Granting Legal Personhood to Nature in the European Union: Contemplating a Legal (R)evolution to Avoid an Ecological Collapse? (Part 1)

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 309-332 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hendrik Schoukens
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Environmental Governance ◽  
Case Law ◽  
Habitats Directive ◽  
The European Union ◽  
The Road ◽  
Legal Personhood ◽  
National Courts ◽  
Rights Of Nature ◽  
On The Road

Over the past decade, the debate on Rights of Nature as a promising novel discourse within the ever-changing context of environmental governance has gained considerable traction. An increasing number of countries, amongst whom New Zealand and Ecuador, has moved to explicitly grant legal personhood to nature, with some national courts following suit. Underlying this trend is the need to correct the prevailing instrumentalist approach to nature, which sees nature merely as an object. For now, the idea of giving certain procedural and substantive rights to nature has passed relatively unnoticed in the European Union (eu), which prides itself over its set of progressive environmental directives and regulations. This paper, which is published in two parts, posits that a rights-based approach to nature might be relevant for the eu as well, seeing that anthropocentric frames are still permeating many of the eu’s environmental strategies. Having conducted an in-depth case-law analysis of a string of relevant decisions of the Court of Justice of the eu as regards the procedural and substantive underpinnings of Rights of Nature, it is argued that some of the most well-known eu environmental directives, such as the Habitats Directive and the Water Framework Directive, can effectively be used as a catalyst on a path towards a more ecocentric approach to eu environmental governance. That said, the lack of standing for nature in its own right before eu courts, which is at the forefront of the first part of this article, remains one of the most prominent legal obstacles on the road towards a more rights-based approach to nature conservation. In the remainder of this article, it is argued that introducing a rights-based approach through the adoption of a new directive might sound appealing yet would ultimately be unable to comprehensively implement the rationale underpinning Rights of Nature. Seeing that a reform of the eu Treaties in light of a more rights-based approach towards nature appears unlikely for now, the first, concrete manifestations of nature’s rights in the eu will probably be seen at Member States’ level.

scholarly journals The Limits of Agencification in the European Union

2014 ◽  
Vol 15 (7) ◽  
pp. 1223-1255 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miroslava Scholten ◽  
Marloes van Rijsbergen
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Case Law ◽  
Lisbon Treaty ◽  
Democratic Legitimacy ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Member States ◽  
The Road ◽  
European Court ◽  
On The Road ◽  
The Eu

Although not explicitly regulated by the EU treaties, EU agencies not only exist but also have increased in number and power. In addition, while EU agencies may exercise very similar functions to those of the Commission, Articles 290 and 291 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) do not list agencies among the possible authors of non-legislative acts. The existing situation raises the questions of the extent to which the ongoing agencification in the EU is legitimate and what its limits are. This article addresses these questions in the light of the old and new Treaties and case law, including the just releasedESMA-shortsellingcase. It shows that while the Lisbon Treaty made a few steps forward on the road of legitimizing EU agencies and delegating important powers to them, the scope of powers that EU agencies can have remains unclear. In this respect, the European Court of Justice's lenient approach in theESMA-shortsellingcase is unfortunate because it neither clarifies the issue nor pushes the Union Legislator and the Member States to address it. Consequently, in the absence of clear limits, further agencification is likely to persist at the risk of increasing the democratic legitimacy deficit and remaining accountability gaps.

9. Maastricht and Amsterdam (the Late 1980s to the Late 1990s)

2020 ◽  
pp. 154-171
Author(s):  
Simon Bulmer ◽  
Owen Parker ◽  
Ian Bache ◽  
Stephen George ◽  
Charlotte Burns
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Monetary Union ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Major Step ◽  
The Road ◽  
European Citizenship ◽  
History Of ◽  
On The Road ◽  
Commission President ◽  
Treaty Of Amsterdam

This chapter examines two important developments in the history of the European Union (EU): the signing of the Maastricht and Amsterdam Treaties. In June 1989, the European Council agreed to European Commission President Jacques Delors’s three-stage plan for monetary union by 1999, despite British opposition. In 1991, intergovernmental conferences (IGCs) were held on both monetary union and political union. The proposals of these IGCs were incorporated into the Treaty on European Union (TEU), agreed at Maastricht in December 1991. The TEU marked a major step on the road to European integration. It committed most of the member states to adopting a single currency and introduced the concept of European citizenship, among others. This chapter considers the events leading up to the signing of the TEU, from the Maastricht negotiations to the issue of enlargement, the 1996 IGC, and the Treaty of Amsterdam.

scholarly journals It’s the EU immigrants stupid! UKIP’s core-issue and populist rhetoric on the road to Brexit

2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 248-266 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ceri Hughes
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
Newspaper Coverage ◽  
The European Union ◽  
The Road ◽  
News Releases ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Core Issue ◽  
On The Road ◽  
Prevalent Form

The 2016 vote to leave the European Union was one of the biggest developments in recent United Kingdom political history. Only one political party was wholly united for Brexit – the United Kingdom Independence Party. This research finds that in the years leading up to Brexit, the United Kingdom Independence Party presented itself as a rigid core-issue complete-populist party. Content analysis shows how pervasive the European Union was in much of the party output and in the contemporaneous newspaper coverage of the party. The party also utilizes complete-populist rhetoric, with ‘othering’ populism as the most prevalent form. The consistent concentration on the European Union collocated with populist messaging, in both news releases and select newspaper coverage, may have helped afford the United Kingdom Independence Party issue-eliteness in the referendum campaign. But this same work may have also ultimately contributed to make them irrelevant by 2017, and possibly moribund by 2018.

scholarly journals The obligation of national Courts against whose decision there is no judicial remedy to refer questions to the Court of Justice of the European Union

2016 ◽  
Vol 17 (31) ◽  
pp. 24-36
Author(s):  
Valentin Paul Neamt
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Case Law ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Member States ◽  
Reference Procedure ◽  
National Courts ◽  
Court Of Justice ◽  
Judicial Remedy ◽  
The Subject

Abstract The present paper presents the obligation that courts in the member states of the European Union have to refer questions to the Court of Justice of the European Union, with a focus on courts against whose decision there is no judicial remedy under national law. The paper starts by presenting the applicable framework regarding the preliminary reference procedure, then focuses on analyzing the exceptions to national court’s duty under article 267 TFEU, with a focus on the direction in which the case law is heading based on the most recent judgments handed down by the Court of Justice of the European Union in 2015, finally presenting the author’s conclusions and observation on the subject.

scholarly journals Member States’ liability for judicial error resulting in breaches of European Union Law

2016 ◽  
Vol 17 (31) ◽  
pp. 64-76 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valentin Paul Neamt
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Case Law ◽  
European Law ◽  
The European Union ◽  
European Union Law ◽  
National Courts ◽  
European Court ◽  
Judicial Errors ◽  
State Liability ◽  
Judicial Error

Abstract This paper presents the remedies available to persons whose European law rights have been infringed by judgments given by national Courts. The paper firsts presents the concept of state liability for judicial errors in relation to European law, as it stems from the case-law of the Court of Justice of the European Union, then goes on to show how the European Court of Human Rights may give redress to such aggrieved parties. Finally, it discusses the differences in the possibility of redress given by the two courts and the compatibility between their approaches, finally leading to a discussion on the possible convergence of the two.

scholarly journals 1918 barrier on the road to the membership of the European Union

2007 ◽  
pp. 11-34
Author(s):  
Miroslav Jovanovic
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Eastern Enlargement ◽  
Distant Future ◽  
The Road ◽  
The Government ◽  
On The Road ◽  
Constitutional System ◽  
Eu Eastern Enlargement ◽  
The Eu

The European Union (EU) and Serbia?s accession to this international organization in a relatively distant future are linked, in the eyes of the Serbian public, with numerous expectations, dilemmas, misunderstanding fears, joys and periodical manipulations. The topic is important, broad and complex, so there is a need for the basic and understandable explanations. While in Serbia this topic is one of the most important and high on the government?s agenda. In the EU and its member countries, it attracts almost no attention and is not a priority issue. Simply, the EU is concerned with much more important issues, such as its future constitutional system security, energy, globalization, unemployment, immigration, demographic problem (population ageing), monetary union, preservation of the single market and adjustment to the EU eastern enlargement of 2004 and 2007. After introduction to the advantages and problems relating to Serbia?s potential accession to the EU, the attention is turned to the issues that include geopolitical conditions for accession to the EU, legislation and functioning of the EU, as well as its budget. Effects of integration, the EU?s interest in Serbia and Serbia?s interest in the EU are presented before conclusions.

Present and Future Relations between the ECJ and the ECtHR

ICL Journal ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosmarie Doblhoff-Dier ◽  
Sandra Kusmierczyk
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
European Convention ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Council Of Europe ◽  
European Union Law ◽  
The Road ◽  
European Court ◽  
On The Road ◽  
The Relationship

AbstractBy acceding to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), the EU’s role as supranational player in the complex human rights architecture of Europe will be finally recognized. On 5 April 2013, the negotiators of the accession procedure of the European Union to the ECHR agreed on a package of draft accession instruments. Constituting a mile­stone on the road to accession, the now revised Accession Agreement still leaves vast room for discussion. By critically scrutinizing some of its modalities, this article will evaluate its impact on the human rights jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) and the Eu­ropean Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) and the relationship between both courts. To this end, it will address the somewhat disproportionate involvement of the European Union in the future jurisdiction of the ECtHR and in the decision making of the Council of Europe in matters linked to the ECHR. Furthermore, it will focus on the compatibility of the Draft Agree­ment with the principle of autonomous interpretation of European Union Law: a highly rel­evant discussion for the ECJ’s future Opinion under Article 218 (11) TFEU on the compatibil­ity of the finalized draft agreement with the Treaties - the next hurdle for accession.

scholarly journals Comparative analysis of public agencies in Croatia and Sweden

2021 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 114-128
Author(s):  
Milica Škorić
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Public Administration ◽  
Comparative Method ◽  
Relevant Literature ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Public Agencies ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Road ◽  
On The Road ◽  
The Eu

Although public agencies have existed for several decades, in Serbia, they are new forms of government bodies. The aspiration to modernize the public administration and harmonize it with modern trends can be an opportunity to see the stages of development and models of control and autonomy of the agency from the decades-long development of Swedish public agencies. The example of Croatia will show the potential of the former socialist state for such reforms and how important reforms are on the road to the European Union in the XXI century. Through the analysis of relevant literature and a comparative method, there are presented the reforms of public agencies being implemented in selected countries since their first appearance till nowadays. This paper focuses on the process of creation and development of public agencies in Sweden and Croatia, as members of the European Union, whose development of a public administration differs significantly, all in order to answer the questions: How much do public agencies contribute to decentralization? Are these bodies necessary for the approach and accession to the EU?

scholarly journals Quantification of Harm and the Damages Directive: Implementation in CEE Countries

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 111-131
Author(s):  
Valentinas Mikelėnas ◽  
Rasa Zaščiurinskaitė
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Case Law ◽  
Private Enforcement ◽  
Antitrust Enforcement ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Member States ◽  
National Legislation ◽  
National Courts ◽  
General Rules ◽  
Full Compensation

Quantification of harm is regarded as one of the most significant obstacles for the full compensation of harm and development of private enforcement within the European Union, including CEE Member States. Consequently, the Damages Directive establishes general rules and requirements for the quantification of harm, such as a rebuttable presumption of harm in case of cartels, the power of national courts to estimate harm as well as others, which closely interact with the principle of full compensation emphasized by the case-law of the European Union and directly established in the Damages Directive. The main focus of this paper is the effectiveness of the rules on the quantification of harm in general, and how these rules will contribute to the development of private antitrust enforcement in CEE Member States. Therefore, one of the issues to be discussed in the paper is the analysis of how, and to what extent specific rules and requirements for the quantification of harm have been transposed into the national legislation of CEE Member States. As certain CEE national jurisdictions have had certain rules for the quantification of harm already before the implementation of the Damages Directive, the paper analyses how effective these rules have been, and how much they have contributed to the development of private antitrust enforcement of those CEE national jurisdictions. Previous experience of those CEE Member States in applying specific rules for the quantification of harm is important, in order to assess the possible impact of the newly introduced rules on the quantification of harm and on private antitrust enforcement in general in other CEE Member States. The rules for the quantification of harm will not enhance private antitrust enforcement on their own, however, their effective application by national courts together with other rules under the Damages Directive should contribute to a quicker development of private enforcement in CEE Members States.

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