Search

Begin New Search Topic Development

2371. The Constitutional Protection of Socio-Economic Rights in Selected African Countries: A Comparative Evaluation

Author:
John Cantius Mubangizi
Publication Date:
03-2006
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
African Journal of Legal Studies
Institution:
The Africa Law Institute
Abstract:
This article evaluates the extent to which a few selected African countries have incorporated socio-economic rights in their constitutions, the mechanisms through which such rights are realised, the challenges such realisation entails and the approach taken by the courts and other human rights institutions in those countries towards the realisation and enforcement of those rights. The survey examines South Africa, Namibia, Uganda and Ghana. Apart from the logical geographical spread, all these countries enacted their present constitutions around the same time (1990 to 1996) in an attempt to transform themselves into democratic societies. In a sense, these countries can be seen as transitional societies, emerging as they have done, from long periods of apartheid and foreign domination or autocratic dictatorships. The latter is true for Uganda and Ghana while the former refers to South Africa and Namibia. The article concludes that South Africa has not only made the most advanced constitutional provision for socio-economic rights, it has also taken the lead in the judicial enforcement of such rights, an experience from which the other countries in the survey can learn.
Topic:
Development, Government, and International Law
Political Geography:
Africa

2372. Genomics, Insurance and Human Rights: Is there a Place for Regulatory Frameworks in Africa?

Author:
Vincent O. Nmehielle
Publication Date:
03-2006
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
African Journal of Legal Studies
Institution:
The Africa Law Institute
Abstract:
This article examines the human rights dimension of genetic discrimination in Africa, exploring the place of regulatory frameworks while taking into account the disadvantaged position of the average African. This is in response to the tendency of insurance companies toward making health insurance decisions on the basis of individual genetic information, which could result in genetic discrimination or health insurance discrimination based on a person’s genetic profile. The author considers such questions as the intersection between human rights (right to life, health, privacy, human dignity and against genetic discrimination) in relation to the insurance industry, as well as the obligations of state and non-state actors to promote, respect, and protect the enjoyment of these rights. The article argues that African nations should not stand aloof in trying to balance the competing interests (scientific, economic and social) presented by the use of genetic information in the health care context and that ultimately it is the responsibility of states to develop domestic policies to protect their most vulnerable citizens and to prevent entrenched private discrimination based on an individual’s genes.
Topic:
Development, Government, Human Rights, and International Law
Political Geography:
Africa

2373. Rules of Procedure and Evidence of the Special Court for Sierra Leone

Publication Date:
03-2006
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
African Journal of Legal Studies
Institution:
The Africa Law Institute
Abstract:
These Rules of Procedure and Evidence as first amended on 7 March 2003, are applicable pursuant to Article 14 of the Statute of the Special Court for Sierra Leone, and entered into force on 12 April 2002.
Topic:
Development, Government, and International Law
Political Geography:
Africa

2374. The Open Method of Coordination as practice - A watershed in European education policy?

Author:
Åse Gornitzka
Publication Date:
12-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
European Research Papers Archive
Abstract:
This paper asks whether the application of the Open Method of Coordination (OMC) represents a fundamental change in how cooperation takes place within education as a policy area at the European level. Based on a case study of a process that eventually would lead to the “Education and Training 2010” programme of the EU, the paper analyses how the OMC was turned into practice in European education policy. It argues that with the introduction of the OMC a new political space was created in this policy domain. The paper analyses the practices of the OMC in terms of the actors and roles that have been activated at the European level, the role of OMC education in a larger order, and its operative dynamics. The different elements of OMC show varying degrees of institutionalisation. Parts of this process have been experimental, especially as a venue of policy learning and peer reviewing. On the other hand the attention and agenda of EU institutions involved in education policy have been coordinated over time through the routines established around the goals and objectives of the OMC process. The use and development of indicators have also become well established as one of the main components of European cooperation in this field.
Topic:
International Relations, Development, and Education
Political Geography:
Europe

2375. Higher Education as a Form of European Integration: How Novel is the Bologna Process?

Author:
Anne Corbett
Publication Date:
12-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
European Research Papers Archive
Abstract:
This paper argues that at a time in which higher education has become central to the concerns of EU institutions as well as national governments, it is helpful to understand current policy initiatives - both the spin offs from the EU's Lisbon strategy and the intergovernmental Bologna Process – in the comparative terms of the dynamics of policy-making. Drawing on institutionalist frameworks biased towards process (Kingdon 1984, March and Olsen 1989, Barzelay 2003) and comparative historical analysis, it presents policy initiatives from the period 1955-87, including the supranational European University proposal and the Erasmus programme, as both historical events, and theorised configurations of agenda setting, alternative specification, and choice. It suggests that such a framework can be helpful to both those interested primarily in European integration and those whose interests lie in the dynamics of higher education policy-making in a multi-level setting.
Topic:
Development, Education, and Government
Political Geography:
Europe and Lisbon

2376. Constructivist Approaches in International Relations Theory: Puzzles and Promises";

Author:
Antje Wiener
Publication Date:
12-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
European Research Papers Archive
Abstract:
By raising the question of what made constructivism possible the paper discusses the puzzle and promises of constructivist scholarschip in IR. It is argued that the communicative style which coined constructivism as a movement provides the key. Two puzzles are the focus, first, a lack of epistemological overlap, secondly, a disciplinary culture of consecutive debates which reached their high point of non-communication with the so-called Third Debate. However, while the constructivist movement gathered influence as a reference frame in the late 1990s, it is neither genuine to international relations theory nor does it originate in the 1990s. Why and how did constructivism manage to bring such a diverse group of scholars to one table? Section 2 of the paper develops the argument and introduces the concept of framing to understand the puzzle of conversation in IR. Section 3 recalls the emergence of constructivism, identifies the theoretical discussions and the significant conceptual moves. Section 4 summarizes the value-added and flags 'norms' research as the core of constructivist political science.
Topic:
International Relations, Development, Education, and Politics

2377. The Problem of Legitimacy in the European Polity. Is Democratization the Answer?";

Author:
Ulrich K. Preuss and Claus Offe
Publication Date:
12-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
European Research Papers Archive
Abstract:
The authors discuss potential sources of legitimacy of the EU, i. e. of the normative bindingness of its decisions. After rejecting the views that such legitimacy is either not needed, not feasible, or provided for already, they focus upon the corrosive impact of the EU upon democratic legitimacy within member states. Brussels-based 'governance' is essentially uncontested and can hardly provide for the legitimacy that results from the interplay between government and opposition within nation states. The problem boils down to achieving legitimacy in the absence of the political community of a 'demos'. The paper outlines a solution to this problem that relies on the apparently oxymoronic model of a 'republican empire' - a political community, that is, which is held together not by the bonds of some presumed sameness, but, to the contrary, by the shared contractual recognition of the dissimilarity of its constituent parts from which legitimacy can flow.
Topic:
Democratization, Development, and Politics
Political Geography:
Europe and Brussels

2378. Current Legal Issues in the External Relations of the European Union

Author:
Michel Petit
Publication Date:
12-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
European Research Papers Archive
Abstract:
This paper is based on a lecture delivered during the Academy of European Law Summer School 2006. It provides an examination from a legal perspective of three current themes in the external relations of the European Union. First, the legal implications of the pillar structure for external relations, including recent case law and practical issues arising from the application of Article 47 TEU, the borderline between Community external policies and the Union's common foreign and security policy, and practical interpillar cooperation. It concludes that it is easier to combine the pillars by means of pragmatic solutions, whereas it is much more difficult in the case of a strictly legal construction which takes into account the requirements of Union coherence and the separate character of each pillar. Second, the paper turns to the balance between Member States and the European Union/Community in external policy and in particular the application of the “AETR test” in recent case law including the “Open Skies” cases, the Lugano Convention Opinion and the “Mox Plant” case. It concludes that a proper application of the AETR remains a practical challenge that transcends the narrow issue of pure legal deduction as to whether Community competence is “affected” or not. And third, the paper considers the position of the EU within, and participation in the work of, international organisations such as the United Nations, the WHO and the WTO. The paper concludes by emphasising the need for collaboration between the institutions and for pragmatic solutions to the problems that are inevitable while the Union retains its current complex structure.
Topic:
International Relations, Development, and International Law
Political Geography:
Europe

2379. Multi-Level Judicial Trade Governance without Justice? On the Role of Domestic Courts in the WTO Legal and Dispute Settlement System

Author:
Ernst-Ulrich Petersmann
Publication Date:
12-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
European Research Papers Archive
Abstract:
The fragmented nature of national and international legal and dispute settlement regimes, and the formalistic nature of the customary international law rules on treaty interpretation and conflicts of laws, offer little guidance on how national and international judges should respond to the proliferation of competing jurisdictions and the resultant incentives for forum shopping and rule shopping by governments and non-governmental actors in international economic law. Due to their different jurisdictions, procedures and different rules of applicable laws, national and international judges often interpret international trade law from different (inter)national, (inter)governmental, constitutional and judicial perspectives. This paper explores the judicial functions of national and international judges to reach justified decisions based on positive law, on the basis of transparent, predictable and fair procedures, and to interpret international treaties “in conformity with principles of justice.” Chapters I to III explain some of the “principles of justice” underlying international trade law and argue that international rules for a mutually beneficial division of labour among private citizens should be construed with due regard to the human rights obligations of governments. Chapters III and IV propose to strengthen international cooperation among national and international courts, for instance by negotiating additional WTO commitments to interpret domestic trade laws in conformity with the WTO obligations of the countries concerned and to settle WTO disputes over private rights primarily in domestic courts, without transforming essentially private disputes into disputes among governments.
Topic:
Development, Government, International Trade and Finance, and Non-Governmental Organization
Political Geography:
Europe

2380. Codecision and Institutional Change

Author:
Henry Farrell and Adrienne Héritier
Publication Date:
12-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
European Research Papers Archive
Abstract:
We examine the sources and processes of institutional change in one important aspect of EU politics—the legislative procedure of codecision and show how interstitial change of institutions emerges between formal Treaty revisions and under specific conditions may be formalized in subsequent formal Treaty reforms. We develop two related models of Treaty change. First, in a'simple' model, we argue that informal rules will be formalized in the Treaty text where all member states are in agreement, and will be rolled back when all member states oppose them; otherwise they will continue in existence at the informal level. Second, in a more complex framework, we argue that actors who have effective veto powers in a related arena may make credible threats that allow them to press member states into formalizing informal rules, provided that member states are not unanimously opposed to this formalization. We empirically assess our claims in the light of several instances of informal rules applied in the codecision procedure.
Topic:
Development, Economics, and Politics
Political Geography:
Europe