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The EU Member States are characterised by long and varied institutional history, with different trajectories in their evolution. There is a complex system of relations between the institutions of the European Union and the authorities of the Member States, which are called as the European Administrative Space. This is a multidimensional concept, and it promotes intensive cooperation between administrative actors, and their activities from each level. The European Administrative Space is the area, in which increasingly integrated administrations jointly exercise power delegated to the EU in a system of shared sovereignty. This article explores the reasons for and the consequences of this development.

The weak and strong sustainable development models are analysed in this paper. The emergence of weak and strong models of sustainable development, the bases and principles that distinguish them from each other, as well as the arguments of the supporters of these approaches are studied. It is noted in this paper that, believing that there can be a smooth replacement of resources, the weak sustainability approach does not see any environmental threat to economic growth. The disadvantage of this approach is that it does not take into account the fact that human life would be unstable if the basic natural resources were depleted without any compensation. From this viewpoint, the arguments of the strong sustainability approach are considered more realistic and accepted as more attractive. A strong approach to sustainable development, which is a more cautious approach to economic growth, emphasises that sustainable development can be achieved through environmental responsibility. Ensuring environmental responsibility is presented as one of the important conditions for economic expediency and social solidarity. Strong sustainability model opposes the possibility that human capital can be replaced by natural capital. Analysing the positions of those scientists, who support strong sustainability, it is concluded that the replacement of development characterised by quantitative growth with qualitative sustainable development to increase welfare is one of the important principles of strong sustainable development.

The aim of the paper hereto is to conduct analysis regarding the influence of the margin of appreciation doctrine on the solution of the collision between the freedom of expression and the freedom of religion within the Strasbourg system of human rights protection. The main research question focuses on the issue whether the margin of discretion equally affects both considered freedoms and how it impacts their conflict. The paper will rely on dogmatic analysis of the provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights and selected judgments of the European Court of Human Rights in relation to the collision of the aforesaid freedoms. In this article, the author will also implement the historic method. The main thesis of the article is the primacy of the freedom of religion which causes illegitimate limitation of the freedom of expression due to lack of uniform European consensus regarding the qualification of the blasphemous speeches which constitutes a threat for legal certainty.

The paper is devoted to the method of voting, which is typical for the British Parliament. This method is referred to as “division”, because both Members of Parliament (MPs) and Lords are literally divided into two groups – supporters and opponents of the issue being voted – and cast their vote in special rooms called division lobbies. The author presents the process of such “division” and explains some additional issues related to voting and the rules that are used to determine its final results. The paper also describes successful and failed attempts to change this system that took place at the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries. Using legal and institutional analysis method, the author explains why this system is so persistent, and proves the thesis that despite some minor modifications that have been made to it, one should not expect it to be replaced by some form of electronic voting.

The hereby paper takes up the analysis of the constitutional position of the Finnish parliament Eduskunta from the moment of its establishment and as a result of its development during the centuries, with a special attention paid to the present normative state and on the basis of the hitherto constitutional practice. It aims at deriving the origin and presenting the evolution of this authority at the Finnish lands, which in consequence leads to reliable conclusions in the scope of determining its current constitutional position in the system of the supreme state authorities of Finland. The subject of the paper focuses on the analysis of the beginnings of Eduskunta’s formation and Finnish parliamentarianism, its further evolution, current composition, internal structure, functions and competences presented on the basis of the exegesis of the provisions of the binding basic law of 1999 and the parliament’s rules of procedure. The constitutional principles referring to the parliament and the analysis of Eduskunta’s relations with the other supreme state authorities, which determine the state’s form of government, seem to be of particular significance in this context, as they contribute to a more precise definition of Eduskunta’s constitutional position, as well as to pointing out its originality and dissimilarity regarding other contemporary democratic states.

This paper presents brief results of the analysis of educational potential dynamics and its relation with development of regional labour markets. The educational potential is described by the structure of the economically active population with different levels of education. The aim of the research was to study the impact of the educational potential of the economically active population on the development of regional markets in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). Authors used for research the Eurostat data for the NUTS2 regions of the following CEE countries: Austria, Czechia, Germany, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia. Analysis of the distribution of educational potential of the economically active population of these CEE countries at the regional level was carried out using the methods of spatial econometrics and statistics. Research results demonstrated: insufficient response of local markets to changes in the structure of educational potential and the level of investment in fixed assets; strong state regulation of the unemployment rate in the former post-socialist countries (Czechia, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia); complex relationships between labour productivity growth rates, average wages, changes in educational potential and unemployment rates; significant influence of the surrounding regional environment on the socio-economic processes taking place in certain regions.

The paper concerns the protection of animal rights in Poland, at the level of legal provisions and application of norms. The author puts forward a thesis according to which the development of animal protection in Poland is weak and retarded in relation to the majority of European Union countries. For this purpose, the author compares selected regulations from Polish law to the legislation of other European countries. Finally, the author answers the question if animal safety and protection in Poland can be characterised by the words “stupidity, immorality and social regression”.

The purpose of the paper is to analyse how the progress of the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the participation of African countries may affect the shape and development of the Joint Africa–EU Strategy (JAES), established in 2007. Since 2013, when BRI was presented to the world for the first time, we have been able to observe increased activity of representatives of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in promoting and implementing the project. Due to the fact that BRI is going to connect the trade route of China with the countries of East Africa, Central Asia, the Middle East, and Europe, which is supposed to trigger the extension of the Chinese financial and infrastructure activities, it should be considered as a priority for the Chinese government. However, taking into account of still unclear concept of the initiative we should focus on analysing the impact of the Belt and Road Initiative on the European Union’s strategy towards African countries.

The turn of the 20th and 21st century was the time of flourishing of many modern technologies, among which was the popularisation of unmanned aviation in civil applications. This article aims to presentation of the genesis of this technology and the opportunities, which it offers in the context of people with disabilities. This paper is a synthesis of scholar literature of the research subject, legal regulations on international and national levels, as well as the author’s own reflections on the ways, in which drones can be used for the needs of people with disabilities in the context of contemporary law and its possible changes.

The aim of this paper is to follow and analyse the public discourse on religious minorities in Turkey after the failed coup d’état of 15th July 2016. However either Turkish state’s policy or social attitudes towards these groups have always been controversial and their real position has always differed from their legal status, the author decided to put a hypothesis that the coup attempt is indeed what has significantly affected the way they are being perceived by mass media in Turkey and hence, by Turkish public opinion. Thus, the purpose of this analysis is to study the chosen media content concerning religious minorities and to answer the question how the post-coup reality affects the situation of persons belonging to these groups. In order to achieve this goal several research methods specific for political science and humanities are applied and Polish, English and Turkish language sources are widely referred in the article.

The article examines interpretations of freedom of movement and access to social assistance within the EU Directive 2004/38. Examples of EU migrants’ homelessness are shown to demonstrate the confusing circularity in the regulations. The paper goes on to the development of local governments’ and voluntary organizations’ practice of limiting support to EU migrants in homelessness. Narrower interpretations of the right to reside are a basis for refusing access to benefits or even shelter. Repressive public space practices lead sometimes even to deportations. These interpretations, practices and public discourse are shown on the examples of the Netherlands, the UK and Sweden. Interpretations of the European law, practices and public debate are tools that limit exercising the right to free movement by socially defining and categorising homeless EU migrants as persons whose rights are dependent on their position on the labour market.

Russian intervention in Donbas and annexation of Crimea have triggered a fundamental revision of the EU policy towards Easter neighbourhood and Russia. The main goal of this paper is to develop discussion about the EU strategy towards Russia by presenting political concept named “The Giedroyc doctrine”, created by Polish intellectuals on exile, when Poland was under Soviet domination. Although created a few decades ago, some elements of this doctrine are still surprisingly relevant today and may contribute to contemporary European debate. In particular, we argue that strengthening the prosperity, stability and security in Eastern Europe is possible only when Russia transforms itself into a prosperous and democratic state. Autocratic and neo-imperial Russia undermines any major pro-Western political changes in the region. Therefore, successful transformation of Russia into stable, prosperous and democratic state should be included into the long-term vision of European politicians who intend to keep Europe secure. All political activities in the Eastern neighbourhood should be subordinated to this. It means that economic support for Ukraine and strengthening cooperation with this country should not be a goal itself. Westernization of Ukraine ought to be perceived only as a beginning of political transformation of the whole region.

Hereby paper is dedicated to the issue of Brexit in the context of liberal theory of international relations, mainly by adoption of the qualitative method of textual examination of selected works, devoted to the abovementioned paradigm. The hypothesis of this article is a statement that liberal approach has a limited applicability to description of community disintegration mechanisms, including Brexit as their unquestionable syndrome. Existing theories of European integration, of which liberalism is one of the most influential theoretical schemes, reveal several malfunctions in exploration of Union’s decomposition processes, however, on the other hand, some of their specific components still remain valid. The above issue exposes a demand for investigating new tools and researching methods to scrutinize current trends in the European Union that would allow to review the present state of this organization in a more adequate manner.

The article “Status of women in the Republic of Turkey” examines the issueof an ambiguous predicament of feminine part of the society in one of the European Union’s candidate countries. The objective of the article is to attempt to answer the following question: what are the reasons of social acceptance for violating women’s rights in Turkey? In order to examine the issue, this paper describes and compares legal status (past and present) concerning Turkish women and the instances of abusing their rights. Big contrast shown between them raises other questions. In the end all reflections lead to conclusion that patriarchal heritage and Kemalism’s inadvertences are the two main reasons responsible for current predicament of Turkish women. The whole article refers to the efforts of Turkey to become an EU member, as it plays a significant role there in the process of law modernisation. Artykuł bada zagadnienie, jakim jest niejednoznaczne położenie kobiet w jednym z krajów kandydujących do członkostwa w Unii Europejskiej – w Turcji. Rozważania będące treścią artykułu oscylują wokół pytania o przyczyny społecznej akceptacji dla łamania praw kobiet w tym państwie. By na nie odpowiedzieć, z jednej strony poruszona zostaje kwestia stanu prawnego (niegdysiejszego oraz obecnego), dotyczącego kwestii równouprawnienia, z drugiej zaś zostają opisane aktualne przypadki naruszeń praw kobiet. Duży kontrast pomiędzy tym, co państwo tureckie gwarantuje w różnego rodzaju aktach prawnych, a rzeczywistą trudną sytuacją, w jakiej znajdują się tamtejsze kobiety, prowokuje do stawiania kolejnych pytań. Ostatecznie, rozważania prowadzą do wniosku, iż to patriarchalne tradycje oraz ideologia kemalistyczna są dwiema głównymi przyczynami, które doprowadziły do obecnej - dość ambiwalentnej – sytuacji, w której tkwią dziś tureckie kobiety. W całym artykule pojawiają się liczne nawiązania do starań Turcji, by zostać członkiem Unii Europejskiej – jest to bowiem istotny powód, który od wielu lat wpływa na modernizację prawa w tym kraju

This paper presents the television coverage of a terrorist attack during the 2008 election campaign in Spain. The starting point is that in media systems known as polarised pluralist, issues are usually framed through the lenses of electoral competition, portrayed from the point of view of political parties. Analysis shows that even in the case of important issues such as terrorism, the dynamics of polarised pluralism bias its coverage, offering different versions of events to citizens. Niniejszy artykuł prezentuje relacje telewizyjne po ataku terrorystycznym, który miał miejsce podczas kampanii wyborczej w Hiszpanii w 2008 roku. Punktem wyjścia jest stwierdzenie, że w systemach medialnych określanych jako „spolaryzowany pluralizm” poszczególne tematy ujmowane są przez media w ramy konkurencji wyborczej i przedstawiane z perspektywy stanowisk poszczególnych partii politycznych. Analiza pokazuje, że nawet w przypadku kwestii wyjątkowo istotnych, takich jak terroryzm, dynamika spolaryzowanego pluralizmu wykrzywia przekaz w taki sposób, iż do odbiorców kierowane są odmienne wersje wydarzeń

Aktualny kryzys gospodarczy zakwestionował samo sedno projektu integracyjnego w Europie – walutę euro. W związku z tym zasadne jest odniesienie się do samych koncepcyjnych podstaw Unii Gospodarczej i Walutowej, czyli teorii optymalnych obszarów walutowych Roberta Mundella. Warto zadać sobie pytanie, czego uczy nas kryzys i jakie aplikowane są środki naprawcze, a także jak aktualna sytuacja weryfi kuje ową teorię. Celem niniejszej analizy jest rekonstrukcja głównych twierdzeń teorii optymalnych obszarów walutowych i próba ich interpretacji przez pryzmat stanu zaawansowania w europejskiej unii walutowej i szerzej w Unii Europejskiej jako takiej. Podobnie jak proces integracji europejskiej wymyka się ramom tradycyjnych teorii stosunków międzynarodowych, tak samo unikatowość konstrukcji europejskiej unii walutowej przejawia się również w wymiarze teoretycznym. Widać, że klasyczne teorie, takie jak teoria optymalnych obszarów walutowych nie stanowią skutecznego wehikułu eksplanacyjnego pozwalającego zrozumieć, wyjaśnić i – co najważniejsze – prognozować proces budowy unii walutowej i jej komponentów. The current economic crisis questioned the very core of the integration project in Europe – the euro. It is therefore legitimate to challenge the intellectual foundations of the Economic and Monetary Union, namely the ‘Optimal Currency Areas’ (OCA) theory by Robert Mundell. What can we learn from the crisis and the applied recovery measures about the theoretical assumptions, how the present situation verifi es the key statements of the theory, how should we interpret its conclusions in the prism of the crisis – its origins and consequences. This paper aims at the better understanding of the current state of the monetary union building process in Europe. It informs us that just like the classical IR theories do not stick precisely to the EU integration processes, the same the OCA theory is not a universal remedy for the better explanations of all the nuances of economic governance in the European Union and it cannot act as the ultimate reference point in the conceptualisations on the optimal construction of the monetary union in Europe.

Serbia charakteryzuje się niestabilnością polityczną i państwową od początku swojej nowożytnej historii. Problemy z określeniem racjonalnego interesu narodowego, kwestie granic państwa, strategii rozwoju pokazują, że w tym kraju istnieją poważne problemy z utworzeniem syntezy społecznej rozumianej jako „wartość dodana” własnej historii – uczenie się na błędach i wyciąganie właściwych wniosków. Praca stanowi próbę pokazania, dlaczego serbskie elity pozostają nieskuteczne w tworzeniu funkcjonalnego systemu społecznego w dominującym kontekście społecznym (w tym racjonalnie pojętego interesu narodowego jako fundamentalnego warunku stabilności społecznej). Since the beginning of its modern history Serbia has been characterised by political and state instability. The issues regarding determination of a rational national interest, the questions of country’s borders and development strategy show that the country has considerable problems to create a social synthesis understood as „positive value” of the country’s history – learning from its own mistakes and drawing correct conclusions. The paper is an attempt to present the reasons for which the actions of Serbian elites remain ineffective in creating a functional social system in the dominating social context (including a reasonable national interest as a fundamental condition of social stability).

Tekst dotyczy podstaw teoretyczno-metodologicznych współpracy sądów cywilnych w Unii Europejskiej. Brak bowiem publikacji, odwołujących się przy omawianiu problematyki do tego aspektu. Punktem wyjścia w tych rozważaniach jest neofunkcjonalizm i wywodzące się z niego spill-over. W ujęciu klasycznym sprowadza się on do trzech poziomów zarządzania: ponadnarodowego, narodowego i regionalnego. Biorąc pod uwagę, iż sądy cywilne (rozstrzygające spory między obywatelami) otrzymały w efekcie tych procesów nowego prawodawcę, (tj. UE), stwierdzenie, że ukształtował się nowy poziom w Multi-level Governance, który można określić jako obywatelski, jest uprawnione. Poziom ten funkcjonuje obok poziomu regionalnego. The paper discusses the theoritical-methodological basis of cooperation between civil courts in the European Union since there are no publications concerning this specifi c aspect of the issue. The starting point of the discussion is neofunctionalism and following spill-over. In the classic understanding it is divided into three levels of national, national and regional governance. If we take into consideration the fact that civil courts (which settle disputes between citizens) have received a new legislator (i.e. EU), it is rational to state that there appeared a new level in Multi-level Governance which can be described as civic governance and which operates next to regional level.

Artykuł zawiera analizę obecnych relacji łączących Unię Europejską ze śródziemnomorskimi państwami Bliskiego Wschodu i Afryki Północnej, dokonaną w oparciu o założenie o jej imperialnym charakterze. Autor wykorzystał koncepcję Jana Zielonki, który opisał UE jako mocarstwo o charakterze neośredniowiecznym z nakładającymi się jurysdykcjami, policentryzmem politycznym i pokojowymi metodami poszerzania swojego obszaru. Celem tekstu jest stwierdzenie, czy ta teoria sprawdza się w odniesieniu do politycznych i gospodarczych relacji Unii Europejskiej z jej południowym sąsiedztwem, zwłaszcza w ich wymiarze zinstytucjonalizowanym. The article contains the analysis of contemporary relations between the European Union and the Mediterranean states of the Middle East and North Africa. The analysis in question is based on the assumption of an imperial nature of the EU, but without an implication that it is the next traditional military superpower of a concentric type, using its power to rank the subordinated countries in a hierarchy that rests on their political distance from the imperial centre. Instead, the author used the concept introduced by Jan Zielonka, according to whom the EU is a neo-medieval superpower with overlapping jurisdictions, political polycentrism and peaceful methods of a territorial expansion. The main goal of the paper is to test this theory against the reality of political and economical relations of the EU with its southern neighbourhood, with the emphasis on institutionalised ties.

Artykuł ma na celu dokonanie analizy stosunku wybranych państw Unii Europejskiej, które nie przyjęły wspólnej waluty, a więc: Danii, Szwecji, Wielkiej Brytanii i Polski. Analiza odbywa się na płaszczyźnie politycznej, społecznej i ekonomicznej. Zakres pracy obejmuje przede wszystkim zjawiska zachodzące od momentu inicjowania klauzuli opt-out przez Danię i Wielką Brytanię w 1993 roku, jednak brak jest tu ich konkretnej daty rozpoczęcia w analizowanych państwach. Motywy niewłączania państw w ostatni etap unii gospodarczej i walutowej (UGW) sięgają wielu lat wstecz, jeszcze przed podpisaniem Traktatu z Maastricht. The article aims at analysing the attitude of chosen EU countries which have not accepted the common currency, namely: Denmark, Sweden, UK and Poland. The analysis is made on the political, social and economic level. Most of all, the paper discusses happenings which have taken place since Denmark and UK negotiated the opt-out clause in 1993, nevertheless the exact time of their beginnings is unknown. Motives of not incorporating states into the last phase of Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) have originated many years before signing of The Maastricht Treaty.