giovedì 21 agosto 2014

'Constitutional Change Through Euro-Crisis Law'

The 'Constitutional Change Through Euro-Crisis Law' Project Team is pleased to announce the launch of our Project Website:

http://eurocrisislaw.eui.eu/



The project, run by the EUI Law Department and funded by the EUI Research Council (2013-2015), aims to analyze the constitutional implications of Euro-crisis law in the legal system of the 28 Member States. By Euro-crisis law we mean the legal instruments adopted at European or international level in reaction to the Eurozone crisis.


The study pursues the following objectives:

- To provide an open-access research tool, based on a set of reports for each Member State, that constitutes an excellent basis for further, especially comparative, studies of the legal status and implementation of Euro-crisis Law at national level, the interactions between national legal systems and Euro-crisis law and the constitutional challenges that have been faced;


- To investigate the impact of Euro-crisis Law on the constitutional balance of powers at national level;


- To highlight the effects of Euro-crisis Law on the protection of fundamental and social rights at national level;


- To provide an overview of Euro-crisis Law literature and a collection of relevant official documents in the Member States (available as annexes to the national reports).



The website collects national reports based on a standard questionnaire and on a wider range of sources, including minutes of parliamentary debates, national laws ratifying and implementing Euro-Crisis law, and case-law of national constitutional or supreme courts, so as to focus on ten main topics:



I. Political context
II. Budgetary Process

III. Changes to Constitutional Law
IV. Early Emergency Funding (including EFSF)

V. 136(3) TFEU

VI. Euro Plus Pact

VII. Six-Pack

VIII. ESM Treaty

IX. Fiscal Compact

X. Financial Support



Many of the reports are already online, in part or completed; the remaining reports will be uploaded during the next academic year. Workshops, seminars and conferences linked to the project will be organised and announced on the project website (http://eurocrisislaw.eui.eu/news/). A conference will be held on October 17-18 2014 at the EUI to investigate comparatively the project's findings.



Follow news on the website and send us your feedback through: http://eurocrisislaw.eui.eu/contacts/



Kind regards,

The Project Team



venerdì 1 agosto 2014

Una Revisión De 'Liberalismo Político' De Rawls (Rawls's 'Political Liberalism'. A Reassessment)


Martha C. Nussbaum 


University of Chicago - Law School

July 24, 2014

Revista Derecho del Estado, No. 32, 2014 

Abstract:      
Spanish Abstract: La obra Liberalismo político de John Rawls ha sido objeto de una amplia y profunda literatura filosófica, la mayoría de una excelente calidad. En este escenario es difícil decir algo nuevo sobre los tópicos más relevantes de su trabajo y salir airosa de los debates por ella suscitados. Por tanto, he decidido concentrar mi atención en algunos tópicos donde existe la posibilidad de una aproximación alternativa que pueda generar lecturas remozadas del texto de Rawls: la distinción entre doctrinas comprehensivas “razonables” e “irrazonables”; los fundamentos psicológicos del liberalismo político; y la posibilidad de que el liberalismo político pueda extenderse más allá del pequeño grupo de sociedades occidentales que Rawls identificó como su centro de atención, según se desprende de sus referencias históricas. También he incluido un excurso sobre el polémico tema de la razón pública y la civilidad que difícilmente puede ser evitado dada su relevancia en el contexto de recepción del libro. El presente escrito debe leerse no como una descripción comprehensiva del trabajo de Rawls, sino como el intento personal por atrapar, de forma imperfecta e incompleta, la esencia de estos temas, tan caros para la filosofía y tan urgentes para la humanidad.

English Abstract: Since Rawls’s Political Liberalism is by now the subject of a wide and deep philosophical literature, much of it excellent in quality, it would be foolhardy to attempt to say something about each of the major issues of the work, or to sort through debates that can easily be located elsewhere. I have therefore decided to focus on a small number of issues where there is at least some chance that a fresh approach may yield some new understanding of the text: Rawls’s distinction between “reasonable” and “unreasonable” comprehensive doctrines; the psychological underpinnings of political liberalism; and the possibility that political liberalism might be extended beyond the small group of modern Western societies that Rawls’s historical remarks suggest as its primary focus. I also include a discussion of the much-debated issue of civility and public reason, which could hardly be avoided given its prominence in the book’s reception. This paper should therefore be read not as a comprehensive account of the work but as one person’s attempt to grapple, very incompletely and imperfectly, with a book that is as great as any philosophy has seen on this topic of great human urgency.
Note: Downloadable document is in Spanish.
Number of Pages in PDF File: 29

Keywords: political liberalism, respect, reciprocity, political conception, overlapping consensus, comprehensive doctrines, duty of civility, public reason, background culture, psychology of liberalism, moral sentiments

Harry Potter Contra El Legalismo, O La Magia Republicana Del Pluralismo Jurídico (Harry Potter v. Legalism or, the Republican Magic of Legal Pluralism)


Luis Gomez Romero 


University of Wollongong

July 24, 2014

Revista Derecho del Estado, No. 32, 2014 

Abstract:      
Spanish Abstract: Este ensayo acomete una crítica radical de las ideologías legalistas mediante una revisión de las fuentes del derecho en clave pluralista. Los textos literarios – concretamente, las novelas de Harry Potter – son catalogados como fuentes del derecho. A estos efectos, se considera que el derecho inscrito en los mundos narrativos ficticios concierne al derecho en el mundo y las vidas de los públicos que los leen. El derecho es literatura, y la literatura es derecho. Sobre esta base, el artículo analiza la fabulación sobre el imperio de la ley en las novelas potterianas desde una perspectiva republicana.

English Abstract: This essay undertakes a radical criticism of legalist ideologies through a pluralist revision of the sources of law. Literary texts – specifically, the Harry Potter series of novels – are catalogued as sources of law. For this purpose, the law inscribed in fictional narrative worlds is considered as a matter that concerns the law in the real-world and the lives of audiences who read such fictional worlds. Law is literature and literature is law. On this basis, the article analyzes from a republican perspective the fictionalization of the rule of law in the Potter novels.
Note: Downloadable document is in Spanish.
Number of Pages in PDF File: 28

Keywords: Law and Literature; legalism, legal pluralism; rule of law; republican freedom.

Derechos Humanos Y Comics: Un Matrimonio Est-Éticamente Bien Avenido (Human Rights and Comics: An Aesth-Ethically Well-Matched Marriage)


Maria Jesus Fernandez Gil 


Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM); Universidad autonoma de Madrid

Miguel A. Ramiro Aviles 


Universidad de Alcalá

July 24, 2014

Revista Derecho del Estado, No. 32, 2014 

Abstract:      
Spanish Abstract: Este trabajo pretende rescatar y justificar el uso del cómic, en el sentido de Duncan y Smith, entendido como una forma de arte en la que todos los aspectos narrativos están representados mediante dibujos e imágenes lingüísticas encapsuladas en una secuencia yuxtapuesta de paneles y páginas, como una herramienta didáctica idónea para la educación en y la enseñanza de derechos humanos.

English Abstract: The present paper is aimed at retrieving and justifying the use of comics, which, for the purposes of our research, shall be understood as a means of art whose narrative aspects is the product of a juxtaposition between pictures and linguistic images and the sequence of panels and pages. It is thus a valuable didactic tool in teaching about human rights and in human rights education.
Note: Downloadable document is in Spanish.
Number of Pages in PDF File: 38

Keywords: human rights, comics, teaching about human rights, human rights education.

EU Employment Law and the European Social Model: The Past, the Present and the Future


Catherine Barnard 


University of Cambridge - Trinity College

July 1, 2014

67 Current Legal Problems, 2014, Forthcoming
University of Cambridge Faculty of Law Research Paper No. 43/2014 

Abstract:      
If the critics are right, the EU social model is dead and that’s the end of it. Those on the right may well be dancing on its grave; those more sympathetic might mourn its passing. My view is more sanguine. I shall argue that the European social model is certainly facing unprecedented challenges. However, I will suggest that these challenges, caused in part by the EU’s response to the crisis but more generally resulting from a growing hostility towards the European Union project as a whole, are not terminal and that there is – and should be - a continued role for the European social model and its employment dimension in particular.

The article therefore considers what is meant by the European social model (ESM) and why the ESM is important. It then examines why the ESM, and its employment dimension in particular, is facing such difficulties before recognising that, in fact, the EU’s history demonstrates that the ESM has, in fact, a long-standing ability to regenerate and resurrect itself in different guises. Given this regenerative capacity, the article will conclude by considering the form EU social policy might take going forward.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 32

Is the European Union Going Deep on Democracy and Religious Freedom?


Pasquale Annicchino 


European University Institute - Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies (RSCAS)

July 13, 2014

The Review of Faith & International Affairs, Forthcoming 

Abstract:      
In recent years the European Union has begun to explicitly affirm a foreign policy role for freedom of religion or belief (FoRB). The initial reaction to this trend among many scholars and policy analysts has largely been that of caution — if not outright skepticism — regarding the practical import of the changes. However there are signs of continuing momentum. While the EU’s record thus far does not yet reflect a fully comprehensive strategy for integrating FoRB into its broader agenda for promoting deep democracy, it has been able to enlarge the role of FoRB in its external action on a step-by-step basis.
Number of Pages in PDF File: 13
Keywords: EU external relations, religious freedom, deep democracy

Full text available at: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Jeljour_results.cfm?form_name=journalBrowse&SortOrder=ab_approval_date&stype=desc&journal_id=201&netorjrnl=ntwk&lim=true

Re-Emerging Equality: Traditions of Justice in the Cultural Roots of the Egyptian Revolution


Giancarlo Anello 


University of Parma

Khaled Qatam 


Independent

July 27, 2014

Diritto & questioni pubbliche, Vol. 13 (2013): 367-405 

Abstract:      
For years, modern Egyptian Islamic thinkers have been attempting to define Islamic ideals of social justice and the way in which they have been ignored in the post-colonial period. This paper will discuss and critique the mid-20th century works of theorists of the Muslim Revolution like Abbas Mahmud ‘Aqqad (author of al-dymuqratyah fy alislam, Democracy in Islam) and Sayyid Qutb (author of al-‘adalah al-ijtima‘iyya fy alislam, Social Justice in Islam) in order to shape the discourse about the relevance of their theories of democracy, justice and equality for today’s political movements.
Number of Pages in PDF File: 40
Keywords: Justice, Democracy, Islamic Jurisprudence, Culture, Revolution
Accepted Paper Series 

full text available at: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Jeljour_results.cfm?form_name=journalBrowse&SortOrder=ab_approval_date&stype=desc&journal_id=201&netorjrnl=ntwk&lim=true

The Cuban Communist Party at the Center of Political and Economic Reform: Current Status and Future Reform in the Shadow of the Chinese Communist Party


Larry Catá Backer 


Pennsylvania State University - Dickinson School of Law

July 28, 2014

Abstract:      
No consideration of "Cuba's Perplexing Changes," its focus on internal reforms and impact on the Cuban economy, can be complete without a study of the Cuban Communist Party (PCC), especially in comparative perspective. The thesis of this essay is that ideology is decisively important in any discussion of “reform” in Cuba. Western analysts have sought to subsume ideological issues within “transition” arguments — that ideological issues will evaporate once Cuba makes the jump from a Marxist-Leninist planned economy model to a Western oriented free market democracy. This essay argues that the inverse provides a more useful way of understanding the situation in Cuba and the choices that it faces. The ideological basis of state organization provides the key to understanding the likelihood of the success of reforms to any of the sectors of state policy. The PCC’s now quite mature ideological framework has helped shape, and constrain, both its approach to the construction and operation of its Party and state apparatus, but also all of its efforts to “reform” or develop its economic, social or political model. Yet the tensions created by these contradictions between PCC ideology and the conditions of Cuba need not lead invariably to a choice between Marxist-Leninist and Western style democratic state organization. The Chinese have provided another model, one that is grounded in a distinct approach to Marxist-Leninist ideology that has served the national context well enough to produce a state as stable as most. After the Introduction, Section II, (A) considers the centrality of ideology to the ‘problem’ of Cuba, (B) examines the consequences for Cuba of the choice, made by its vanguard party, to follow a distinct path toward the articulation and application of Marxism-Leninism in the organization and exercise of power, (C) examines the direct effect of this ideological framework on the structures of the Cuban Party and state, (D) assesses the consequential effects of ideology on the shape and scope of reforms, (E) argues that Marxist-Leninist ideology, like Western style democracy and markets oriented economic ideology, offers more than one path, and considers more directly, the alternatives offered by the Chinese path, and (F) weighs the consequences of the quality of the transition that is coming to Cuba, one that need not lead Cuba away from Marxist-Leninism and a Party-State system. Each is considered in turn in light of the essay’s thesis: Variations in Marxist ideology matter (no monolithic communist ideology), sustainable economic reform is possible within a Marxist Leninist State-Party system, and that ideological systemic ossification in Cuba, as in the United States, can lead to crisis and paralysis. It is in that context that one considers the questions: does the Chinese model provide a framework for Cuba? Is it too late for reform of the Cuba CP? If reform is possible, what should be its objectives and strategies?
Number of Pages in PDF File: 48

Keywords: commiunist party, socilist democracy, foreign direct investment, cooperatives, socialist economics, china, chinese commuinist party, Cuba

Transconstitutionalism or Cosmopolitanism: Perspectives for a Dialogical Semantics in the Contemporary Constitutionalism


Alexandre Douglas Zaidan de Carvalho 


Universidade de Brasília (UnB); Universitat Pompeu Fabra - Department of Law

July 30, 2014

Abstract:      
By considering the variety of elements that surrounds the fragmentation of law reproduction, beyond the precarious legitimacy of the national State and non-state entities to confront common constitutional problems of the world society, this paper discusses two theoretical proposals directed to the question: transconstitucionalism and constitutional cosmopolitanism. To draw a parallel between the two perspectives, it is intended to demonstrate the limits and possibilities of both, with special attention to the American constitutionalism. Focusing on the resistance of the Supreme Court to consider foreign precedents as reference to their decisions, the paper evaluates how the posture of closing the dialogue affects the construction of the notion of shared constitutionalism.
Number of Pages in PDF File: 26

Keywords: Global Constitutionalism, Transconstitutionalism, Constitutional Cosmopolitanism