Yves Fassin, Inconsistencies in Activists’ Behaviours and the Ethics of NGOs, Journal of Business Ethics, Volume 90, Number 4 / December, 2009
Abstract Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and pressure groups have taken up the mission of counterbalancing the huge power of the multinational corporations. Curiously, while most NGOs have a sincere ethical background and a genuine ethical motivation, the way some activist groups and NGOs themselves act does not always live up to the principles they advocate. Research using a multiple case study methodology is used to provide an illustration of various questionable practices followed by pressure groups revealing a range of tactics. The concerns, the objectives and the legitimacy of NGOs and activist groups will be discussed, along with their strategies and tactics. A framework will be developed as a basis for analysing the ethical aspects of the various NGO actions. The analysis of the cases will reveal some worrisome inconsistencies between the demands and the practices of NGOs and activist groups. Should not the means employed by activists and NGOs be consistent with their own espoused or implied values? As power gives responsibility, NGOs should be seen as having corporate stakeholder responsibility
In anul 2008, Premiul „Octavian Căpăţînă” a fost decernat d-lui Radu Rizoiu pentru articolul Aplicabilitatea Convenţiei Europene a Drepturilor Omului în materia garanţiilor reale mobiliare, publicat în Revista română de drept privat nr. 5/2008.
Articolul analizează problemele juridice cu privire la posibilitatea dar şi la capcanele în ceea ce priveşte crearea şi aplicarea unor garanţii reale mobiliare constituite asupra unui cont atunci când soldul acestuia variază într-o manieră obişnuită, datorită depozitelor şi retragerilor cu caracter de continuitate. Articolul se axează mai degrabă pe banii puşi într-un cont bancar decât pe valorile mobiliare existând în soldul acelui cont. După ce s-a decis ca acel tip de cont poate fi folosit în calitate de garanţie, este menţionat faptul că obiectul garanţiei nu îl constituie contul însuşi, ci suma de bani care există în soldul pozitiv al acestuia la momentul executării forţate a garanţiei. Mai mult, nu este vorba despre lichidităţi ci despre un drept de creanţă pe care îl are clientul (cesionarul) contra băncii (debitor cedat) de a fi plătit pornind de la fondurile care se găsesc în contul său.
Cea de a doua parte a articolului tratează posibilitatea şi regulile de identificare a fondurilor din aceste tipuri de conturi. Aceste reguli îşi dovedesc importanţa atunci când garanţiile reale asupra (soldului pozitiv al) contului intră în concurs cu garanţiile reale asupra sumelor de bani din acel cont. În mod general, cea de a doua garanţie reală urmăreşte banii în calitate de “produs” al garanţiei originale. După analizarea regulilor propuse în jurisprudenţa nord – americană şi cea franceză, regula care pare cea mai potrivită pentru această analiză este regula minimului soldurilor intermediare. Rezultă că garanţia care intervine acoperă doar partea din fonduri care se găseşte în contul curent care este minimul (i) sumei depuse iniţial şi (ii) soldul cel mai scăzut al contului în timpul perioadei care începe la momentul în care suma de bani iniţială a fost depusă şi se termină la momentul în care garanţia va fi executată forţat.
Pascal MBONGO, Antoine VAUCHEZ, Dans la fabrique du droit européen. Scènes, acteurs et publics de la Cour de justice des Communautés européennes, Bruxelles, Bruylant, 2009.
Et si la Cour de justice des Communautés européennes était en fait la grande inconnue de l’Union ? Les juristes ont largement souligné sa contribution à l’édification d’un droit communautaire. Les politistes quant à eux n’ont cessé de pointer la centralité de son rôle dans les dynamiques d’européanisation. Mais, toujours interrogée du point de vue de ses « outputs » (sa jurisprudence), la Cour a très rarement intéressé pour elle-même. De fait, alors même que les études européennes portant sur la Commission ou les États membres soulignent la multiplicité et la pluralité des « cultures » qui trouvent à s’y exprimer et des conflits qui les travaillent, elles prêtent le plus souvent à « la Cour » unité, cohérence et constance dans le temps. Le présent ouvrage fait le pari inverse. Réunissant juristes, politistes, et sociologues, mobilisant divers angles et registres d’analyse, il entre de plain-pied dans l’arène judiciaire communautaire, scrutant ses professionnels, expliquant ses filières de recrutement, dessinant ses réseaux de sociabilité, mais aussi disséquant ses modes de raisonnement et ses registres argumentatifs. Ce détour par le plateau de Kirchberg nous plonge dans la Cour ainsi revisitée comme « fabrique du droit européen » où se confrontent et s’hybrident cultures et professionnels du droit de l’Europe. Ce regard renouvelé sur les acteurs de la Cour et les instruments cognitifs qu’ils mobilisent dessine une cartographie nouvelle des liens (professionnels, sociaux, intellectuels, etc.) qui maintiennent la Cour à cheval entre espace communautaire et espace judiciaire, champ juridique et politique européenne.
[*]
Journal of Legislative Studies
Volume 15, Issue 4, December 2009
Tapio Raunio, National Parliaments and European Integration: What We Know and Agenda for Future Research
Stefanie Bailer, Tobias Schulz, Peter Selb, What Role for the Party Group Leader? A Latent Variable Approach to Leadership Effects on Party Group Cohesion in the European Parliament
Johanna Kantola, Women’s Political Representation in the European Union
Bio-Science Law Review
Volume 10, Issue 3, 2009
MATTHEW ABRAHAM, MORALITY AND THE PATENT SYSTEM: AN ANALYSIS OF ARTICLE 53(A) OF THE EUROPEAN PATENT CONVENTION AND THE US PATENT SYSTEM
This article seeks to establish the need for a morality provision within the patent system. The morality provision within the European Patent Convention (Article 53(a)), is analysed and the appropriateness of its application is questioned. The application of Article 53(a) in recent cases is looked into in order to illustrate the tests adopted by the European Patent Office (EPO). The recent WARF decision is analysed and the reasoning there is questioned. It shall be shown that reliance on Article 53(a) in accordance with WARF is problematic as it allows the EPO to be arbiters of morality. It has been suggested that Article 53(a) ought to be removed to solve the problems that could arise following WARF. This article analyses the US patent system, which does not have a morality provision, to show that a complete removal of a morality provision could result in more complex problems. The analysis of the US patent system focuses on the issues raised by patent applications in regards to chimeras. An in depth scrutiny of the theoretical justifications for maintaining a morality clause within the patent system would reveal that patent law and morality in fact go hand in hand. To ignore this fact is to ignore the balance that a patent-system seeks to achieve between the interests of patent holders and society. This article therefore suggests a reconsideration of the WARF decision rather than the removal of Article 53(a) in order to prevent the EPO from becoming arbiters of morality.
ELISABETHANN WRIGHT AND FABIEN ROY, DIRECTIVE 2007/47/EC: WHAT ARE ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR EXISTING MEDICAL DEVICES?
As the new requirements introduced by Directive 2007/47/EC will enter into force on 21 March 2010, questions arise as to whether the current certificates of conformity delivered by the Notified Bodies will remain valid after this date. In some instances, the new provisions of the Directive may lead to a modification of the existing certificates, a circumstance that imposes medical devices manufacturers to obtain a new certificate of conformity in line with these new requirements. The present article tries to identify situations where certificates may not be valid after the entry into force of the new Directive. Taking position is however delicate as the European Commission remains unclear despite the publication of a document on the subject.
Arab Law Quarterly
Volume 23, Number 4, 2009
Bryane Michael and Abdelaziz Nouaydi, When EU Law Meets Arabic Law: Assessment of Anti-Corruption Law in Morocco and Some Proposed Amendments
European Review of Contract Law
Volume 5, Issue 3, August 2009
Simon Whittaker, Unfair Contract Terms and Consumer Guarantees: the Proposal for a Directive on Consumer Rights and the Significance of ‘Full Harmonisation’
Florian Möslein, Karl Riesenhuber, Contract Governance – A Draft Research Agenda
Martijn W. Hesselink, The Consumer Rights Directive and the CFR: two worlds apart?
Vincenzo Roppo, From Consumer Contracts to Asymmetric Contracts: a Trend in European Contract Law?
EC Legislation
Rossella Delfino, Stéphanie Pelet, European Community Legislation and Actions
Sectoral and National Developments
Assunção Cristas, Portuguese Contract Law: The search for regimes unification?
Christian Twigg-Flesner, Daniel Metcalfe, The proposed Consumer Rights Directive – less haste, more thought?
Books Received and Book Reviews
Societatea de Studii Juridice şi Centrul de Studii de Drept European vă invită să participaţi la lansarea, în prezenţa autorului, a unui volum editat de C.H.Beck
Cristian Gheorghe, Drept comercial european, C.H.Beck, 2009.
Lansarea cartii, in prezenta autorului, va avea loc cu ocazia conferintei din 18.11.2009, ora 14,30 la sediul CSDE – Institutul de Cercetari Juridice al Academiei Romane (Calea 13 Septembrie, nr. 13)
Dreptul comercial, in reglementarea legiuitorului european, nu mai poate fi tratat ca o ramura de studiu independenta de dreptul national. Vocaţia lui de a influenţa în mod indirect (pe calea directivelor europene) sau în mod direct (pe calea regulamentelor europene) dreptul naţional face ca studiul său trezească în cititorul juridic sentimentul recunoaşterii instituţiilor juridice, printr-un fenomen de anamneză care derutează în primul moment. Faptul că se întâmplă acest lucru înseamnă că legislaţia secundară europeană şi-a atins deja ţinta. Înseamnă că dreptul naţional a intrat în matricea normativă europeană, a asimilat (chiar dacă forţat pe alocuri) cantitatea obligatorie de material normativ prescrisă odată cu demararea procesului de aderare la Uniunea Europeană.
Dreptul comercial european a debutat, din punct de vedere al dezvoltării istorice, cu o fază de armonizare a soluţiilor legislative naţionale în domeniul societăţilor comerciale. Corpul directivelor de drept societar epuizează o primă fază de dezvoltare comercială. Aceea a ajustării creaţiilor naţionale în scopul creării unei echivalenţe la nivelul Uniunii. Faza următoare cuprinde creaţiile europene originale. După popularea mediului comercial cu persoane de drept asemănătoare, legiuitorul european nu putea să-şi refuze exersarea propriilor înclinaţii creatoare. A fost trasată în acest mod societatea europeană (SE, consacrată cu denumirea latină Societas Europaea) şi societatea cooperativă europeană (SCE), dar şi forme speciale de cooperare precum grupul european de interes economic (EEIG – GEIE în acronim românesc). Proiectul european mai cuprinde creaţii cu caracter social sau non-profit precum societatea mutuală europeană (ME) sau asociaţia europeană (EA).
Christiana H.J.I. Panayi, Corporate Mobility in Private International Law and European Community Law: Debunking Some Myths. YEARBOOK OF EUROPEAN LAW, Eeckhout, P., Tridimas, T., eds., Vol. 28, Oxford University Press, 2009; Queen Mary School of Law Legal Studies Research Paper No. 26/2009. Available at SSRN.
Francisco J. Infante Ruiz, Between Politics and Academy: A Common Frame of Reference of European Private Law, April 29, 2008, InDret, Vol. 2, 2008. Available at SSRN. (articol in spaniola)
Abstract:
After the European Commission -in 2003- evoked the image of a Common Frame of Reference (CFR) as an instrument to improve the quality of the common heritage in the field of contracts, and with the help of a more common terminology shared by the Member States, the idea has been developed through a vertiginous process, towards the achievement of a definitive text. At the present moment the final phase of the process is taking place and has been achieved by a group of academics (“Study Group” and “Acquis Group”) the so-called Draft Common Frame of Reference (DCFR, 2008), which aims at becoming the real translation of the original idea. The process and the corresponding work have been intense and complex, and many groups, institutions and organizations have taken part in it. Ideas and opinions have not always been clear and linear, above all, because the Commission’s declarations have often roamed in the halo of ambiguity and at the same time the participants have lived strong frictions between them. This work tries to highlight all these issues and the reality that the academic proposal of a CFR has exceeded the initial “order” abundantly. There is a wide gap between a “political CFR” and an “academic” one. We are still waiting for the Commission’s next step: it might accept it totally, refuse it totally, suggest changes or keep some of its parts.
Gudrun M. Grabher, Anna Gamper (Eds.), Legal Narratives. European Perspectives on U.S. Law in Cultural Context, Springer, 2009 [*]
Capitol in carte:
Gunter H Roth, Simone Wasserer, Increased Competences through Development of the Law: The European Court of Justice and the U.S. Supreme Court, p. 195-213.
Judicial Review of UN Sanctions by the European Court of Justice
Abstract:
European University Institute (EUI)/Working Paper Series
Alina Oprea, Arbitraj si drept comunitar al consumului – cateva observatii referitoare la concilierea dintre cele doua domenii plecand de la decizia Curtii Europene de Justitie in cauza Centro Movil, Revista Romana de Arbitraj, nr. 3 din 2009
C-168/05, Mostaza Claro, hotararea din 26.10.2006, Rec.2006,p.I-10421. {*}
Concluziile AG A. Tizzano. [*]
Asadar, pe blog se cauta tot felul de lucruri; am mai scris si cu alte ocazii despre asta.
Bine, acum s-a cautat asa: “carti despre lobby la ue“. Zis-am sa raspundem, atunci. Asadar, bibliografii nu vom face aici. Pentru inceput recomandam o carte care merita citita/conspectata:
Machiavelli in Brussels: The Art of Lobbying the EU, scrisa de (auctorata, sic!) Rinus van Schendelen, si aparuta nu, nu la Vanju Mare University Press, ci la editura Universitatii din Amsterdam. Detalii aici.
Volumul este “transcrierea” unei conferinte.
John Ahern and William Binchy (eds.), The Rome II Regulation on the Law Applicable to Non-Contractual Obligations. A New International Litigation Regime, Brill, 2009. [*]
Introduction: Rome
Johan Meeusen, Rome
Janeen Carruthers, Has the Forum Lost Its Grip?
Russell J. Weintraub, Rome II: Will it Prevent Forum Shopping and Take Account of the Consequences of Choice of Law?
Andrew Scott, The Scope of ‘Non-Contractual Obligations’
Richard Fentiman, The Significance of Close Connection
Thomas Kadner Graziano, Freedom to Choose the Applicable Law in Tort – Articles 14 and 4(3) of the Rome II Regulation
Alex Mills, The Application of Multiple Laws Under the Rome II Regulation
Jan von Hein, Article 4 and Traffic Accidents
Peter Stone, Product Liability under the Rome II Regulation
Adam Rushworth, Remedies and the Rome II Regulation
Michael Bogdan, The Treatment of Environmental Damage in Regulation Rome II
Stephen G.A. Pitel, Rome II and Choice of Law for Unjust Enrichment
Liz Heffernan, Rome II: Implications for Irish Tort Litigation
Gernot Biehler, The Limits of Rome II
Appendices
- Regulation No. 864/2007 on the Law Applicable to Non-Contractual Obligations (Rome II)
- Commission of the European Communities Proposal for a Regulation on the Law Applicable to Non-Contractual Obligations, COM (2003) 427 fi nal 2003/0168 (COD)
- Opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee on the Proposal for a Regulation on the Law Applicable to Non-Contractual Obligations, COM (2003) 427 final 2003/0168 (COD), 2004/C 241/01
- European Parliament Committee on Legal Aff airs, Report on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the law applicable to non-contractual obligations (“Rome II”) (COM(2003)0427–C5 0338/2003–2003/0168(COD)), A6–0211/2005
- Amended Proposal for a European Parliament and Council Regulation on the Law Applicable to Non-Contractual Obligations, COM 2006 83 final
- European Parliament Recommendation for Second Reading on the Council common position for adopting a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the Law Applicable to Non-Contractual Obligations, 9751/7/2006–C6–0317/2006–2003/0168(COD)
- Joint text approved by the Conciliation Committee of a Regulation on the Law Applicable to Non-Contractual Obligations, 2003/0168(COD) C6–0142/2007 PE-CONS3619/07
The Impact of the Human Rights Act on the House of Lords
Sangeeta Shah & Thomas Poole
This article examines the impact of the Human Rights Act on the House of Lords. The HRA came into force on 2 October 2000 and has received much attention from academics, lawyers, politicians and members of the public. But there has been little sustained empirical analysis of its impact. This article, the first of a projected series, aims to start redressing this gap. It presents the findings of a quantitative analysis of the judicial caseload of the House of Lords for the period 1994-2007. It also seeks to contribute to the growing literature on the identity and function of the House of Lords (soon to become the Supreme Court).
Aici.
Hugh Collins, The European Civil Code. The Way Forward, CUP, 2009. [*]
Hugh Collins argues that the European Union should develop a civil code to provide uniform rules for contracts, property rights and protection against civil wrongs, thus drawing together the differing national traditions with respect to the detailed regulation of civil society. The benefits of such a code would lie not so much in facilitating cross-border trade, but in establishing foundations for a denser network of transnational relations of civil society, which in turn would help to overcome the present popular resistance to effective and functional political institutions at a European level. These principled foundations for a more inclusive and less ‘balkanised’ civil society in Europe also provide elements of a required European Social Model that offers necessary safeguards for consumers, workers and disadvantaged groups against the pressures of market forces in an increasingly global economic system.
Paolo Santella, Riccardo Turrini, Capital Maintenance in the EU: Is the Second Company Law Directive Really That Restrictive?, European Business Organization Law Review (EBOR), 2008, vol. 9, Iss. 3.
Publication abstract
This contribution sets out to establish whether, and if so to what extent, the Second Company Law Directive {Directiva a II-a, 77/91, RO; Directiva de modificare 2006/68, RO} allows the EU Member States to introduce different means of creditor protection, as suggested by recent academic studies on the function of legal capital and by various existing proposals for alternative regimes. The conclusion is that the Second Company Law Directive is a flexible instrument in so far as it allows Member States to impose capital requirements that are as severe as they want and it allows Member States to adopt solvency-based systems similar to those existing outside the EU. The recent amendments introduced by Directive 2006/68/EC have already simplified the requirement of an expert evaluation of contributions in kind, relaxed the share buy-back provisions and eliminated the ban on financial assistance. Moreover, Member States are not obliged to require companies to prepare individual IAS/IFRS-based accounts for dividend distribution purposes, and Member States that decide to do so may (but are not obliged to) introduce various mechanisms that limit the possibility of distributing unrealised profits according to the realisation principle entrenched in the Fourth Company Law Directive [Directiva a IV-a RO]. As far as no par value shares are concerned, the Second Company Law Directive already allows the introduction of de facto no par value shares in the form of accountable par shares.
This article examines the response of Europe’s courts to the dramatic challenges recently brought before them against the UN Security Council’s anti-terrorist sanctions regime. These challenges raise central questions concerning the authority of international law in general, and of binding decisions of the Security Council in particular. The article focuses specifically on the response of the European Union’s Court of Justice (ECJ) in the Kadi case, in which the ECJ annulled the EC’s implementation of the Security Council’s asset-freezing resolutions on the ground that they violated EU norms of fair procedure and property-protection. Kadi is a remarkable case in many ways and it has been warmly greeted by most observers. The article argues however that the robustly pluralist approach of the ECJ to the relationship between EU law and international law in Kadi represents a sharp departure from the traditional embrace of international law by the European Union. It is an approach which carries certain costs for the EU and for the international legal order in the message it sends to the courts of other states and organizations contemplating the authority of Security Council resolutions. More importantly, the ECJ’s approach carries the risk of undermining the image the EU has sought to create for itself as a virtuous international actor which maintains a distinctive commitment to international law and institutions.
Grainne De Burca, The EU, the European Court of Justice and the International Legal Order after Kadi, 28 December 2008 (SSRN)
Cauza Kadi, C-402/05 pe acest blog.
Andrew Dickinson, The Rome II Regulation. The Law Applicable to Non-Contractual Obligations, OPU, 2008. Detalii aici (OUP), mai multe trimiteri aici (ROMA II) si o atentionare aici.
Who’s Afraid of Polygamy? Exploring the Boundaries of Family, Equality and Custom in South Africa
Aici.
South Africa’s post-apartheid constitution has been widely admired and constantly referenced by international scholars, and especially international human rights scholars, for its comprehensive embrace of gender equality. But the commitment to gender equality has been tested by other liberatory discourses, including African nationalism and cultural and religious autonomy. This Article examines the evolution of South African legislation and constitutional jurisprudence in the face of competing imperatives, for example, between equality, legal pluralism, customary law/religious law, and the recognition of polygamy. In particular, it focuses on the Recognition of Customary Marriages Act, a statute that purports to regulate customary marriages, including the establishment of such marriages, as well as their termination. The Article evaluates the influence of this statute, if any, on gender equality, and whether its purported protection of women in polygamous marriages in fact results in such protection.
ALEXIA HERWIG, Whither Science in WTO Dispute Settlement?, Leiden Journal of International Law (2008), 21:823-846 Cambridge University Press [*]
This article understands risk dialectically as a decision-making resource stressing probability but as also giving rise to further uncertainties. It shows that the panel report in EC – Biotech reflects an understanding of risk as decision-making that is deterministic and leaves little room for the application of precautionary approaches and non-scientific factors. It submits that such an approach is unsuitable for novel technologies with limited background knowledge and reduces the accountability of risk regulators. A different approach is put forth, which allows members greater scope for precautionary action while preventing trade protectionism. The article concludes that law can enhance its authority and epistemic validity through scientific evidence but only if it recognizes science’s epistemic and its own limitations. Law has to approach science as contested knowledge and risk regulation as political decision-making, leading – inevitably – to more indeterminate solutions to legal conflicts.
Nu am vazut cartea, dar pare a fi interesanta. un om cat o carte. si un site pentru ambii – aici.
Malek Radeideh, Fair Trading in EC Law- Information and Consumer Choice in the Internal Market, Europa Law Publishing, 2005. {euobserver, site-ul editurii, }
At the same time, the European Court of Justice has developed in its case law a general concept of fair trading on the basis of the EC Treaty provisions on free movement.
The author provides a systematic and comprehensive analysis of primary law as interpreted by the European Court of Justice in its relevant case law and of Community legislation pertaining to fair trading. He demonstrates that the countless specific fair trading rules are based on a common general concept of fair trading. The author thus unveils a principle of fair trading in the acquis communautaire, which he defines not only in content but also in scope, proving it to be a general principle of Internal Market law. The interrelationship between fair trading and the functioning of the Internal Market is one of the central themes of the book, which, unlike other fair trading related analyses, attaches particular weight to the role of primary law.
Finally, in the light of the previous findings a stand is taken on the current initiative to adopt a directive on unfair commercial practices, which is the latest manifestation of the recurring idea of horizontal harmonisation in this field.
Dr. Malek Radeideh (1973) studied law at Universität Bielefeld, Université Robert Schuman Strasbourg and Freie Universität Berlin. He obtained his German law degree in 2000. From 2001 to 2004 he worked as a researcher at the Department of European and Economic Law at the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen. In his research he focussed on EC fair trading law, which he understands as a synthesis of European consumer law, European private law, and, above all, Internal Market law. He has participated in various legal studies for the European Commission and has published in his field of research. In 2004 he returned to Berlin in order to work in legal practice.
