Supranational Union Research Articles

From Nations to the European Union: A New Emerging Type of Society

Revisiting the sociological concepts of nation and reciprocities formulated by Marcel Mauss, the hypothesis of the European Union is put forward as a new type of society in which each member is integrated by the multiple differences in and between themselves, unlike nations whose homogenizing tendency comes from direct reciprocity between each member and the entire society. In this sense, supranational unions would result in communities that are both originally and intentionally diverse, while such international relations of indirect reciprocities within their scope would make national citizenships permeable to human diversity (mainly cultural) in general. Therefore, the current unification of European nations is a case whose study can foresee problems and possibilities of such unions to be undertaken in other planetary quadrants.

Chinese Observations of Soviet Nationality Affairs in the Mao and post-Mao Eras

Abstract Over the years, China’s nationality policy tended to imitate the Soviet Union while also retaining its uniqueness. Existing scholarship has described three deviations the CCP made vis-à-vis the Soviet model: denying national self-determination, rejecting the supra-national union of nation-states, and undertaking constructivist classification of ethnicity. These features took shape around 1949. In this article, I survey China’s observations on Soviet nationality affairs from 1949 to 1991 and provide a perspective for understanding how these deviations from the Soviet nationality model both crystallized and varied. My findings show that after 1949, Soviet studies in China lacked a coherent agenda for studying the nationality question. The experts gathered rich materials but subordinated nationality questions to themes such as revolution, a centrally planned economy, border disputes, geopolitics, and ideological indoctrination. They also tended to reduce ethnopolitics to class struggle and economic modernization. Such systematic evasion of nationality questions persisted until the collapse of the Soviet Union. The USSR’s disintegration caused China to recognize the resilience of ethnicity and nationality, while before 1991, Soviet studies in China had lacked any systematic reflection on the Soviet nationality model.

Voluntary association, not state consent: why the EU’s stance on secession rests on the wrong concept of legitimacy

ABSTRACT The EU’s Prodi doctrine stipulates that a new state formed through secession from an EU member state will be treated as a third party vis-à-vis the Union. This article engages with debates on secessionism, self-determination, and democracy in the EU to discuss what the doctrine entails for the democratic legitimacy of the EU. We argue that the doctrine is only compatible with one source of political legitimacy that the EU partly depends on, the state consent model. However, it is not compatible with the voluntary association model which is a moral basis that is increasingly relevant for a supranational union of democratic states. The prevalent practice of organizing referendums on EU accession shows that securing popular support is today an important feature of the politics of legitimacy in the EU. We illustrate our argument with the case of Catalonia and contrast it with cases from the history of European integration.

Legal Framework for the Regulation of Sanctions Measures in the European Union

The subject of this article is the legal basis of the mechanism for the adoption of sanctions (restrictive measures) within the European Union. The author traced the evolution of the application of sanctions since the creation of the European Economic Community (1957) to the present day, analyzed the relevant sections of the most important constituent acts of the EU and considered the features of the EU sanctions mechanism at the present stage. In recent decades, the practice of applying political and economic sanctions has significantly expanded in the system of international relations. At the same time, if earlier the initiator of international restrictive measures was usually the UN Security Council, now the world is dominated by unilateral national sanctions adopted on the basis of domestic political and legal norms. Somewhat apart in this process are the countries of the European Union, which are guided by collective sanctions measures approved within the EU. The purpose of this article is to study the specifics of the EU sanctions policy, to determine the legal nature of collective sanctions, as well as their compliance with the current principles and standards of modern international law. In the course of the evolution of the European Union as a subject of international legal relations, a special place was given to the formation of the common Foreign and Security Policy of the EU. The author comes to the conclusion that the gradual transformation of an economic association into a political union has led to the need for a unified coordinated policy in the international arena. According to the author, at the present time, the sanctions measures of the European Union have become an integral part of the PRSP, strengthening its role and importance as an important chain in the system of international relations. At the same time, the EU, not having its own armed forces, increasingly considers collective sanctions as an instrument of its political and economic influence in the world. The novelty of this study lies in the consideration of the EU sanctions mechanism from the point of view of the formation of a single common foreign policy of this supranational union.

Constitutional Debate on European Union’s Shifting Pathway towards Supranationalism

The rapid evolution of the European Union (EU) has suggested a new debate on regionalism due to the institutional transformation from intergovernmentalism to supranationalism. Hitherto, the EU has undergone a shifting pathway as a supranational institution that raises a further debate on supranational constitutionalism. This paper aimed to critically examine the EU's legal capacity for external relations at the World Trade Organization (WTO) following in identifying the impact of the EU member states to become members of this world institution as well. However, new approaches were considered within the shifting paradigm, which includes supranational union as an emerging pivotal global actor in international relations. This paper showed that the emergence of EU supranationalism has challenged the traditional debate on state sovereignty rooted in the Westphalian concept, particularly against the state primacy in international law. While the EU regionalism contributed to legal conversation both in the regional and international arena, the juxtaposition of the state and the supranational 'state' has increasingly blurred their limits, becoming sui generis in regionalism and state discourses among the areas of international law and constitutional law.

The geographical scales of fear: spatiality of emotions, emotional spatialities

A multi-scalar understanding of fear has not been completely absent from geographical theory, however, it has not been given the attention it deserves and definitely has not been utilised in empirical research to the extent it has explanatory power to our globalised world infused with fears. By a multi-scalar understanding I refer to geographical scale as social production or social construction following critical geographers, who see the relationship between these scales as non-hierarchical. This paper draws on and combines theoretical works understanding fear as a socially and politically produced emotion that is politically exploited – most often through Othering – and operates on multiple geographical scales. It is an everyday experience that is produced and made sense across the scales of the body, home, neighbourhood, city, nation, region, supranational unions, the global scale and beyond. This paper draws together three particular areas concerning fear related research; (1) it emphasises that fear is an emotion; but (2) it is deeply embedded in social, economic, political and spatial relations and often closely linked to – if not dependent on – Othering and marginalisation; and (3) fear is reproduced in a transscalar way at all geographical scales. By drawing together these three interlinked approaches to fear, on the one hand, this paper aims to contribute to the literature by demonstrating the way the “us” versus “them” nexus is reimagined at different scales according to political convenience. On the other, it hopes to inspire more research in the field of emotional geography in general and that of fear in particular in Hungary (and more broadly in the CEE region), where this sub-field has been underrepresented even though its great explanatory potentials.

THE PHENOMENON OF CYBERCRIME: FROM THE TRANSNATIONAL CONNOTATION TO THE NEED FOR GLOBALIZATION OF JUSTICE

Information technology has brought about epochal changes in every area of society, offering opportunities for development on a social, cultural, and economic level, but also a fertile ground for activities with criminal purposes that take place in cyberspace. The threat present in the intangible world of cyberspace is extremely concrete and is one of the major sources of concern and investment by States, given that the Internet is considered the critical infrastructure for excellence. Cybercrime, characterized by a transnational connotation of borderless or aspatial crime, provides a position of advantage to the cybercriminal compared to the traditional criminal. The development of information technologies has led to the digitization of organized crime which thus succeeds in maximizing profits by exploiting the opportunities offered by new communication technologies and minimizing the risk of being identified, arrested, convicted and of suffering the seizure of the proceeds of criminal activities. Considering the contradictory and inhomogeneous international legal framework due to the transnational scope of cybercrime, the identification of the locus commissi delicti is difficult and the legal prosecution of cybercrimes is complex; therefore, cybercriminals could operate without an adequate response from some states in terms of prevention, sanction, containment and contrast. The sovereignty of States, in the context of cybercrime repression, is identified as an insurmountable obstacle in the creation of a supranational union of law. Therefore, to put legal operators in the real conditions to suppress transnational cybercrime, globalization of justice is needed.
 
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Eurasian integration: general values and legal institutions.

Introduction. The article is devoted to the analysis of the civilisational foundations and features of Eurasian integration, their reflection in the charter documents and the practice of the Court of the Eurasian Economic Union. The author describes cultural integrity, including religion. Teoretical Basis. Methods. Specifically, in the modern world, the author distinguishes four civilisations: Christian, Sinic, Indian, and Muslim. Russia (the pivotal state of the Eurasian integration under discussion) is a poly-civilisational state, because its culture is based on historical multinationality, multiconfessionality, and multiculturalism. The basis of Russian law is Christian values (for example, the rule of law), but elements that derive from Islam (the “rule of power”), and Buddhism (the protection of natural connections) are also very important. The article uses empirical methods of comparison, description, interpretation, theoretical methods of formal and dialectical logic. Results. The author shows that compared with European integration, Eurasianism is based on slightly different values, namely: 1) the rule of law as a formal order; 2) collectivism and collegiality – the special significance of the rights and interests of an indefinite circle of persons in comparison with individual ones; 3) the priority of natural relationships in the group. The Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) is an international organisation of a supranational type. In its statutory documents the religious and civilisational peculiarities characteristic of Eurasianism were also taken into account. The principles of international law (as the super-imperative norms of jus cogens) have priority in application, but differ in special content, namely: 1) respect for the sovereign rights of states; 2) equality of states, which are implemented not formally, but taking into account economic reality, and; 3) the principle of pacta sunt servanda. Specifically, the EAEU Commission and the corresponding Court are created to monitor compliance with the treaties. The court also has peculiar features: 1) In the documents the principle of independence of judges is especially emphasised (the chairman is the first among equals); 2) the relations of the Court with the national courts of the Member States of the Union are built in a special way: they take the positions of the Court in their practice on a voluntary basis. The international court of a supranational union is mainly aimed at overcoming dualism – duality in the law of integration association. This creates a uniform understanding of the norms of union law, which cannot be reduced only to the positive component that the court corrects with the natural essence of law – the protection of human rights. The author gives examples of problems encountered in building the EAEU: 1) the ratio of the principle of pacta sunt servanda and the principle of national sovereignty; 2) the principle of equality in its real, not formal essence. Discussion and Conclusion. The EAEU takes into account both the principles of Christian civilisation (respect for law), and the principles of other civilisations (for example, respect for power and the principles of harmonious construction of relations within the Union – multiculturalism). It is important for the Court to find a balance between activism and conservatism both in resolving international conflicts and in interpreting law. So, activism in the EAEU Court is manifested in human rights issues, and conservatism: in matters of monitoring the activities of the Commission. An important problem is the balance in ethical issues, which is associated with the multiconfessional composition of the Eurasian court. The author concludes by noting that in a situation where the requirements for the appointment of judges are blurred and there is no verification mechanism, it is difficult for the international composition of the Court to find ethical consensus.

Building a Model While Debunking Another: The Rivalry of Arab Nationalism between ‘Abd al-Karim Qasim and Gamal Abdel Nasser

The decade of 1950–60 was unique in terms of the establishment of a supranational Arab union, known as the United Arab Republic. However, this union was ill born due to certain frictions between Arab states in the Middle East. There were divergences between the visions of Arab Nationalism for each state and this caused a troubling process for this supranational initiative. This study considers these frictions as the main reasons behind why the UAR was an unsuccessful attempt and further why the Arab Nationalism dissolved afterwards. The divergence between two competing visions of Arab Nationalism is symbolized through the competition between Iraqi prime minister Abd al-Karim Qasim and Egyptian president Gamal Nasser. The domestic, regional and global circumstances for these two countries and their leaders are analyzed in order to illustrate how these frictions became a reality and divided the Arab stance.

АНГЛОМОВНИЙ КОЛОРИТ ЛІНГВІСТИЧНОГО ПЕЙЗАЖУ УКРАЇНСЬКОГО МІСТА (НА ОСНОВІ АНАЛІЗУ МОВНОГО ЛАНДШАФТУ ЛЬВОВА)

Розглянуто англомовний вплив на формування лінгвістичного пейзажу Львова, його сутність та ознаки. Визначена залежність лінгвістичного ландшафту українського міста від мовної політики центральної влади, від її ідеологічних поглядів та зовнішньополітичних орієнтацій. Підкреслено вплив історичної традиції на ставлення населення Львова до англомовного контенту міського лінгвістичного пейзажу. Наголошено на необхідності регулювання пропорцій співвідношення української та англійської мов при формуванні лінгвістичного пейзажу Львова.

European integration and the paradoxical answers of national trade unions to the crises of capitalism

ABSTRACT In their introduction to this special issue, the editors mentioned that the commodification of labour is one important feature of capitalism. Hence, the reaction of the principal organizations that represent and defend labour needed to be explored. This article focuses on Belgian and German trade unions’ apprehensions of European integration during the 1970s and sheds lights on two major findings. First, trade unions’ perceptions of European integration were very clearly influenced by the condition and the evolution of capitalism. National trade unions observed that the transformations of capitalism could not be adequately addressed by national polities and industrial relations structures. Hence, trade unions heavily insisted on the necessity of political and trade unionist European cooperation. The latter is considered a necessary intermediary to allow labour to counterbalance the new forms of capital and to regain the influence it lost nationally. The second finding is that there existed a huge paradox between this enduring rhetoric of the necessity of European integration and the willingness of trade unions to give up some of their national prerogatives. The evolving forms of capitalism made it imperative to cooperate more at the supranational level but trade unions remained very much reluctant national institutions.

Salvaging the EU: Two-Speed or Dual-Track Reform?

In the most recent decade, the European Union has shown itself to be less robust than globalists imagined. Globalists believed that supranationality was weatherproof – that it would always outperform national alternatives and would survive adversity. Economic stagnation and Brexit belied these expectations. This essay investigates one aspect of the EU’s supranational plight: incompatible goals and the difficulty of mutual accommodation, especially during hard times. EU supranationalists contend that the shared dreams assure harmonious results, but experience reveals that supranational government is shakier than advocates claim because shared ideals and benefits have not been enough for members to put aside conflicting national interests. These rivalries do not doom the European Union’s globalizing project, but they do expose the vulnerabilities of its premises. Supranational union is proving to be unsatisfactory to both many centralizers demanding “more Europe” and decentralizers insisting on “less Europe”. EU leaders are aware of the problem but are wedded to a one-track, two-speed supranational approach that is destined to fail. A dual-track supranational solution analogous to China’s “one country, two systems” offers a better alternative.

National Populism and the European Union

Abstract The diffusion of both nationalism and populism is the symptom of a crisis in European democracies. The convergence of nationalist ideology and populist rhetoric is the major challenge that the European Union faces today and can be effectively countered by developing the political project of a truly democratic and supranational union. In this article, I will first outline the distinctive features of nationalism and populism. I will then analyse the major factors fostering the rise of national populism in the European Union countries, and I will conclude by discussing its more effective alternative.

Weak Labour, Strong Interests: Polish Trade Unions and the Integration of EU Energy and Service Markets

AbstractThis paper examines the motives behind the EU‐level activism of CEE trade unions, which are commonly regarded as weak actors. To this end, it studies lobbying and protest actions staged by Polish labour organizations in relation to proposals for the EU Emission Trading Scheme Directive and the EU Services Directive. The analysis confirms the salience of interest‐based accounts of supranational union action, but it also shows that labour interests are context‐specific, influenced by economic conditions and regulatory changes in particular market segments. In this regard, priority given by the unions to job preservation or the improvement of social standards has important implications for their positions; it also determines the selection of their allies at national and transnational levels.

The Right to Request as a Model for Flexible Working Time

Flextime, the seemingly innocuous practice of giving employees some control over their working time, can transform the modern workplace. Once the province of scattered national legislation, the European Union is now considering the inclusion of flextime rights in the Working Time Directive (WTD), the leading EU legislation related to work time and currently undergoing a major review. Given the tenuous state of the European Union and the recent United Kingdom vote in favor of Brexit, a harmonious adoption of flextime rights cannot happen at the expense of eroding relations between EU member states. In this paper, we propose adoption of a specific form of flextime rights, known as the right to request, as the reform most likely to encourage meaningful flextime practices without unduly destabilizing the WTD or relations amongst member states. Adoption of the right to request in the WTD would minimally impact employers, offer significant benefits to employees, and promote EU goals of protecting worker health and safety. With this adoption, the WTD can strengthen its goals, do its part to keep the fabric of the EU intact, and perhaps even encourage states flirting with exit to remain tied to one of the world’s most important supranational political unions.

Monolingualism or multiple versions for Erasmus+ Guidelines? Incompatibilities and utopia.

<p><em>Since the ECSC Treaty signed in Paris in 1951, marking the beginning of the commun destiny of the first international integration organization until the most recent decisions, such as the single currency or the immigration policies, it is a matter of fact that European Union progresses only with harmonious dialogue and joint actions, built on mutual respect of others’ differences. Nowadays, in the </em><em>rapidly changing societies, financial concurrence and geopolitical stakes together with arrogance, or dominance, often outweigh the plurilingual communication, thereby leading to worries about linguistic equality within the Union; hence, the subject of the present stydy. Communication in this polyglottic supranational union should be based on an equal pattern, without what the impact of English as lingua franca<a title="" href="file:///F:/JOURNAL%20BA%20TEIEP%201/PAPER_HATZIDAKI.doc#_ftn1"><strong>[1]</strong></a> may be contested and criticised. This combined with the fact that translations are not fully compatible with the English text, implies that European Union does not always resonate at the same frequencies</em>.</p><div><hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" /><div><p><a title="" href="file:///F:/JOURNAL%20BA%20TEIEP%201/PAPER_HATZIDAKI.doc#_ftnref1">[1]</a> http://www.euractiv.fr/section/langues-culture/news/l-anglais-se-confirme-comme-la-lingua-franca-de-l-europe/</p></div></div><div><br clear="all" /><br /></div>

Centralized Fiscal Spending by Supranational Unions

We study fiscal spending by supranational unions, where participation is voluntary and countries bargain over contributions to and the allocation of a central budget. Since decisions are made by unanimity, bargaining power over the allocation becomes a function of contributions, which generically causes inefficiency in the presence of income asymmetry between member nations. This link between the budget allocation and contributions explains patterns of inefficient spending in the EU, e.g. why resources are diverted to low‐productivity projects in high‐income countries: the option of veto creates a trade‐off between efficiency on the contributions margin and efficiency on the allocation margin.

Alternative Views on the European Union: Which Institutional Architecture?

The Lisbon Treaty has formalized the coexistence within the same framework of a supranational union with parliamentary features, of an intergovernmental union resembling a federation of national governments and of an economic community. The euro crisis, exploded in Europe in 2008-2009 and deepened since, has increasingly made the coexistence of those views highly implausible. It has highlighted the difficulty of keeping them within the same legal and institutional project, calling into question the unitary and expanding paradigm of integration. The chapter aims to discuss those different visions of the EU, highlighting the institutional architecture proper of each of them. The criticism of those views will thus introduce to the delineation of an alternative institutional project on the EU (defined as compound union) able to satisfy the legitimacy's and effectiveness' requirement of a democratic union of both states and citizens.

Applied Mathematical Theory for Monetary-Fiscal Interaction in a Supranational Monetary Union

I utilize a differentiable dynamical system a la Lotka-Voletrra and explain monetary and fiscal interaction in a supranational monetary union. The paper demonstrates an applied mathematical approach that provides useful insights about the interaction mechanisms in theoretical economics in general and a monetary union in particular. I find that a common central bank is necessary but not sufficient to tackle the new interaction problems in a supranational monetary union, such as the free-riding behaviour of fiscal policies. Moreover, I show that supranational institutions, rules or laws are essential to mitigate violations of decentralized fiscal policies.

El Derecho y las organizaciones sindicales ante el reto global

Expanding the horizon supranational unions has followed a path inexorably marked by the course of modern history, having experienced many changes, splits and restructuring of reach. As globalization flourishes, unions are obliged to invigorate their ties to transnational level, in the same proportion that the progression experienced by large multinational corporations and intergovernmental cooperation and regional economic integration. The economic and financial crisis of the new millennium has highlighted the interdependence of the countries and peoples, caused by globalization. Also the weaknesses of the current system of global governance, which, devoid of supranational economic justice, and devoid of any ingredient of human solidarity, expressing the absence of democratic global power relations. The challenges are many for the international trade union movement, which, with a crucial role in the development process multinationals, should contribute to a more just and inclusive globalization. The new world economic order demands international coordination of trade union action and greater participation of trade unions in developing countries. Of key importance is the establishment of channels of information and support from the international organization for local union formations, thus, face globalization with proposals and incentives for participation in the processes of economic and political negotiation.