Georgia and International Law

Author(s):  
Antoni Blanc Altemir ◽  
Eimys Ortiz Hernández

The dissolution of the USSR at the end of December 1991 and the reunification of Germany were, without doubt, two of the most remarkable international events at the end of the 20th century. Analysis of the consequences of these events with respect to international law has proved challenging to international legal norms due to the fact that the kind of “micro cosmos” exemplified by these events served to highlight the principal sectors of international law. The consequences of the dismemberment of the USSR proved to be extensive and they were felt not only in Europe, but also in the rest of the world. The breakup of such a prominent strategic actor put an end to the restricted stability that characterized the bipolar nature of the Cold War. Thus, international society witnessed a period of instability in succeeding years marked by a renewed rise in issues such as the right of self-determination and the principle of uti possidetis. Therefore, events unfolding in the former Soviet Union, at times tedious and even tragic, led to the creation of a new international organization called the Commonwealth of Independent States, which tried to fill the “black hole” left by the breakup of the USSR as well as deal with the problems confronted by the successor states, notwithstanding its own deficiencies. Moreover, some disputes of a territorial, interethnic, or national character became very violent, such as those in Central Asia and the Caucasus, in particular in Georgia. Over the years Georgia has intensified its process of approximation to the European Union (EU). On the one hand, the EU-Georgia Association Agreement that entered into force on 1 July 2016 is remarkable for establishing a deep and comprehensive free trade area. On the other hand, the effective application of the Schengen—visa-free travel for short stays for Georgian citizens—has been of great importance. This article provides researchers with instruments to study the recurring problems in South Ossetia and Abkhazia, as well as the Georgian-Russian conflict in 2008, and also treats the consequences of these crises in international law. Issues such as military operations, the cease-fire agreement, and the succeeding evolution of events are discussed. A section focuses specifically on important violations of international law that took place during the conflict, for which an international report was published. In addition, the consequences of the conflict are addressed with respect to NATO-Russia and EU-Russia relations while the effects of the conflict in the geostrategic and energy fields are also considered. Additionally, the rapprochement between Georgia and the European Union is analyzed.

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 122-128
Author(s):  
Mykola Lazarenko

Systematization of private international law in Ukraine and foreign countries: present state and tendencies.The article deals with the comparative legal analysis of the systematization of the statutory provisions of private international law in the countries of the European Union and some countries of the former Soviet Union. The main arguments regarding different approaches to the systematization of private international law in Ukraine are outlined, as well as the main directions and tendencies of the codification processes of legislation in this area.


2021 ◽  
Vol 60 (90) ◽  
pp. 189-205
Author(s):  
Radmila Dragišić

In this paper, the author explores the sources of European Union Law that regulate one segment of parental responsibility - the right of access to a child. The focal point of research is the transition from the conventional (interstate) regulation of judicial cooperation in marital disputes and parental responsibility issues to the regulation enacted by the European Union institutions, with specific reference to the Brussels II bis Regulation. First, the author briefly points out to its relationship with other relevant international law sources regulating this subject matter: the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction; the Hague Convention on Jurisdiction, Applicable Law, Recognition, Enforcement and Cooperation in the Field of Parental Responsibility and Measures for the Protection of Children; and other international sources of law. Then, the author examines in more detail its relationship with the Brussels II bis recast Regulation, which will be applicable as of 1 August 2022. In addition, the paper includes an analysis of the first case in which the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) decided on the application of the Brussels II bis Regulation, at the request of granparents to exercise the right of access to the child. On the issue of determining the competent court which has jurisdiction to decide on how this right shall be exercised, the CJEU had to decide whether the competent court is determined on the basis of the Brussels II bis Regulation or on the basis of national Private International Law rules. This paper is useful for the professional and scientific community because it deals (inter alia) with the issue of justification of adopting a special source of law at the EU level, which would regulate the issue of mutual enforcement of court decisions on the right of access to the child. This legal solution was proposed by the Republic of France, primarily guided by the fundamental right of the child to have contact with both parents.


Author(s):  
Gino Naldi ◽  
Konstantinos Magliveras

Following the 2016 referendum, the UK notified its intention to withdraw from the European Union pursuant to Article 50 TEU. Given the political and legal consequences of a much-questioned referendum and the strong opinion of many parts of British society that the UK’s membership should not be terminated, the question arose whether such a notification could be revoked unilaterally. In the absence of any mention in Article 50, expert opinion was divided. International law – that is, the law of treaties and the law of international organizations – does not appear to provide a definite answer, while state practice is rather scarce. The constituent instruments of international and regional organizations containing withdrawal clauses are also silent, except for African organizations and development/investment organizations, which invariably allow Member States to rescind withdrawal notices. As regards the EU Treaties, before the Lisbon Treaty they did not contain a withdrawal clause. In the preliminary ruling given in Wightman v. Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, which concerned whether an EU Member has the sovereign power under Article 50 to revoke unilaterally a withdrawal notice, the Court of Justice helped to clarify a critical question of EU Law but also of international law.


Author(s):  
Alexandr S. Krivcov

Tensions between various ethnic groups living in Abkhazia, on the Black Sea coast, escalated into violent conflict in 1992-1993. At the heart of the conflict, which broke out along with a number of other conflicts after the collapse of the Soviet Union, lies the contradiction between the principles of territorial integrity and the right of nations to self-determination. This tension was centered around competing historical claims of Georgians and Abkhazians on the territory of Abkhazia. Abkhaz demands for greater autonomy increased when the Soviet Union collapsed. Nationalism spread, tension grew, and in 1992 a 13-month war began. This article assesses how the warring parties perceive the process of Europeanization of their region, as well as the role of the European Union in the conflict around Abkhazia and its possible outcome in the future. It is noted that the efforts made by the EU to facilitate the settlement of disputes on the Georgian-Abkhaz issue are long-standing and multifaceted. However, there is a dissonance between the EU’s strong interest in resolving these conflicts, its strong commitment and its long-standing involvement in promoting such a settlement, and its actual, ineffective contribution to this goal.


2013 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-56
Author(s):  
Renata Kunert-Milcarz

Abstract Support for democratisation and democracy has become one of the leading topics in a wide-ranging debate over the state of democracy in the contemporary world. The European Union became an important player in global politics, one with an ambitious programme for the spreading and supporting of democracy and the process of democratisation in Eastern Europe. Hence the author’s attempt at addressing the following question: what actions and strategies have and are being undertaken by the EU to facilitate the above-mentioned processes? The aim of the paper is to describe and assess the strategies and actions of the European Union in the field of supporting democratisation and democracy in selected countries of the former USSR (e.g. Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine), additionally well-fitting to the concept of Eastern Partnership, in the last decade of XX and the first decade of XXI Century. The paper also aims to present which procedures and standards (that are supposed to guarantee their usefulness and effectiveness) are being used by the EU. The emphasis has been placed primarily on the processes of democratisation, their mileage, specificity and possible strategies for supporting democratic development, as well as its potential for consolidation, in the countries of the former Soviet Union. In order to conduct the research it is necessary to assess the political, social and economic conditions in the researched countries. It is to be stressed that one should be aware of the complexity and dynamics of the described processes whilst evaluating the EU’s initiatives. The papers topic was chosen due to the importance and currentness of the researched EU actions and their results.


2008 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 1850146 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zofia Maria Wysokinska

The Central and Eastern European countries implemented an economic policy fundamentally reorienting their foreign trade in the nineteen–nineties. This involved a shift in direction from the East (the former Soviet Union and its satellite countries) to the West (primarily the European Union). The economic transformation of those countries as well as integration with the European Union was established and nearly complete in the wake of accession in the year 2004. However, transition periods facilitating the completion of integration processes were established for certain sectors, including adaptation to environmental rules and standards, for example. The aim of this paper is to present certain findings of an international comparison among the "new" European Union member states related to: certain final economic results of the transformation with respect to achievements related to the various states of economic development (verification of the M. Porter and T. Ozawa model), and the ability to adopt selected requirements of the Renewed European Union Strategies after the year 2005, with special reference to the Renewed Sustainable Development Strategy and the Strategy: Global Europe-Competing in the World. Verification of the Ozawa and Porter Model is positive for all Central and Eastern European new members of the European Union. Transformation and integration processes supported these countries on their way to economic development. These positive results on their development path are presented in the paper in detail.


Author(s):  
John W. Young ◽  
John Kent

This chapter examines important developments in Europe and the former Soviet Union. The collapse of communism paved the way for the greatest changes in Europe since 1919, with the political disintegration of three Eurasian countries: the then USSR, with localized outbreaks of violence; Yugoslavia, with several years of bloody civil war; and Czechoslovakia, where the Czechs and Slovaks peacefully agreed to go their own way as of January 1993, in the so-called ‘velvet divorce’. Communism’s demise also brought reunification to a divided nation: Germany. The chapter first considers the German reunification, before discussing the break-up of the USSR and the Wars of Succession, Yugoslavia’s break-up and the Bosnian War, NATO and European security, and the emergence of the European Union, which replaced the European Community.


2005 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 1850046 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Toole ◽  
James Lutz

Since the end of Communist rule, the countries of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union have been forced to restructure their formerly centrally planned economies. Among the dilemmas they have faced is how open they should be to international trade. Using multiple regression, the openness of these economies to trade is empirically determined while controlling for the effects of both population and wealth. Residuals from the regression equations are then examined in order to identify how much more or less open to trade each country has been. Analysis of the residuals for six distinct regions of the former Communist world presents no definitive answers but does suggest some preliminary conclusions. A country’s degree of political openness is found to be most important in determining relative openness to trade; close behind that are its geographic proximity to important world markets and its prospects for future accession to the European Union.


Author(s):  
Ernest Gramatskiy

Certain aspects, the meaning and relationship between adaptation of the private legislation of Ukraine to the requirements of theEuropean Community and private international law are analyzed in the article. The above mentioned phenomena are explored in thelight of the active integration of Ukraine into European and world space, which at the same time explains the stage of fundamentalchanges in the national system of private law.Special attention is paid to the provisions of the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the European Union dated June 27,2014, which became the basis for deepening the processes of democratization and liberalization in all spheres of life, including thesphere of regulation of private law relations complicated by a foreign element – the legal relations that make up the subject matter ofinternational private law.The concept, features and legal aim of adaptation in law in the context of European integration changes were the subject todetailed analysis. Various approaches of scientists in terms of characterization of this concept are analyzed. It is indicated that the adaptationof the national legislation of Ukraine to the legislation of the European Union is a long and multi-stage process, the plan of whichis enshrined at the level of international treaties, including the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the European Union of June27, 2014. Particular attention is paid to the analysis of the provisions of the Association Agreement, which are directly devoted to internationalprivate law and legal relations which make up its subject matter.Special attention is paid to the issue of intellectual property law and its regulation under current legislation of Ukraine and AssociationAgreement between Ukraine and the European Union. Certain aspects referring trademark regulation are analyzed. Judicial practiceof the national court of Ukraine has been taken into account as well.It is crucial to stress that European integration processes have their direct impact on private international law system and its me -cha nism of legal regulation.


Author(s):  
Borja Villalgordo Pujalte ◽  
Manuel Hernández Pedreño

La Unión Europea viene promoviendo la consecución de la cohesión social y económica desde sus Tratados Constitutivos. El alcance de este objetivo se ha visto ralentizado por varios motivos, como la entrada de los países de Europa del Este que ha supuesto un aumento de la heterogeneidad en la Unión; o por el diferente impacto de la reciente crisis económica en los distintos países. El objetivo de este trabajo es analizar el proceso de convergencia/divergencia de los países de Europa del Este en los parámetros socioeconómicos de la Unión Europea que fomentan la cohesión social y económica. La hipótesis de partida es que estos países han mantenido diferentes ritmos de convergencia con la Unión Europea por conformar un bloque heterogéneo, explicado por varios factores: el tiempo de permanencia en la Unión, la influencia de la Unión Soviética, el impacto de la Estrategia Europa 2020 o la situación de la que partían antes de entrar en la Unión. La metodología empleada es mixta, combinando la entrevista a profesionales con el análisis estadístico de los diferentes comportamientos sociales, económicos y políticos en los países de Europa del Este desde el estallido de la crisis hasta ahora. En la comparativa se consideran tres ámbitos de actuación, correspondientes a las principales áreas que conforman la política social y que se integran como objetivos dentro de la Estrategia Europa 2020 (ingresos, trabajo y educación), al tiempo que se incluye la respuesta institucional ofrecida por los diferentes países. European Union has been promoting the achievement of social and economic cohesion since the Treaty Establishing the European Community. A true embodiment of this goal has been slowed down by several reasons, such as the attachment of Eastern Europe countries that increased the heterogeneity in the European Union; or how European countries dealt with the latest economic recession that took place in 2008. The aim of this paper is to analyse the process of convergence/divergence among Eastern Europe countries and European Union based in a few parameters that foster the economic and social cohesion. The hypothesis is that countries from East of Europe have kept different rates of convergence with the European Union because they shape a heterogeneous group of countries due to several factors: accession year of each country to the European Union, influence of the former Soviet Union, Europe 2020 Strategy’s repercussion or the previous situation where these countries come from before being full members of the European Union. In this paper, a mixed methodology was applied, combining interviews with professionals in different fields of knowledge with the statistical analysis of social, economic and political behaviours in the Eastern European Union countries since the outbreak of the crisis until now. In this comparative, three fields of action have been considered as the main areas that compose social policy and are also integrated in the European 2020 Strategy (incomes, work and education), combined with the institutional response offered by these countries.


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