreign and security policy is analyzed in detail by J. Peterson, questions related to the European Union’s security policy. M. Shackleton. K. Gill, M. Smith and others study the general features of the development of a common EU security policy. Some contribution to the study of various problems related to European and Euro-Atlantic integration has been made by such national scientists as V. Govorukh, I. Gritsyak, G. Nemyrya, L. Prokopenko, O. Rudik, V. Streltsov, O. Tragniuk, I. Shumlyaeva, I. Yakovyuk and others. Article’s main body. The article examines the emergence and development of the European Union’s security policy from the date of the Brussels Covenant to the present. Particular attention is paid to the role of the European Union’s institutional mechanism in the exercise of its powers to ensure the defense and foreign policy cooperation of the Member States. A study of the officially adopted five-year global foreign and security policy of the EU is being done to improve stability in Europe and beyond, analyzing EU conflict resolution and crisis management activities. Conclusions and prospect of development. In view of the above, it can be concluded that the EU’s foreign and security policy institutional framework is an extensive system in which all the constituencies are endowed with a certain range of general and specific powers and are called upon to cooperate with one another to achieve a common goal. It cannot be said that such close cooperation puts pressure on Member States. Yes, a Member State has the right to refrain from voting for any decision that requires unanimity and such abstention will not prevent the above decision being taken. In this case, the mechanism of so-called “constructive retention” is triggered: the abstaining country is not obliged to comply with the decision, however, accepts the fact that it is binding on other Member States and takes this into account when concluding treaties, which should not contradict the said decision.

Comparing Interstate and European Conflict of Laws from a Constitutional Perspective: Can the United States Inspire the European Union?

Abstract The still-recent process of Europeanization and constitutionalization of conflict of laws in the European Union can benefit in some respects from a comparison, from a constitutional perspective, with interstate conflict of laws in the United States. The quasi-absence of federal choice-of-law rules, the Supreme Court’s approach of minimal constitutional constraints to choice of law and the focus of U.S. interstate conflicts law on substantive policies and interests stand out as three major differences from the development of EU conflict of laws. Learning from the American experience and taking into account the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union and the requirements of subsidiarity and proportionality, the EU legislature should be open, in particularly sensitive areas, to the recognition method as an alternative to the unification of choice-of-law rules. Neither the Supreme Court’s minimal constraints doctrine nor its prioritization of individual-fairness concerns over federal interests should be followed in Europe. Although it recognizes that conflict of laws can contribute in different ways to the European general interest, the Treaty of Lisbon has set up a rather disappointing framework to that effect. Amendments and clarifications are needed to enable EU conflict of laws to fulfill its ambitions and really contribute to the EU’s quasi-federal integration process.

Exclusive nature of the European, Euro-Atlantic and Eurasian integration and tension in the European post-Soviet space

The subject of this paper is to determine the relations between the European, Euro-Atlantic and Eurasian integration, especially their exclusive character and the turmoil in the European post-Soviet space. The paper concludes that the exclusive nature of the integration process, which has a value and a geopolitical dimension, encourages the USA, EU and Russia conflicts for control over this area and leads to the reopening of ethnic and territorial disputes (solutions for one represent deepening of crisis for the other stakeholders), remilitarization and a new arms race, the increased military presence of the USA and Russia in the region and further destabilization of the world and European order, especially the relationship between the USA-Russia-EU. The roots of these integrations are found at the end of the Cold War, the disintegration of the Soviet Union, and the survival of Western economic and defence organizations that sought and still seek to expand to the post-Soviet space in order to create a universal liberal democratic world order despite Russian dissent. This work thus sheds light on the contradictions of keeping an open-door policy of the European and Euro-Atlantic integration, which causes the opposite effect in Russia - a sense of closing the door, the new isolation and restraint, creating new divisions in Europe. On the other hand, the contradiction that this analysis reveals is that Russia, while seeking equal treatment and respect for its interests by the West, is in fact expecting respect of its inequality compared to other European post-Soviet republics, de facto recognition of its right of veto to the post-Soviet republics integration and its special role in this region, which practically bolster further fears that these countries will be returned to the Russian sphere of influence or even a new Russian state. Of the several variables that have remained as a result of the breakup of the Soviet Union and affected the foreign policies of the post-Soviet states, the question of the type of integration became crucial because of its defence, geopolitical, economic and wider social effects.

Consistency in EU Conflict of Laws

Consistency in EU Conflict of Laws

The European Union and natural resources that fund armed conflicts: Explaining the EU’s policy choice for supply chain due-diligence requirements

Natural resources can be an important source of funding for warring parties in armed conflicts. Curbing the trade in these so-called conflict resources is, therefore, part of the European Union’s conflict management policies. The article explores the EU’s policies in this field and asks, specifically, why the EU is using supply chain due-diligence measures to achieve this goal. The author argues that they are the response to enforcement problems of most existing multilateral and unilateral sanction regimes because of state weakness in the targeted regions. This approach results from a broader idea from the EU that transparency can improve resource governance and, therefore, safeguard both its political and economic interests in conflict zones, such as the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. However, when the issue becomes specific—as in the EU Conflict Minerals Regulation—translating this idea into concrete policies becomes more contentious as the EU institutions set different priorities for the final policy design.

Implications of Article 81(1) TFEU’s recognition clause for EU conflict of laws rules

The last decades have been marked by the extensive Europeanisation of conflict of laws rules. Traditionally, national conflict of laws rules in Continental Europe were aimed at determining the closest connection between the legal relation and the putatively applicable law. This universal objective was often combined with more local objectives: the achievement of certain substantive policies of the forum through conflictual mechanisms. The Europeanisation of conflict of laws rules poses a legitimate question: do EU conflict of laws rules pursue identical or similar policies as national conflict of laws rules? The issue may be approached using different methods. One approach is inductive – the analysis of conflict of laws rules found in EU secondary law and their comparison with national conflict of laws rules. Another approach is deductive – the analysis of the Treaty basis for EU conflict of laws rules, in order to identify whether this constitutional framework prescribes certain policies that may be different from those used in national conflict of laws rules. This contribution is devoted to the second method and analyses whether the recognition clause found in Article 81 TFEU has any meaningful influence on the nature and scope of EU conflict of law rules.

The new EU Conflict Minerals Regulation: Normative Power in International Relations?

AbstractOver the last few years, European NGOs were very successful in raising awareness about international trade in minerals funding armed conflicts around the world. In May 2017, after more than three years of negotiation, the European Union signed the new Conflict Minerals Regulation. At first glance, this Regulation demonstrates ‘ethical’ or ‘normative’ power: The EU uses its commercial power to promote norms of international peace and security, accepting prospectively higher prices for imports of minerals. The Regulation also supports a re‐centring of the state after two and a half decades of economic liberalization. However, the EU only follows and lags behind the 2010 US Dodd‐Frank Act section 1502. The article shows that the EU does not reject collective norms, but is incapable or unwilling to put a tight rein on domestic businesses. The new EU Conflict Minerals Regulation stands only for symbolic normative power.

EU local capacity building: ownership, complexity and agency

ABSTRACTCapacity building has become a key focus area in EU peacebuilding and conflict prevention. Yet, despite considerable efforts, EU capacity building activities have struggled to deliver on their objectives. While such programmes have sometimes been able to strengthen pockets of capacity in specific organizations, they have had less success in building capacity in the round and in a sustainable manner. Drawing on empirical evidence from EU capacity building programmes in the Horn of Africa and the Western Balkans, this article shows that, to a great extent, this failure has been a consequence of the difficulties EU capacity builders have faced in engaging with local actors in complex political contexts. This, in turn, has led to a “legitimacy deficit” for EU programmes, which have had little involvement from local stakeholders and knowledge, and whose goals have often been at odds with local preferences and priorities.

Концентрація та захоплення сільськогосподарських земель в ЄС: виклики сучасності

This paper provides an analysis of the trends in agricultural land use and land concentration in the EU. Land grabbing, a new emerging trend in the EU, is in the focus. The authors argue there is an exclusion of agricultural lands from local and rural development, and from agriculture, while agrarian investments fail to meet the principles for responsible investments. The paper aims to examine and summarize the factors that drive agricultural land concentration and grabbing in the EU, and define the extent of these processes and their consequences. The authors show that the European and national legislations fail in preventing negative consequences of agricultural land concentration and grabbing, and in ensuring the priority of family farms as a basis of the EU agrarian system. The analysis focuses on such drivers of these processes as significant difference in land prices, speculations, emerging and strengthening corporate sector in the agriculture, imperfection of the EU sectoral policies and conflicts between them and between their instruments. The analysis confirms that increasing number of large-scale land contracts, monopolizing control over agricultural lands, and structural changes in land use decrease the viability of both agricultural sector and rural areas. The land grabbing leads to replacing the family farming model with industrial farming and large corporate enterprises usually established with participation of international capital. The above mentioned phenomena threaten the European agrarian system, sustainable and multifunctional agriculture, food security, and environment. The authors prove the necessity of an integrated and differentiated approach to deal with agricultural land concentration and grabbing due to the variable nature of the underlying factors.

‘It is important, but…’: translating the Women Peace and Security (WPS) Agenda into the planning of EU peacekeeping missions

The European Union’s commitment to mainstreaming gender in the context of peacekeeping and conflict management is expressed through a number documents and policy initiatives. However, current research highlights how EU policies and practices fall short of a commitment to take gender seriously. This paper seeks to complement these studies by examining the ways in which WPS is articulated in the planning stages of EU CSDP missions and translated into policy practices in the field. In tracking WPS as it shifts and expands into the complex institutional and operational contexts of EU peacekeeping and crisis management, we focus on two moments – the pre-deployment planning phase of operations and the post-deployment implementation phase. Our research confirms the tensions and gaps between feminist debates on gender, peace and security; the translation of feminist insights into the policy language of EU security and conflict management, and WPS as practice in the planning of CSDP operations.

EU Mediation as an Assemblage of Practices: Introducing a New Approach to the Study of EU Conflict Resolution

AbstractThis article introduces a new approach to the study of EU mediation and conflict resolution. It argues that researchers have not fully accounted for the changes underway in the Union's take on mediation. By elucidating the differences between this approach and the already existing literature on EU mediation, the article advocates a practice turn and develops a framework for studying EU mediation as an assemblage of practices. It builds on Latourian assemblage thinking and complements it with the Foucauldian notion of political rationality and techne. This approach is then explored through examining the practices of EU mediation support in Myanmar, which draws attention to the contradictions and a specific set of knowledge claims on peace and conflict, and traces dissident voices and how they inform the use of mediation instruments. In so doing, it demonstrates how a practice‐oriented approach allows us to provide new insights into EU external action.