European Treaty Research Articles

Understanding the EU’s Competence to Harmonise Space Law Amid Publication Delays

In response to the European Commission’s unexpected decision on 9 April 2024 to indefinitely postpone the publication of the first draft of the European Union Space Law (EUSL), this article takes a critical look at the EU’s competence under the Treaty of the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) and Treaty of the European Union (TEU) to establish an EUSL that seeks to harmonize the national space laws of the Member States in the space security, safety, and sustainability domains. This article specifically examines the complexities around the Union’s competence to adopt space legislation in Articles 4(3) and 189 TFEU as one of the possible factors explaining the delay. It does this by analysing the legal foundations on which the EU has historically relied to pass space legislation and harmonize national laws. The article aims to address the concerns Member States may have regarding whether the Union must depend on its ‘space competence’ in Article 189 TFEU to achieve its security, safety, and sustainability objectives or if there is legal precedent allowing it to use a mix-and-match approach of its various competencies under the TEU and TFEU. The article concludes that the Union is competent to adopt an EUSL and suggests that it could employ various binding and non-binding strategies by relying on its competencies in overlapping domains, including inter alia, Articles 11, 114, 115, 167, 170–173, and 191–193 TFEU.

Has VAT Become Complex because of Its Methods of Interpretation?

The guiding framework and the methods of interpretation of the VAT provisions at national and European levels are different depending on who is applying them and on the type of rule. The ECJ should apply a strict methodology when interpreting EU VAT rules based on their wording, context, purpose and origin, with the objective to not encroach upon the prerogatives of the legislator and to guarantee the coherence of the legal system. In this article the author argues that a fading memory of the European Treaties’ objectives and a limited use of accessible online historical archives contribute to the complexity of the understanding and application of the EU VAT system.

The Blood Brotherhood and Colonial Treaties and Alliances: Between Myth and Reality

Abstract This article examines the representation and use of the blood exchange between European expeditionary leaders, that worked in the service of king Leopold II, and African rulers in Central and East Africa during the late nineteenth century. While the blood brotherhood played a role in the appeasement of African rulers and the conclusion of treaties, the details and origins of the procedure are often unclear. Europeans believed that the blood brotherhood was an African legal custom, even though recent anthropological studies suggest it differed from the inter-African version of the blood brotherhood. Europeans styled the blood brotherhood as the African counterpart to the European treaty, which served to support the legality of the much-contested treaties that Leopold II’s representatives had concluded, often under dubious circumstances. While the blood brotherhood therefore functioned as a practical tool to establish European influence and sovereignty over African rulers, it was also as a means of glorifying the white European explorer as a pseudo-scientist and well-meaning broker of peace. This article complicates the traditional narrative of how treaties were concluded during the Scramble for Africa and highlights the need for a critical re-examination of the legal practices and representations of colonialism.

Rewilding as a Multifaceted Concept and Emerging Approach: The Romanian Experience

We conduct a review of the multifaceted rewilding concept and rewilding initiatives worldwide, focusing on specific features and outcomes of European rewilding issues and Romanian rewilding projects. In this review of the literature and case studies, we undertake the following: (a) identify the definitions and thorough meanings of the term rewilding worldwide, including its guiding principles aiming at rebuilding the natural ecosystems; (b) map the international and European treaties and policies referring to ecosystems’ restoration, biodiversity, environment, sustainability, and rewilding-related issues; (c) explore the benefits and criticisms associated with the rewilding activities, including from a social perspective; (d) structure an overview on the tools used for rewilding assessment; (e) identify the projects and initiatives developed and on-going in Romania on rewilding. Our findings reveal a great diversity of topics addressed within the rewilding umbrella and also a significant growth in this area, despite the numerous challenges faced by experts and locals (e.g., understanding the context of rewilding and identifying the most suitable modalities of operationalizing it) and questions (such as the following: is rewilding a real need? will it bring benefits to nature and people?) that remained to be answered. In Romania, a series of efforts are being undertaken both by the government and NGOs to restore self-sustaining ecosystems and to raise awareness of this topic among different stakeholders.

Data Retention in Labour Law

The age of information has a massive impact on society. New possibilities including search engines, sensor networks, security agencies, marketers and highly accessible databases require multiple and careful legal frameworks that will help to protect personal data on an advanced level. Its protection is a subject of comprehensive analysis that requires the assessment of multiple international or domestic legislation. Multiple perspectives regarding the protection of personal data in the employment context make the subject more important as it’s crucial to make a proper assessment in order to determine the differences in between the visions of legislators as all of them are trying to do their best in order to protect the personal data but they still have many dissimilarities. This paper analyses the differences in European and Georgian Legislation and determines the main aspects of data retention in labour law. European treaties, directives and domestic law of Georgia might carry certain similarities and values but every aspect carries lots of important outcomes from the perspective of data protection that needs to be properly addressed.

Tools of imperialism or sources of international law? Treaties and diplomatic relations in early modern and colonial Southeast Asia

AbstractThe history of treaty‐making, diplomacy, and international law has traditionally been written from Eurocentric perspectives, but since the middle of the 20th century, Southeast Asia has attracted relatively much attention because of the region's importance for the 17th‐century Dutch jurist Hugo Grotius. More recently, however, the interest in Southeast Asia's role in the history of international law and diplomacy in the early modern period has become more oriented toward understanding the dynamics of international relations and cross‐cultural diplomacy in Southeast Asia itself, rather than focusing on the region's role in European legal and intellectual history. The prolific treaty‐making and other diplomatic activities of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) during the 17th and 18th centuries have been the object of several studies, highlighting how the company adopted Asian practices of statecraft and at times functioned as a traditional ruler, tributary or stranger‐king, rather than as an omnipotent colonial power. Moreover, several recent studies have expanded the study of diplomacy and treaty‐making in Southeast Asia to imperial powers other than the VOC and into the 19th century. With regard to the practice of treaty‐making during the colonial era, three main themes in the current state‐of‐the‐art are identified: 1) Southeast Asian and inter‐cultural perspectives on treaties and treaty‐making; 2) the question of mutual consent or coercion and violence in treaty‐making; and 3) discrepancies between Asian and European treaty texts and biases in printed and digitised compilations of treaties.

A European Military Balance Organization and Dynamic Conventional Arms Control

The Russo-Ukraine War has capped the decay of conventional arms control (CAC) agreements and security institutions designed and evolved in large part to prevent this type of conflict. At its root is the rivalry between Russia and NATO, and Russian concerns over the military balance. The Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) Treaty was the cornerstone agreement to stabilize the military balance, but the treaty and other security institutions such as the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) failed to adapt to NATO expansion. This article explores the role of various organizations in Europe in CAC and proposes a unique approach to future CAC agreements, dynamic CAC, implemented by a dedicated organization called the European Military Balance Organization (EMBO) which would continuously assess the military balance between NATO and Russia.

The ESM Reform and Its Missing Legitimacy in Non-Euro Area Member States

The goal of this article is to analyse whether the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) and its current reform have been subjected to sufficient legal and democratic approval in non-euro area Member States. It is argued that the establishment of the ESM and the consequential obligation to accede to it after entering the euro area is at least to a certain extent legally and democratically underpinned by Article 136(3) Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU). The establishment of the prospective euro area entrants’ obligation to join the ESM after adopting the euro is a manifestation of the normative value of Article 136(3) TFEU. However, the 2021 ESM reform has not been accompanied by a similar Treaty amendment and thus lacks legal and democratic legitimacy in non-euro area countries. This may have legal and political consequences for the obligation to adopt the euro in the affected countries. ESM, European Stability Mechanism Reform, ESM Treaty, Economic and Monetary Union, euro adoption, euro area entry criteria, Article 136 TFEU, democratic legitimacy

European Integration through the Eyes of its Treaties’ Preambles

Can the history of European integration be told on the basis of the textual development of the preambles to the European treaties? This is the fundamental question of this text which looks at European integration through the eyes of its treaties’ preambles. In a first step, possible forms, content and functions of preambles are introduced. This provides the analytical framework for the following part that explores the European treaties’ preambles and layers of integration. It focusses on three central hypotheses: Beginning with thoughts on the speaking entity of the preambles, i.e. their subjects, the text examines directions and reasons of European integration. Starting point to this is the “ever closer union among the European peoples” and the discussion on values.

Umschuldungsklausel bei Anleihen der Euro-Staaten

A speciality of contracts seems to be the small print - also in contracts between the members of the European Union. The European Stability Mechanism Treaty (ESM), concluded with the purpose to install the ESM as an international financial institution and as backstop for the Single Resolution Fund (SRF), contains in one of its articles the inconspicuous reference to a mandatory majority action clause. This clause will be modified together with the prepared amendment of the ESM treaty. This amendment offers the perfect opportunity to describe Collective Action Clauses like majority action clauses - facilitating the restructuring of debt - in general and in particular those for sovereign debt of the Euro countries including their effects on the creditors position taking into account the role of the ECB as major creditor.

CONSIDERATION UPON THE PROTECTION OF THE HUMAN RIGHTS

The purpose of the present article is to bring general information connected to the human rights. We all know the fact that in the traditional international law, the protection of the human rights through international actions was not to be found. The concept of the international law of the human rights appears only in the second half of the 20th century, and thus matters connected to acknowledging and respecting them become problems of international interest and they do not depend exclusively only on the internal jurisdiction of the states.Romania admitted, appreciated and regulated the citizen’s rights as well as the theories that argumented their existence and also it has ratified the majority of the universal and European treaties concerning the human rights.

The Economics of Protectionism and Panic: The European Natural Gas Disaster of 2021–2022 (so far)

Europe is living through a disaster in its natural gas industry that is harming energy consumers and businesses throughout the continent. Using levers of market power that European regulatory and legislative institutions unwisely gave to it over the prior two decades, with the cooperation of Europe's member state natural gas companies, Russia manipulated exports to Europe in the late 2021 run‐up to its invasion of Ukraine. That manipulation has not only caused panic pricing of Russian supplies, but also for the natural gas coming from other countries to Europe, such as Norway and Algeria, for which no panic was necessary. The spread of panic pricing came about because of purposeful actions in Europe to place most natural gas import pricing on an unstable knife edge—institutionalizing the ability of such panic pricing to permeate all energy import prices and disrupt the European energy markets as electricity market models picked up those panicked internal gas prices. Such disruption has caused heavy state subsidization of energy prices throughout Europe, insolvency, crippling of European exporters—such as Italy's highly regarded ceramics industry, nationalization of some energy businesses, and increasing member state abandonment of the European Energy Charter Treaty.

Considerations on the Legacy of Ordoliberalism in European Monetary Policy

The paper aims to analysis the ordoliberal legacy in European Monetary Policy between 1998 and 2020. What emerges is that although ordoliberal principles were incorporated into the guiding values of the European treaties, they did not play a key role in guiding either the monetary policy strategies fixed in 1998 and 2003 or the ECB interventions implemented between 2011 and 2020 in response to the Great Recession and the sovereign debt crisis. This is basically due to a) the ECB's acceptance of the New Consensus Macroeconomics (NCM) that recognises the endogenous nature of money and its partial non-neutrality, b) the ECB's constant tendency to act discretionally in order to reach different goals.

Interview with Gerard Quinn

Gerard Quinn is the United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities. A graduate of Harvard Law School, he founded and directed the Centre for Disability Law & Policy at the National University of Ireland for many years. He sat as a member of the Council of Europe's treaty body on social rights and served as a civil servant in the European Commission, where he drafted European Union disability policies. He has conducted many large studies for the UN, including a 2002 Study that helped launch the drafting of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. He led the delegation of Rehabilitation International during the drafting of the treaty. He has received many lifetime awards for his work on international disability law from the US International Council on Disability, the European Association of Service Providers for Persons with Disabilities and Rehabilitation International. He was conferred with an honorary doctorate for his worldwide disability law work by Lund University in 2022. He has held honorary positions at the National Academy of Legal Studies and Research (NALSAR; Hyderabad, India), Wuhan University (China), Fudan University (Shanghai), University of New South Wales (Sydney), Deakin University (Melbourne), Harvard Law School and Haifa University (Israel). He served on the Council of State in Ireland where he advised the President on constitutional law matters. His hobbies include folk music and storytelling.

The Future of the Eurozone: Towards a European Benchmark

The European sovereign debt crisis has demonstrated the need for a rethinking of the European Integration Project. The strong variety between member countries prevented the Eurozone to become a fiscal and political union and the asymmetric architecture of the European Monetary Union (EMU) revealed different weaknesses. The outbreak of the Covid-19 emergency may represent a turning point for the EU and makes even more evident that the future of the Eurozone will depend also on the ability of member countries to make their institutional frameworks coexist. Helping member countries to achieve sustainable and stable outcomes, although in idiosyncratic ways, is the task of the European benchmark. It is a framework, inspired by European treaties, that aims to identify inefficiencies in terms of market, state and social failures and negative externalities inside economic, social, and political institutions. This benchmark represents a new tool for a correct evaluation of the economic, social, and political performance of the European member countries.

Transnational legal feminist approaches to the honour crimes provision in the Istanbul Convention

ABSTRACT The Istanbul Convention is an important Council of Europe treaty aimed at preventing violence against women. Article 42 of the Istanbul Convention prohibits the use of ‘culture, custom, religion, or tradition’ in trials of defendants accused of violence against women. This article examines Article 42 from a transnational legal feminist perspective. As a treaty that applies to a wide range of countries, it should appreciate the significantly varying societal contexts across countries within the Council of Europe. It is argued here that the language of Article 42 does not go far enough to recognise this transnational diversity.

Noes That Should Have Been Yeses: the Dutch Referendums Concerning the European Constitutional Treaty (2005) and the Ukraine-European Union Association Agreement (2016)

This article discusses two European referendums held in the Netherlands in 2005 and 2016 on the approval of the European Constitutional Treaty and the ratification of the Ukraine-European Union Association Agreement respectively. It investigates their backgrounds and outcomes and how they unfolded, drawing conclusions on striking similarities that can be discerned between them. In both cases, legislation that made the referendums possible was driven by ideas of popular involvement; the referendum campaigns were characterised by the discomfort of the political elite and the dominance of the no-camp; and they resulted in a popular rebuff, an outcome that the legislature could and would only very partially honour. The article demonstrates how the experience resulted in disillusionment, both for voters and politicians, and eventually led to the withdrawal of the corrective referendum bill.

The Importance of Autonomy of European Union Member States with regard to the Use of Genetically Modified Organisms on the Right to Healthcare – An Analysis of Judgements of the Court of Justice of the European Union

The European Union Member States (hereinafter: EU MS) have the possibility of restricting or banning the cultivation of GMOs under the Directive 2015/412 but under certain conditions. EU MS must also pay attention to the provisions of the Treaty on the Functioning of the Euro-pean Union or Treaty Establishing the European Community (hereinafter: TFEU), the provi-sions relating to the free movement of goods, which is one of the key objectives of the func-tioning of the European Union. This contribution is based on the data obtained from an analy-sis of Court of Justice of the European Union (hereinafter: CJEU) cases concerning the use of genetically modified organisms (hereinafter: GMO(s)). The analysis highlights the link between environmental risk assessment and the right to healthcare. The purpose of this paper is to make the individual aware of the possibilities they have regarding the use of GMOs.

The development of an enforcement mechanism under the former European Economic Community treaty: what lessons for ASEAN?

Der folgende Beitrag ist im Rahmen der Kooperation der Rechtsfakultäten in Luxemburg und Vientiane entstanden. Sie ist Teil eines kooperationspolitischen Projekts zur Implementation rechtsstaatlicher Prinzipien in Ländern des Globalen Südens. In der demokratischen Volksrepublik Laos stellen sich bei deren Übergang in einen Rechtsstaat besondere interkulturelle, ökonomische und geopolitische Herausforderungen, die bei der Verankerung rechtsstaatlicher Prinzipien zu beachten sind. Der Beitrag ist exemplarisch für diese Zusammenarbeit und thematisiert, inwiefern Regeln der europäischen Rechtsdurchsetzung modellhaft für die ASEAN-Staaten sein können.

Divergenzen zwischen Zielen und Kompetenzen in der Europäischen Union: eine Analyse am Beispiel der Gesundheitspolitik in Zeiten der COVID-19-Pandemie

The European treaties assign goals and tasks to the European Union that sometimes do correspond to the conferral of a very limited competence by the member states. Using the corona crisis as an example, the text highlights the problematic nature of this discrepancy between European objectives and European competences. Finally, an argument is made for supplementing competences in the area of health policy with regard to cross-border pandemics.