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In the European Union alone, there are currently approximately 5.5 million migrants with an irregular immigration status. Despite its promise of universality, international human rights law does not protect migrants, particularly those in irregular situations, to the same extent as it protects citizens. This paper examines state policies towards irregular migration and approaches to issues faced by irregular migrants, from No Borders to solidarity, arguing that to effectively address these pressing concerns, it is necessary to look beyond the law and the concept of human rights and to challenge the notion of the border. Hannah Arendt's nexus between rights and political membership expressed in the concept of the 'right to have rights' is considered in relation to today's undocumented migrants. Different manifestations of migrant activism are also analysed, demonstrating that undocumented migrants have a voice and have been using it to contest the state-dependent notions of citizenship and membership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past ten years, the language of crisis has become increasingly common in discourse about migration governance at the European Union (EU) level, and policy responses have been oriented by an emergency rationale that prioritizes short-term solutions over long-term planning. EU migration and asylum law incorporates several crisis response mechanisms, and the addition of a new set of instruments has recently been proposed. This paper offers a critical legal mapping of what counts as a "crisis" in EU migration and asylum law, and the mechanisms for responding to such crises. It exemplifies a complex system in which the tension between the imperative to address threats purportedly arising from unwanted migration is intricately intertwined with the necessity of granting Member States flexibility to respond to contingencies without compromising the integrity of the common EU asylum and migration system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the evolution of the European Union's criminal justice competence using the analytical motif of "confidence". In order to explain why this approach was chosen the first part describes three confidence "vignettes" -situations or senses in which "confidence" forms a key part of the narrative of the Union's criminal justice development. Picking up upon the renaissance of interest among social scientists in the study of emotions, the paper then outlines the account of 'Action and confidence' that was provided by the sociologist Jack Barbalet, in the context of his seminal work, Emotion, Social Theory, and Social Structure. This is then used to provide a series of reflections on the role of confidence (and emotion more generally) in relation to the Union's emergence as a criminal justice actor and, in turn, also on Barbalet's account. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper identifies a policy inconsistency between the EU's asylum and the EU's labour migration policies and makes a call for stronger convergence. The analysis starts off by setting out the EU's current and future economic challenges with a view to its ageing population and low fertility rates, which displays the EU's need for migrants. Two trends can be observed: The lacking success of Europe's highly-skilled regime, i.e. the Blue Card scheme, casts doubts on the suitability of the EU's labour migration policy and its ability to meet the EU's labour market's needs this way. Labour market access for people that come to the EU to seek asylum on the other hand is subject to quite a number of restrictions. The lack of coordination seems short-sighted. In an attempt to advocate for stronger coherence the paper sets out the rights to access the EU labour market of those who come to the EU as asylum seekers in detail and explores reform potential where these rights can be expanded consistent with the EU's labour market needs. It looks at EU law in general and refers to Germany as an implementation example. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite many efforts to empower the EU citizens and their family members to benefit from the free movement of workers, numerous well-documented obstacles are still present within the EU. The EU intends to eliminate the gap between the rights on paper and in practice in Directive 2014/54 by establishing four procedural pillars—promotion, support, analysis and monitoring. The functions are entrusted to the institution(s) designated by the Member States leaving them a wide discretion to choose the most appropriate institutional model. This article focuses on the analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of three possible institutional setups—establishment of a new institution, extension of the mandate of an existing body and assignment of the tasks to several existing national bodies. The study examines which model is more suitable to meet the aims of the Directive, taking into consideration the nature and content of the abovementioned pillars and specific situation in the different Member States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the role of civic culture and other political factors in support for democracy in the Czech Republic during the decade following EU accession. The goal is to assess the validity of civic virtue theory and to compare the impact of these factors on affective legitimacy using the ISSP Citizenship modules 2004 and 2014. The authors’ findings show rather weak but stable effects of the horizontal dimension of civic culture - social trust (but not membership in civic organizations), while the influence of the vertical dimension (trust in institutions, political interest, voting) is more variable, influenced by political turbulences. The time comparison also provides evidence of influence of right-wing political ideology and strong and stable effects of evaluations of political and economic performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The right to privacy has usually been considered as the most prominent fundamental right to protect in data-intensive (Big Data) health research. Within the European Union (EU), however, the right to data protection is gaining relevance as a separate fundamental right that should in particular be protected by data protection law. This paper discusses three differences between these two fundamental rights, which are relevant to data-intensive health research. Firstly, the rights based on the right to data protection are of a less context-sensitive nature and easier to enforce. Secondly, the positive obligation to protect personal data requires a more proactive approach by the EU and its Member States. Finally, it guarantees a more comprehensive system of personal data protection. In conclusion, we argue that a comprehensive system of data protection, including research-specific safeguards, is essential to compensate for the loss of individual control in data-intensive health research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although energy supply security is an important long-term goal of the eu, member states are in control over external supplies and their domestic energy mix, and an overarching institutional structure is lacking. In this paper, we focus on the availability of oil and gas and the risks of supply disruptions for the eu. The last two decades have been marked by a decrease in fossil fuel production and increasing import dependence. Proven oil and gas reserves in the eu are very limited. Especially in the case of oil the outlook of both global and own eu reserves looks bleak. At the same time, global trends show an increasing demand for energy in the coming decades, concentrated mainly in developing countries, specifically in China. The Persian Gulf area and the Caspian Sea region hold some of the world’s largest oil and gas reserves, and these will make them increasingly significant in global markets. These factors create a setting for the eu of demand- and supply-induced and structural scarcity. The persistence of Arab patrimonial rentier states and societies are a domestic and geopolitical source of instability. These states’ Sovereign Wealth Funds are used by ruling elites to divert assets from socioeconomic development towards individual profit. Emerging Asian economies involved in the me and the cea, especially China, will influence the regions’ future geopolitical and geo-economic reality. China relies on resources for domestic development and the resource-rich Middle Eastern countries have long been a destination from which to acquire them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the wealth of knowledge in desistance research on the meaning of growing discontent with one's life situation and a perceived necessity of distancing oneself from a negative past, there is a research gap in explaining cases in which individuals mainly change for their own sake. This paper introduces the concept of accumulated uneasiness which adds to the reconstruction of plausible pathways towards desistance from delinquency. Twenty-nine qualitative interviews of young adults were analyzed. The findings suggest that delinquency and other immature behavior might lose their meaning in young adulthood due to internalized values and norms; a process which is intensified by and started due to an increasing feeling of accumulated uneasiness. The findings contribute to the discussion why desistance occurs at certain points in life and how internal and external motivation is interrelated in such processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

EU energy policy objectives are directed at three highly interdependent areas: energy supply security, competitiveness and decarbonization to prevent climate change. In this paper, we focus on the issue of energy supply security. Security of energy supply for the immediate and medium-term future is a necessary condition in the current context of the global political economy for the survival of the Union and its component member states. Since the Lisbon Treaty entered into force, energy policy no longer comes onto the agenda of the European Commission through the backdoor of the common market, environment and competitiveness. The Treaty created a new legal basis for the internal energy market. However, securing external supplies as well as deciding the energy mix, remain matters of national prerogative, though within the constraints of other parts of EU's legislation in force. Without a common defense policy, the highly import dependent Union and its members face external instability in the energy rich Arab Middle East and North Africa. Concern about energy security has been triggered by declining European energy production as well as the strain on global demand exerted by newly industrializing economies such as China and India and the Middle East, as well as the political instability in this reserve-rich part of the world. This paper explores the following two topics [1] the current situation and past trends in production, supply, demand and trade in energy in the EU, against the background of major changes in the last half decade and [2] threats to the security of the supply of oil and natural gas from import regions. Fossil fuel import dependence in the eu is expected to continue to increase in the coming two decades. As global trends show, and despite new fields in the Caspian region and the Eastern Mediterranean, conventional fossil oil and gas resources remain concentrated in fewer geopolitically unstable regions and countries (i.e. the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and the Caspian Region (CR) including Russia), while global demand for fossil energy is expected to substantially increase also within the energy rich Gulf countries. This combination directly impacts EU energy supply security. It should be noted that the trend towards higher levels of import dependence was not interrupted when the era of low energy prices, between 1980 and 2003, came to an end. Within the eu itself, domestic resistance to the development of unconventional resources is an obstacle to investment in unconventional sources in this part of the high-income world. This should therefore not put at risk investments in either renewables or alternative sources at home or conventional resources mainly in the Arab-Middle East. The situation is exacerbated by the spread of instability in the Arab-Middle Eastern countries. There are three domestic and geopolitical concerns to be taken into consideration: (1) In the Arab-Middle East, threats to EU energy supply security originate in the domestic regime of these countries. Almost all Arab resource-rich countries belong to a type of patrimonial, rentier-type of state-society relation. These regimes rely on rents from the exploitation of energy resources and the way in which rents are distributed. Regimes of this type are being challenged. Their economies show uneven economic development, centralized power structures, corruption and poverty at the bottom of the social hierarchy. The discrimination of females is a major obstacle to the development of the service sector. At present, even the monarchies fear the spread of violent conflict. Offshoots of these consequences have proven to cause civil unrest, exemplified by what optimists have called the Arab Spring.' (2) The second concern is the domestic and global impact of Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWFS) managed by Arab patrimonial rentier states. SWFs have proven to be an asset in both developing and developed economies due to their ability to buffer the 'Dutch Disease,' and to encourage industrialization, economic diversification and eventually the development of civil society. In patrimonial states, however, SWFS are affected by corruption and the diversion of funds away from long-term socioeconomic development to luxury consumption by political elites. In fact, Arab SWFS underpin the persistence of the Arab patrimonial rentier state system. (3) Finally, the post-Cold War, ME and CEA geopolitical landscape is shifting. The emergence of China and other Asian economies has increased their presence in the Middle East due to a growing need for energy and the expansion of Asian markets. The recent discovery of energy resources in the US has led to speculation that there will be less us presence in the region. There would be a serious risk to EU energy security if emerging Asian economies were to increase their presence in the Middle East as us interests recede. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Safe country of origin (sco) policies have become very popular in many of the European countries. Scholars however disagree whether this leads to policy convergence or divergence. Based on the absence of a comprehensive dataset from which to make such a convergence/divergence observation, this paper consequently describes the development of sco policies in depth, and their variation over time and across Member States. It is observed that sco policies adopted at the domestic level are becoming increasingly similar across EU Member States, especially with regard to certain regions (the Western Balkans and West Africa). Following from these observations, several mechanisms behind the established trends are discussed. The paper is based on an original dataset of the sco designations for all EU Member States over the time period 1990-2013, as well as on interviews with ministry officials in several EU Member States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Stockholm Programme and the European Commission's Action Plan implementing it have positioned the freedom, security and justice of 'European citizens' at the heart of the EU's political agenda for the next five years. Yet, who are the 'citizens' about whom the Council and the European Commission are so interested? At first sight it would appear as if only those individuals holding the nationality of a Member State would fall within this category. This paper challenges this assumption, however, and argues that as a consequence of litigation by individuals before EU courts and of the growing importance given to the act of mobility in citizenship and immigration law, the personal scope of the freedoms accorded to European citizenship already covers certain categories of third-country nationals (TCNs). Through an examination of selected landmark rulings of the Court of Justice in Luxembourg, the paper demonstrates how the requirement of being a national of an EU Member State is progressively becoming less important when defining the boundaries of the European citizenry. TCNs already enjoy and benefit from a number of European citizenship-related and citizenship-like freedoms, rights, benefits and general principles, which are subject to protection and scrutiny at the EU level. This development, we argue, is not only an indication of a continuing loss of discretionary power by the nation-state with respect to European citizenship, but may also constitute a clear signal that a new European citizenship of TCNs is in the making in the Union. This citizenship places the freedom to move and non-discrimination on the basis of nationality at the core of its identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is focused on the appeal system in criminal justice, in a comparative perspective, considered from the standpoint of the defendant. Most part of the directives adopted after the 2009 Stockholm Programme in the afsj area involve issues related to the appeal stage. Appeal represents an instrument prevailingly conceived in favour of the defence. This pro-defence inclination of the appeal bears some relevant risk for the effectivity of the system, under the viewpoint of law enforcement. Some restrictions to avoid destructive strategies by the defence can be accepted. However, legal instruments devoted to preserve the self-integrity of the proceedings must be used with extreme caution. The risk is that an excessive recourse to such provisions might lead the system to disregard procedural legality, and the values protected by procedural rules, in the name of an effective ascertainment of the substantial truth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Refugees with disabilities represent an invisible group of individuals who are forced to leave their countries in particularly disadvantaged situations. Therefore, they are in need of special protection and attention, especially at the European level because of the ongoing dramatic humanitarian emergency. This article seeks to examine to what extent the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities can be applied to refugees. Moreover, the paper looks at the Directives of the Common European Asylum System in order to examine whether the EU legal backdrop takes into account the peculiar condition of refugees with disabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Legitimacy in the system of criminal justice can be understood, inter alia, as a moral justification of authority. In relation to legitimacy, legality means that within the legal order and legal justice of a democratic state, state bodies are only allowed to do that which is permitted through legal rules. Legitimacy and morality are broader categories than legality and legal justice. In the field of criminal justice, legitimacy is rooted in Tyler's understanding (1990), which states that recognition of legitimacy plays a key role in obedience before the law. Bennetta-Capersa (2008) takes the view that less strict enforcement of the laws and more police work in the community can reduce the crime rate in society as a whole. This paper's positive contribution lies more or less in the substantial applicability of terms that have been properly delineated within a social science framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Political actors in the European Union and in the EU member states have arrived to maintain that managed circular migration can generate benefits both for the destination countries and for the countries of origin of the migrants. Despite the fact that Germany so far has barely engaged in fostering circular migration through distinct programmes, a not inconsiderable share of foreigners from third countries living in Germany today can be viewed as circular migrants. This paper takes an inventory of the extent and characteristics of such spontaneous back-and-forth cross border movements by providing a specific, clear-cut definition for circular migration and thus analysing stock data on third country nationals residing in Germany. Furthermore, we scrutinise the German legal framework with a view to its propensity to encourage patterns of circular migration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper identifies and analyses problems and weaknesses standing in the way of the provision of an effective defence in transnational criminal proceedings. Drawing upon some key findings of the EuroNEEDs study, it extrapolates results from that examination of EU criminal justice as valid for all transnational justice settings. It is argued that the failure to recognise legally the difference between national and transnational proceedings leads to a lacuna. Transnational criminal law and justice mechanisms are recognised as developed, above all, as tools of repressive criminal procedure leaving individuals facing them stripped of their constitutional identities and corresponding protective rights. It is argued that those creating transnational criminal law and justice mechanisms must recognise and provide for a more balanced system to avoid such contexts acting as constitutional loop-holes and to ensure the provision of defence rights and procedural safeguards in such proceedings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past few decades the competences of the EU to enact legislation in criminal matters have significantly increased. Member States and criminal law experts have raised concerns: to what extent can national sovereignty and domestic interests regarding criminal justice be preserved? This paper argues that the perspective of national sovereignty should not be the primary concern in criminal justice affairs in the EU. It is proposed that EU legal measures in this area are primarily judged on whether they in their entirety contribute to a reasonable balance between effective law enforcement and adequate judicial protection of individuals. From this perspective, recent developments potentially contribute to redressing the balance in EU criminal law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract This paper provides an analysis of the objective attributed by the CJEU to Directive 2003/86 in the Chakroun (C-578/08) decision and its impact on Member States' margins of manoeuvre. The Court indeed stated that '(. . .) the margin for manoeuvre which the Member States are recognised as having must not be used by them in a manner which would undermine the objective of the directive, which is to promote family reunification, and the effectiveness thereof'.1 Astonishingly enough, this part of the judgement has not stirred much reaction from commentators and Member States. After an analysis of the meaning of 'promoting', and of the rationale and value of the CJEU's position, I will expose the impact that it might have on the margins of manoeuvre of Member States while implementing the directive. All this should help to grasp the Court's statement, and as a matter of consequence, to gauge the compliance of national legislations and practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses an idea of improvement of the quality of information exchanges between EU Member States, in particular on criminal convictions. The European Union has addressed this complex problem using a step-by-step method. Beginning with a relatively simple and uncontroversial measures–both in terms of their contents, proposed solutions, and legal format–the European Commission and the Council of the European Union have been moving forward by stepping up their efforts and adopting more sophisticated measures. The decisions, framework decisions, proposals and white papers are discussed against the background of international treaty instruments for the exchange of criminal records. The author presents the main solutions proposed in the study on the feasibility of the establishing of the European Criminal Record. The author concludes by stating that the prospects for establishing a genuine European criminal record, for a moment, are rather bleak. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes the occurrence of human trafficking in Europe. During the 1980s, a debate opened up about the meaning of the concept of free movement of persons enshrined in the Treaty of Rome 1957. Some Member States felt that this should apply to European Union (EU) citizens only, which would involve keeping internal border checks in order to distinguish between citizens of the EU and non-EU nationals. Others argued in favor of free movement for everyone, which would mean an end to internal border checks altogether. The Schengen Agreement was signed in 1985 in the village of Schengen, on the borders of Luxembourg, France and Germany. Having decided to implement the intention expressed in that agreement of bringing about the abolition of checks at their common borders on the free movement of persons and facilitating the transport and movement of goods, it could be argued that the Schengen acquis has made it easier for human traffickers to break down internal EU borders in the true spirit of the agreement, after all Schengen's main purpose was to remove all controls at internal land, sea and airport frontiers. As of 2003, there are about 3-4.5 million people living in the EU without any legal papers, with an estimated 400,000 people a year being trafficked into Member States.

This paper will argue that the political and economic integration of the European Union has played a crucial role in helping the spread of xenophobia and ethnic conflict across the continent. The redrawing of boundaries within the European Union and the increasing restrictions on those outside the EU does not solely involve internal policies of the EU and member nation states but also entails a process of capitalist reconstruction and globalisation. Confronted with the contradictions involved in the move towards supra-national centralisation and economic globalisation people are encouraged to reinvent their ethnicity and engage in ethnic conflict. Attempts to define Europe as a cultural entity also deepen these contradictions and official claims concerning 'Europe's civilising role' fail to appreciate the ways in which the EU has acted as a catalyst for xenophobia through a failure to confront the deepening contradictions, especially the racism which has always represented the darker side of modernity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]