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The Conference on the Future of Europe, launched by the European Union in 2021, aimed to engage citizens in a dialogue and serve as a key platform for EU institutions to discuss the future direction of the European Union. Hungary actively participated in the process, and the objective of our study is to shed light on the contributions of Hungarian citizens and the conclusions drawn from them. The study also explores the post-Conference landscape, tracing the evolution of the proposals arising directly or indirectly from the debates on the future of Europe, with a reflection to their possible implications on the revision of the EU Treaties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Copyright of Revista de Direito Internacional is the property of Revista de Direito Internacional and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Students of European Union judicial politics have debated the credibility of legislative override as constraint on the behaviour of the European Court of Justice. Yet because of the high political hurdles for the passage of treaty amendments, treaty revision has been dismissed as the ‘nuclear option’, exceedingly effective but difficult to use. However, when treaties are being renegotiated, the ability of member state governments to pass treaty amendments to either punish or reward the Court is greater. We argue that this may induce the Court of Justice to display more leniency towards member states in cases coinciding with ongoing treaty negotiations. To test this hypothesis, we examine the outcome of all infringement cases adjudicated between 1961 and 2016. We find that the European Court of Justice is significantly less likely to render adverse rulings in cases concomitant with the final, most salient stage of treaty negotiations. Our analysis suggests that the relationship between treaty revision and judicial behaviour may be more nuanced than commonly assumed in the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Japan's new treaties with the Western powers came into force in the summer of 1899. These signified Japan's recognition as a modern state, but also opened the whole of Japan to residence and commerce for the nationals of the Western powers. This article examines Japan's legislative response to this new era of both political equality and expanded foreign intercourse and exchange. This comprised two new laws, Japan's first nationality law and new entry restrictions, both of which defined the boundaries of Japanese identity. The West played a paramount role in the crafting of these laws, but often forgotten is the role played by China. By examining the international contexts and the debates that attended the passage of these laws, this article shows that each law enacted a form of exclusion: the former sought to mitigate Western influence, while the latter sought to minimize Chinese immigration. Together, they reflected Japan's international position between two others: China and the West. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the formal powers of the European Parliament have increased with successive treaty changes, its committees' administrations have seen a parallel growth. We argue that such administrative capacity is necessary but not sufficient for acting on formal treaty powers. Administrative capacity has to be combined with political capacity in order to muster policy impact in European Union decision‐making. By differentiating between intra‐institutional administrative and inter‐institutional political capacity, we offer a fine‐grained conceptualization of policy capacity while broadening the theoretical and empirical understanding of the European Parliament's administration as an organizational structure of formal and informal working practices, intra‐institutional coordination and inter‐institutional relations. Based on expert interviews, document analysis and participant observation, the case of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership illustrates how societal politicization of a specific policy issue triggered the European Parliament to exploit the latent potential of its post‐Lisbon administrative capacity by transforming it into a more readily deployable political capacity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses several issues involving the amendment, modification, and revision of treaties under international law, and it mentions the drafting history of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (VCLT). A tacit acceptance procedure and multilateral environmental agreements are examined, along with inter se agreements under Article 19 of the 1883 International Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property.

The article discusses Austria's views about the modification of treaties by subsequent practice and the United National International Law Commission's draft article 38 of the Draft Articles on the Law of Treaties. Article 59 of the Statute of the International Court of Justice is examined, along with European Union (EU) law, the Austrian State Treaty of 15 May 1955, and the jurisprudence of the Austrian Constitutional Court.

The article discusses the adoption, principles, and possible revision of the Indus Waters Treaty between Pakistan and India. Topics explored include the brokering of this bilateral agreement by the World Bank and implementation on April 1, 1960, the rights to specific bodies of water granted to both countries, and the establishment of the Permanent Indus Commission to ensure compliance of both regions to the agreement.

In this article, I elaborate a conceptual innovation that underlies, if only in nascent form, Jürgen Habermas's notion of pouvoir constituant mixte and could significantly advance research on the democratic legitimacy of EU constitutional politics: the levelling up of constituent power. According to this idea, state-level pouvoirs constituants may issue an authorization for constitutional decision-making at the supra-state level and thereby bring about a new constituent power whose composition can take a variety of forms. This conceptual framework paves the way for a systematic analysis of the EU's pouvoir constituant and its relation to the demoi of the member states. At the same time, it renders it an open normative question of who should be in charge of EU constitutional politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discuses several aspects of amendment procedures in Treaty and the relationship between Article 31(3) Treaty on European Union (TEU) and Bridging Clause of Article 48(7) TEU. It mentions amendments under this procedure can be made to the provisions of Part Three of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) (Articles 26-197). It states qualified majority voting has become the default voting rule in the Council under the Treaty of Lisbon.

The article discusses the importance of treaty education, with treaty related teach-ins, direct actions, and information sharing happening in diverse public spaces across Canada. It discusses how treaty-related actions and inactions reflect a broader agenda that has defined Canada as a settler colonial nation.

The article presents a constitutional perspective on the Union Method, supplemented in practice by recourse to treaties adjacent to formal European Union (EU) law, proposed by German Chancellor Angela Merkel to replace the Community method, in a speech at Collège d'Europe on November 2, 2010. Topics discussed include new governance and open method of coordination in the EU, and Union method as a single model to understand the EU's institutions and its use of instruments.

The aim of this research is to analyze and find out the major issue of tax treaties law in Kosovo. In this analysis we have used the research method of case study. The results of research show that the legal framework for the elimination of double taxation, after 1999, initially started its establishment journey from the United Nations Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK). Taking into consideration the specifications of the political status, the process for the establishment of the unilateral and bilateral legal framework has been made with mistakes, slow and with delays. Following its declaration of independence, Kosovo has paid greater attention to tax treaties. Although double taxation relief in Kosovo may be obtained either unilaterally or under a tax treaty, there remains a lot of work to be done for the completion of the necessary framework for elimination of double taxation. The double taxation relief provided by a tax treaty prevails over the domestic relief. The study is of particular relevance to scholars, tax practitioners, expatriates who work and invest in Kosovo, etc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union ("TFEU") and Regulation 1/2003 mandate the Commission to seek compliance with the competition rules through the imposition of fines that have deterrent effect. Deterrence is to be pursued subject to Article 49(3) of the Charter, which prohibits fines that are disproportionate to the gravity of the infringement. This contribution attempts to articulate a principled test for assessing compliance with Article 49(3). The current case law of the European Courts makes it difficult to fully apply that provision: the Courts have identified the relevant factors for the assessment of gravity but have not clarified the respective weight of these factors, and neither have the Courts indicated which fine level corresponds to a given degree of gravity. Pending such clarifications, the proportionality principle as expressed in the Charter would seem to prohibit the imposition of fines of an amount that the offender is unable to pay. I also conclude that the Commission's Fining Guidelines may not be compatible with the Charter to the extent they allow for increases of the basic fine amount for undertakings with a large turnover beyond the cartelized sales, and for improper gains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines whether the empowerment of the European Union's (EU) supranational institutions has had an impact on the development of EU asylum. By systematically investigating EU asylum law before and after ‘communitarization’, it argues that its ‘policy core’ has maintained a high degree of continuity. An advocacy coalition under the leadership of the interior ministers managed to co-opt pivotal actors in the newly empowered European Commission and European Parliament. By contenting themselves with changes of secondary order, these EU institutions accepted and institutionalized the restrictive and weakly integrated core of EU asylum set by the Council in the first negotiation round. Their role and decisions were driven not only by the negotiation dynamics and political expediency, but also by new inter- and intra-institutional norms fostering consensual practices. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

After the Great Reunion of 1918, Romania began to sign treaties with sovereign states asserting their identity in this way. One particular episode was the signing of the agreement with the Vatican agreement recognized under the name of the Concordat. The major interests of the Holy See were numerous political and spiritual point of view, given the previous privileges. In this study, we tried to highlight some aspects concerning relations between Romania and the Vatican of the period under analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The news media is a major forum for the discursive legitimation of the EU. This article analyses media debates in the context of three attempts at reforming EU primary law in the past decade: the Nice Treaty; the Constitutional Treaty; and the Lisbon Treaty. Focusing on four member states – the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany and Austria – our study shows that the EU's legitimacy is discursively constructed according to distinct patterns, most of which are remarkably similar across countries and stable over time. In the context of the EU Constitution, legitimation debates became more intensive and more critical; however, these developments were largely reversed when the Lisbon Treaty was debated. This suggests that, in the media arena, the much-discussed politicization of European integration is an episodic occurrence, rather than a unidirectional trend. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Contrary to what was expected, the Responsibility for Integration Act (IntVG), in force only since September 2009, has already been applied several times: First an amendment to the treaties, which permits the establishment of a stability mechanism within the euro area (ESM), has been set in motion in accordance with the simplified revision procedure. This amendment does not require the (two-thirds) majority for constitutional amendments -- as long as an embodiment of this mechanism in line with the German constitution (GG) is possible. The flexibility clause (Art. 352 TFEU) has even been applied a few times. In addition the German Bundestag and the Bundesrat, the second chamber, have already exercised their right to objection on ground of subsidiarity -- set out in Germany in the IntVG as well -- a number of times. Furthermore the treaties have been amended in accordance with the ordinary revision procedure governed likewise by Art. 23 GG. The same is also true for non-binding acts within the framework of the flexibility clause. Overall parliament has a number of possibilities how to empower the EU to make use of this clause. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Treaties normally cease under their own arrangements. The end of a treaty can result either from special agreements of the parties, from legal developments outside or within the Treaty or even procedural aspects (execution, arrival to legal term, disappearance of initial circumstances, impossibility of performance or material breach of the Treaty). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The subject of the opinion is a draft Protocol on the concerns of the Irish people to the Lisbon Treaty, being a proposal to revision of the Treaties. The grounds of the Irish Protocol are directly related to the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty, which in Ireland had a complex nature. The Protocol is a document of a diverse, inconsistent nature. Its provisions correspond, to some extent, with legal solutions containing guarantees for particular EU Member States. It also contains declarations of interpretative nature and provisions modifying the existing Treaties. Moreover, some provisions of the Protocol do not offer new regulatory measures, since they reproduce provisions contained in the Treaties. This may raise doubts about the desirability of their inclusion in this document. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the European Union Act of 2011 that was enacted in Great Britain. It claims that the Act deals with the amendment pursuant to the ordinary revision process of the Treaty on the European Union (TEU). Among the topics that are discussed are the ordinary revision procedure, simplified revision procedure, and the EU decisions that need authorization by statute and referendum.

The Non-Aligned Movement is the largest grouping of states engaged on nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation issues, comprising more than two-thirds of the membership of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Yet, the movement is often misunderstood by Western scholars and policymakers, who typically fail to appreciate the diversity of views among its 120 members and 17 observer states. This Adelphi explores the structures and politics within NAM, and stresses the potential for greater engagement between NAM members and the West in mitigating many of the most pressing nuclear disarmament, non-proliferation and terrorism challenges. Its thorough examination of how NAM business is conducted, along with an analysis of how prominent members or groups of members have sought to dominate it for their own purposes, offers invaluable insight ahead of the 2015 NPT Review Conference and as NAM approaches a possible watershed moment inthe movement's history: the assumption by Iran of the chairmanship in mid-2012. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses the issues of reform for the Lisbon Treaty. It highlights the importance of revising the Stability and Growth Pact articles within the treaty. It mentions that the narrow scope would prevent the submission of the revisions to public referenda. It states that treaty changes were negotiated and have awaited to be formalized before the Lisbon Treaty was taken into effect.

Agreements concerning inter-institutional rules in the treaties of the European Union often give rise to reactions and processes of adaptation within the EU institutions. Recent literature on EU legislative politics has increasingly examined decision-making within the EU institutions, but has largely overlooked how these internal processes react and adapt to changes in relations between the EU bodies. To fill this gap the authors present a series of empirical studies that examine how shifts in inter-institutional rules and procedures affect intra-institutional politics. They show that the resulting intra-institutional adaptations may in turn both have distributive consequences and affect the efficiency of the initial inter-institutional reforms. In addition, they provide some stepping stones for theory-building on how treaty reforms affect organisational structure and decision-making within the EU institutions by outlining a series of mediating variables that link these two types of change processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars have argued that the convention method has democratised the process of treaty reform and increased the legitimacy of EU constitutionalisation. This article finds that the convention method has contributed to a slightly more democratic process, but has not, in any fundamental way, improved the democratic status of the EU's treaty reform process. We should accordingly not be too concerned over the future fate of the convention method. From a democratic perspective, we should be more worried over the possible scenario that future changes to the EU's institutional structure will come about through implicit constitutional change without any formal changes being made to the treaties. The often cumbersome ratification process could thereby be bypassed, but this would also deprive EU citizens of the only real opportunity they have of influencing decisions on the overall design of the integration project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Anali Pravnog Fakulteta Univerziteta u Zenici is the property of Anali Pravnog Fakulteta Univerziteta u Zenici and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The Obama administration's reset policy with Russia focuses on certain key issues in the Russo-American relationship: arms control, as embodied in the new Prague treaty called New Start, gaining Russian support for U.S. pressure on Iran, and gaining Russian support for the U.S. effort in Afghanistan. This article closely examines the arms control and Iranian issues as well as the broader issue of Russo-American rivalry over Eurasian security, perhaps the core issue in the relationship and certainly the most contentious one there. The analysis suggests that there are numerous problems with the treaty that go beyond the issue of whether or not it allows the U.S. to build missile defenses. It also suggests that there are unproven and even unjustified assumptions about Russian policy regarding Iran and regional security that reduce the real value and prospective gains of this policy for the U.S. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the judgment of the German Constitutional Court on the constitutionality of the Treaty of Lisbon, concentrating on the court's insistence on the prerogatives of the national legislature. The court's insistence on prior national legislative ratification for the application of the simplified treaty revision procedure and of similar de facto amendment procedures, including the flexibility clause, is conservative but understandable from the perspective of German constitutional law. The prescription of prior bicameral ratification for the application of the flexibility clause makes the German government procedurally one of the most tightly controlled in the EU, although this would not be unique, and the effect of such control will depend on the cleavage between the government and the national legislature, especially the German upper chamber. None of the procedures insisted upon by the court are incompatible with EU Treaty law. Whether the new procedures will actually enhance the democratic legitimacy of EU measures in German perception will depend on the degree to which political parties in the national legislature will publicly politicise their stance on the decisions in question, allowing voters to hold them to account. All the court can do is prescribe opportunities where such politicisation may take place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This contribution analyses the effects of the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon for European environmental law and policy. The central conclusion is that, apart from the new numbering and some new names for procedures and institutions, this does not entail any major changes. The new Energy Title, it is submitted, does not go beyond confirming the status quo. One potentially interesting innovation is the special treaty infringement procedure for non-communication of implementing measures. Similarly, a new paragraph on standing to challenge the legality of European acts (Article 230 EC) may result in wider access to justice also in environmental matters. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Several letters to the editor are presented in response to articles in the November 2009 issue including "Saving the NPT: Time to Renew Treaty Commitments," by Ambassador Paul Meyer, "The Rollback of Libya's Chemical Weapons Program," by Jonathan B. Tucker and "U.S.-Russian Nuclear Cooperation and the CTBT," by Irvin R. Lindemuth.

As the states parties to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) plan for the May 2010 review conference, they are faced with recurring political challenges that call into question the long-term sustainability of the presently constituted non-proliferation regime, notwithstanding the important role the NPT and its related institutions have played in slowing the pace of proliferation for four decades. Even if the review conference is deemed a success, its outcome is unlikely to address the regime's core structural weaknesses and normative contradictions. Frustration with the continuing status and benefits accorded to nuclear-armed states outside as well as within the NPT, will continue to diminish confidence in the effectiveness of traditional non-proliferation and deterrence practices. The progressive reframing of security in terms of creating a world without nuclear weapons may be little more than rhetoric for some leaders, but it has widespread public support. A growing number of governments are now expressing interest in new approaches and steps, including consideration of a nuclear weapons convention as a practical objective to work towards. The article discusses the challenges and options for the non-proliferation regime and concludes that efforts to halt future proliferation will increasingly focus on reshaping the norms and rules to pave the way for negotiating a new nuclear security compact, based on a verified process to prohibit and eliminate the possession as well as the use of nuclear weapons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the Treaty of Lisbon in European External Action Service (EEAS) of the European Union. The treaty supports the High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP). The article elaborates five dimensions of the EEAS including the membership, scope of responsibilities, centralization of tasks, rules of control, and the flexibility of institutional arrangements. It presents the importance in considering the design options for future EEAS.

Copyright of Teoria y Realidad Constitucional is the property of Editorial UNED and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article discusses the importance of Treaty of Lisbon to European Union antiterrorism activity on Passenger Name Records (PNR) and to personal data protection. It states that European Union's structure based on the community, common foreign and security policy (CFSP), and police and judicial cooperation pillars, is incapable to protect personal data. It notes that the Treaty of Lisbon strengthens the personal data protection and other fundamental freedoms of the European Union. It suggests the modification of European Union PNR transfer agreements with Canada, U.S., and Australia to address the agreements' alleged right to privacy risks using Treaty of Lisbon. It adds that the treaty will achieve balance between personal data protection and anti-terrorism effort in the PNR context.

The article focuses on the Revised Lugano Convention. It recalls that the Lugano Convention of 1988 has been adopted following the success of the Brussels Convention in 1968. The Lugano Convention is said to take over the wording and reaffirm significant parts of the case law of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in relation to the prior Convention. It is concluded that the implementation of the Revised Convention and the unification of the rules of civil procedure are likely to result in a simplification of enforcing foreign decisions in Switzerland.

The article focuses on the decision that will be made by the Irish government on whether to support or disapprove the Lisbon Treaty in a second referendum. It tackles the country's disapproval of the treaty reform in the first referendum which received negative reactions from the European Union members states. It also discusses the document released by Ireland which expresses the people's concern in safeguarding the Irish policy of neutrality and the provisions on its constitution.

The article analyses the development and results of the treaty reforms concerning European social policy from Nice to Lisbon. Based on an overview of the development of the treaty base and the substantial results of European governance in the field of labour and social policy the author concludes that while the Lisbon Treaty specifies and enhances the normative importance of social policy, the allocation of competencies and the decision-making rules remain substantially the same. This finding of a constitutional minimalism leads to the following questions: Does the enlarged European Union suffer from a 'levels-of-competencies trap' and if yes, why? Which solutions and alternatives might determine future European social policy with regard to the emerging limits for a European social union? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]