Powered byIP2Location.com
Here follows a scenario and a number of inter-related questions, which those looking to write an exciting master thesis might find interesting. This post relates to an underexplored, though interesting issue of shared responsibility for injury caused by acts which can or not be considered as ‘wrongful’. After all, injury can be sustained by a State [...]
Filed under: EC-Law, ECJ, EU-Law, EU/EC Law, States | Leave a Comment »
On Thursday 7 July 2010, the European Parliament approved the new SWIFT-Agreement on bank data transfers to the United States for counter-terrorist purposes (see the press release of the European Parliament). The Draft Agreement provides for mass bank data transfers upon request by the US authorities with a view to identifying suspected terrorists. It is [...]
Filed under: EU Common Foreign and Security Policy, EU-Law, EU/EC Law | 2 Comments »
Yesterday’s EUobserver has a concise and well-written piece on some of the issues which will need addressing as part of the EU’s accession to the European Convention on Human Rights. This is a topic which is likely to receive a lot of academic attention over the coming months.
Filed under: EU-Law, EU/EC Law, Europeam Court of Human Rights | 1 Comment »
The right to diplomatic and consular protection constitutes an essential entitlement of citizenship of the European Union. This right marks the extension of the institution of EU citizenship to outside the borders of Member States. In that sense, Article 46 of the Charter on Fundamental Rights of the European Union provides: “Every citizen of the [...]
Filed under: Consular cooperation, Diplomatic protection, EU Reform, EU/EC Law | Leave a Comment »
In today’s Wall Street Journal Marcus Walker speculates that the admission of Turkey to the EU may be the only possibility left if Europe is to maintain its standing as an important international actor. The article somewhat echoes another article in this week’s Economist noting the need for the EU to become more realistic in [...]
Filed under: EC-Law, EU Common Foreign and Security Policy, EU-Law, EU/EC Law | 2 Comments »
On 29 October 2009, Attorney General Bot published his Opinion on a preliminary reference addressed to the European Court of Justice by a German court on the application of the EC-Israel Association Agreement in the context of products originating from the occupied Palestinian territories and the question of their entitlement to preferential customs treatment under [...]
Filed under: Corporations in International Law, ECJ, EU/EC Law, Human Rights, Middle East Crisis, Public International Law | 1 Comment »
As my first post I thought it appropriate to reflect on the September 2008 Kadi judgment of the ECJ, in which the Court held an EC Regulation to be in violation of fundamental rights.[i] What was fundamental to Kadi was that the EC Regulation at issue directly transposed a Chapter VII Security Council Resolution dealing [...]
Filed under: EC-Law, EU-Law, EU/EC Law, Public International Law | Leave a Comment »
Maybe if Barroso is re-elected and gets his way. EU Observer has the story.
Filed under: EC-Law, EU-Law, EU/EC Law, Regional Human Rights | 1 Comment »
A brief follow-up on the ECJ’s Kadi decision and the Court of First Instance’s (CFI) – slightly less famous – PMOI decisions we reported earlier on (see here, here and here). The Kadi decision dealt with an EU regulation implementing a UN blacklist which provided for the freezing of financial means of suspected Al Quaida [...]
Filed under: EC-Law, ECJ, ECtHR, Environmental Law, EU-Law, EU/EC Law, Human Rights, Regional Human Rights, Regional Human Rights Protection | Leave a Comment »
Six years after the first publication a second updated and expended German version of the established and very well received volume on European Constitutional Law edited by Armin von Bogdandy and Jürgen Bast from the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law has been published. The volume bringing together German authors with [...]
Filed under: Book review, EU-Law, EU/EC Law, literature, Public International Law, Publications, Relevant Literature | Leave a Comment »
Today the Icelandic parliament voted in favor of applying for membership in the EU. The vote was rather close, 33 to 28. With this decision, the Icelandic government is basically authorized to begin accession talks with the EU. The road to full membership is, however, not a simple one. Several different steps have to be [...]
Filed under: EU-Law, EU/EC Law | Leave a Comment »
Today the Swedish government takes over the presidency of the EU from the Czech Republic (official website here). Once again the work programme for the new presdiency is quite extensive. Apparently Sweden wants to focus on the economy, employment and climate. As such the programme is part of a larger 18-months programme drawn up together with [...]
Filed under: EU/EC Law | Leave a Comment »
The German Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe today handed down a decision in which it approved the Lisbon Treaty but delayed its ratification. According to the Court, there are no decisive constitutional objections to the Act Approving the Treaty of Lisbon. The Lisbon treaty is as such compatible with the German basic law (Grundgesetz). Moreover, in [...]
Filed under: EC-Law, EU Reform, EU-Law, EU/EC Law | Leave a Comment »
This week, on 22 April 2009, the European Parliament approved an interim trade agreement with Turkmenistan (for the full text of the resolution see here). Such an agreement would facilitate market access of Turkmen goods to the European Community and vice versa. This information would probably not be worthy of more than a minor note [...]
Filed under: EC-Law, EU-Law, EU/EC Law, Human Rights, Regional Human Rights | Leave a Comment »
Today the ECJ issued two judgments on the failure of Member States to adopt appropriate measures to eliminate incompatibilities of bilateral investment agreements which they entered into with third countries prior to their accession to the EU. The Court ruled that Austria (Case C-205/06) and Sweden (C-249/06) have failed to fulfil their obligations according to [...]
Filed under: EC-Law, EU-Law, EU/EC Law | Leave a Comment »
Having only recently considered the normative importance and weight of the provision in Article 15(c) of the European Refugee Qualification Directive (mentioned here and here), the following is a timely and, to a certain extent, also welcomed judicial instance. On 17 January the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Justice rendered its preliminary ruling [...]
Filed under: ECJ, EU Common Foreign and Security Policy, EU/EC Law, Human Rights | Leave a Comment »
The UK Home Office has issued a February 2009 Operational Guidance Note on Israel, Gaza and the West Bank setting out the main types of asylum claim, human rights claim and Humanitarian Protection claim (whether explicit or implied) that are expected to be submitted on behalf of individuals arriving to the UK from the region. [...]
Filed under: EU Common Foreign and Security Policy, EU/EC Law, International Humanitarian Law, Middle East Crisis, Public International Law | 1 Comment »
The EU Observer reports that the European Commission and the Swedish government (which takes over the rotating EU presidency in July), are contemplating plans for strengthening political cooperation in the Baltic Sea region in an attempt to address the problem of serious pollution in the area as well as the issue of energy supplies to [...]
Filed under: EC-Law, Environmental Law, EU/EC Law, International Environmental Law | Leave a Comment »
After a battle of several year the Iranian opposition group People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (“PMOI”) has succeeded in getting its name off the EU’s black list of terrorist organisations. As EUobserver reported on Tuesday, the EU Foreign Ministers agreed to remove the name of the organization from the list due to a lack of evidence [...]
Filed under: EC-Law, ECJ, EU Common Foreign and Security Policy, EU-Law, EU/EC Law, International terrorism, Public International Law | Leave a Comment »
It seems that the disputed military attacks led on Gaza by Israel in the past weeks have caused first tangible consequences for its external economic relations. Last week, it was reported that EU Commissioner Benita Ferrero Waldner froze the plans to upgrade its economic relations with Israel (for further information, see the following article in [...]
Filed under: EC-Law, EU-Law, EU/EC Law, Human Rights, Middle East Crisis, Public International Law | 1 Comment »
Today, 1 January 2009, the Czech Republic will take over from France the Presidency of the European Union (official website). The Presidency mainly consists of the responsibility for the functioning of the Council of the EU (i.e. organizing and chairing all the meetings of the Council) but has also evolved into some sort of representational duty of the [...]
Filed under: EC-Law, EU Reform, EU-Law, EU/EC Law | Leave a Comment »
During the meeting of the Council of the European Union on 11 and 12 November agreement was reached with regard to a European Economic Recovery Plan (including a 200-billion-euro ($264 billion) pact to revive the battered economy), an energy/climate change package (reaffirming the commitment to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 20% below 1990 levels by 2020 and [...]
Filed under: EU Reform, EU-Law, EU/EC Law | Leave a Comment »
On 9 December 2008 the European Commission stated that the products from 16 developing countries will benefit from duty-free access to the European Union under the “special incentive arrangement for sustainable development and good governance” (GSP+). The GSP+ is a specific tariff arrangement in the context of the Scheme of Generalised Tariff Preferences. It provides [...]
Filed under: EC-Law, EU-Law, EU/EC Law, Human Rights, Public International Law | Leave a Comment »
On the one hand, business is going as usual, the European Union is going through the required procedures and working groups in order to arrive at the most mutually profitably arrangement for the upgrading of its bi-lateral trade (plus) relations with Israel. The European Union’s 27 foreign ministers unanimously approved upgrading relations with Israel on [...]
Filed under: EC-Law, EU Common Foreign and Security Policy, EU/EC Law, Human Rights, International Criminal Law, International Humanitarian Law, Middle East Crisis, Public International Law, United Nations | Leave a Comment »
