European employment policies

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 111-121
Author(s):  
Manfred Weiss
Keyword(s):  
Critical Analysis ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Soft Law ◽  
Labour Law ◽  
Employment Policies ◽  
Freedom Of Movement ◽  
The Third ◽  
Hard Law ◽  
Labour Standards ◽  
The Eu

This article provides a critical analysis of the EU Employment Policies legal framework. The need to focus on both the quantitative and qualitative dimensions of labour is highlighted in the first part. The second part deals with the quantitative aspects, addressing the Employment chapter, State aid, and the freedom of movement for workers. The third part discusses the qualitative side – providing an overview on the EU labour law – and addresses the limitation of the EU’s legislative powers and the need for minimum labour standards. The conclusion underlines the difficulties to get further hard law and the soft law inadequacy.

scholarly journals Killing me Softly? Scrutinising the Role of Soft Law in Greece’s Response to COVID-19

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-76
Author(s):  
Evangelia (Lilian) TSOURDI ◽  
Niovi VAVOULA
Keyword(s):  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Personal Data ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
Soft Law ◽  
Freedom Of Movement ◽  
Hard Law ◽  
Primary Basis ◽  
Full Swing ◽  
Second Wave

Greece emerged as the EU’s poster child in the fight against COVID-19 during the first few months of the pandemic. In this contribution, we assess Greece’s use of soft regulation in its regulatory response to COVID-19. Using “acts of legislative content”, which can be broadly conceptualised as softly adopted hard law, the Greek government largely achieved flexibility and simplified adoption procedures without having to resort to soft law per se. The role of soft law was limited - it complemented hard law rather than constituting the primary basis of COVID-19 restrictions - but not completely negligible. Soft law instruments regulated the processing of personal data, and was also pivotal in clarifying the criminal sanctioning of COVID-related rule violations. Greece’s success in handling the first wave of the pandemic, while effective, was arguably unfair to asylum seekers who saw their right to apply for asylum curtailed, and their right to freedom of movement restricted when limitations on the rest of the population were lifted. With a second wave of infections currently in full swing, it is imperative to keep scrutinising regulatory responses to ensure that they place the health and dignity of every individual (whoever they might be) at their core and fully respect their fundamental rights.

Caught Between National and Supranational Values: Limitations to Judicial Cooperation in Criminal Matters as Part of the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice within the European Union

2008 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-72
Author(s):  
Olivia den Hollander
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Judicial Cooperation ◽  
Member States ◽  
Eu Member States ◽  
The Third ◽  
The One ◽  
Criminal Matters ◽  
The Eu

AbstractCurrently, the European Union is based on both supranational (first pillar) and international (second and third pillar) law. The third pillar signifies police and judicial cooperation in criminal matters and although formally based on international law, it has been under increasing "supranational pressure" by the developments in the "Area of Freedom, Security and Justice". This Area is focused on a set of common values and principles closely tied to those of the single market and its four "freedoms". The main argument of this article is that the legal framework of the third pillar is an impediment to judicial cooperation in criminal matters in general, and to the coordination of conflicts of jurisdiction and the principle of ne bis in idem in particular. The legal framework of the third pillar finds itself in the middle of an identity crisis, since it can neither be identified as a traditional intergovernmental, nor as a supranational institutional framework. Criminal law is a politically sensitive matter, which on the one hand explains why the EU member states are reluctant to submit their powers over the issue to the European level and on the other hand, it implies that if the EU member states really want to cooperate on such an intensive level, they will have to submit some of their powers in order to strengthen EU constitutional law. The article suggests a reform of the third pillar through the method of "communitization", which is exactly what will happen in case the EU Reform Treaty will enter into force. This would offer the ingredients for a true international community in which the ambitious agenda of the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice can realise its aim of a common set of values and principles which supersedes those of each of the member states individually.

scholarly journals The Bangladesh Sustainability Compact: An Effective Tool for Promoting Workers’ Rights?

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 80-92 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey S. Vogt
Keyword(s):  
Law Reform ◽  
Freedom Of Association ◽  
Labour Law ◽  
Garment Workers ◽  
Labour Standards ◽  
Industrial Disaster ◽  
Building Safety ◽  
The Right ◽  
Trade Partners ◽  
The Eu

The impetus for the Bangladesh Sustainability Compact was the Rana Plaza industrial disaster, which took the lives of roughly 1,200 garment workers and injured twice. The Compact required the fulfilment of several time-bound commitments by the Bangladesh government in two key areas—labour law reform and protection of the right to freedom of association and ensuring fire and building safety. The EU heralded the Compact as an innovative, multilateral approach to encourage its trade partners to comply with ILO core labour rights. The editors of this issue of Politics and Governance asked the contributing authors to examine effectiveness of trade and labour standards and to consider alternative mechanisms to advance workers’ rights. Specifically, they queried whether the Compact could be considered a new and effective alternative model. This hope appears misplaced.

PP141 Legal Governance: How Does Law Circumscribe The Social Role Of Health Technology Assessment?

2017 ◽  
Vol 33 (S1) ◽  
pp. 136-137
Author(s):  
Louise Bernier ◽  
Georges-Auguste Legault ◽  
Charles-Etienne Daniel ◽  
Suzanne Kocsis Bédard ◽  
Jean-Pierre Béland ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Health Technology Assessment ◽  
Technology Assessment ◽  
Social Role ◽  
Health Technology ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Soft Law ◽  
List Type ◽  
Hard Law ◽  
The Social

INTRODUCTION:One of the barriers of integrating ethics in Health Technology Assessment (HTA) relates to the social role of HTA (1). The aim of this study is to provide a better understanding of the way by which law circumscribes the social role of HTA. Our hypothesis: HTA's social role is embedded within a mixed governance based on hard law and soft law.METHODS:Three HTA agencies were conveniently selected for our study: Haute Autorité de santé (HAS) (France), National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) (United Kingdom) and Institut national d'excellence en santé et en services sociaux (INESSS) (Québec, Canada). Our analysis of the legal, administrative and procedural documents relating to the existence and assessment processes of these three agencies is guided by the following criteria: 1.The normative strength of the documents (categories of hard law or soft law) (2)2.The definition of the agencies’ social role (1)3.The integration of ethics in the agencies’ mandate.RESULTS:Hard law contributes to establish a general mandate and some legal legitimacy for these agencies. Soft law, grounded in the HTA producers' practices, plays a major role in the legal governance of HTA. Our results demonstrate that these agencies existing practices seem to circumscribe their social role further than their constitutive laws. In this context, social actors become responsible to define, structure and operationalize the implementation of HTA.In addition, the legal framework (hard law) through which HTA unfolds does not clearly support its structural and social role. Despite existing legal frameworks, the normative legitimacy of HTA is not entirely established, as it depends on soft law. Taken altogether, this maintains a persisting conceptual vagueness in HTA governance.CONCLUSIONS:The social role of HTA should be defined either through modifying existing legislations (hard law) or through harmonization of the agencies internal policies and regulations (soft law). Such legal initiatives would help clarify the aims of HTA evaluations: assessments (scientific) or appraisal (value-laden), and therefore give a clearer indication on how best to integrate ethics in HTA.

scholarly journals The Eu Legislative Framework Against Money Laundering and Terrorist Finance: A Critical Analysis in the Light of Evolving Global Standards

2007 ◽  
Vol 56 (1) ◽  
pp. 119-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valsamis Mitsilegas ◽  
Bill Gilmore
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Money Laundering ◽  
Critical Analysis ◽  
The European Union ◽  
The Third ◽  
Global Standards ◽  
Legislative Framework ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Terrorist Finance ◽  
The Eu

AbstractThis article examines the evolution of the EU anti-money laundering legislative framework (which in recent years has also included measures to counter terrorist finance), by focusing in particular on recent legislation such as the third money laundering Directive and the Regulation on controls of cash entering the EU, both adopted in 2005. The analysis highlights the relationship between these instruments and international initiatives in the field (in particular FATF standards), and addresses the challenges posed to the European Union legislative and constitutional framework when attempting to accommodate global standards.

scholarly journals Application and integration of principles and uses of international trade in regulatory systems

CES Derecho ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-88
Author(s):  
Dimitris Liakopoulos
Keyword(s):  
International Economic ◽  
International Trade ◽  
Critical Analysis ◽  
Soft Law ◽  
Economic Law ◽  
Hard Law ◽  
Regulatory Systems ◽  
International Economic Law

The present work is concentrated on thoughts and perspectives of unwritten soft law codification models in international trade system, following an especially comparative and critical analysis with the hard law systems and regulatory integration in private, European and international economic law.

scholarly journals Inter-Municipal Cooperation in Waste Management: The Case of Poland

2016 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 91-104 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bartłomiej Kołsut
Keyword(s):  
Waste Management ◽  
Economies Of Scale ◽  
Unit Cost ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Key Factors ◽  
Institutional Conditions ◽  
The Third ◽  
Reduce Unit Cost ◽  
The Eu

Abstract This article seeks to present the scale of inter-municipal cooperation in waste management in Poland in the light of the role of three key factors of cooperation. The first shows spatial regularities in the distribution of inter-municipal bodies involved in waste management in Poland, both in the system of voivodeships and historical-cultural regions. The second is institutional conditions confirming the scale of the Europeanisation of public policies taking place in Poland. It embraces the implementation of the EU legal framework in the Polish legal system and the cooperative behaviour of municipalities as a result of those changes. The third is a negative verification of the assumptions of the economic theory upholding the role of financial motivation in establishing cooperation (looking for savings and economies of scale to reduce unit cost); the presented results do not corroborate this type of motivation.

scholarly journals Influence of the Law of the Council of Europe on Substantive Administrative Law in Poland. Selected Issues

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 67
Author(s):  
Anna Dąbrowska
Keyword(s):  
Public Administration ◽  
Standard Setting ◽  
Administrative Law ◽  
Soft Law ◽  
Legal Systems ◽  
Council Of Europe ◽  
The Public ◽  
Eu Member States ◽  
Hard Law ◽  
The Eu

<p>Legislative powers of the Council of Europe have a crucial impact on the domestic legal systems of the EU Member States including substantive administrative law, i.e. such an area of administrative law which defines rights and responsibilities of the public administration bodies and citizens. The legislation created by the Council of Europe’s bodies has a great impact on the areas of law which were earlier regarded as the exclusive responsibility of a given country. The Council of Europe has always been a major source of standard setting. This paper analyses selected areas of substantive administrative law taking into account hard law and soft law documents developed under the auspices of the Council of Europe.</p>

A Public Law Perspective on Labour Governance by International Financial Institutions

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 105-132
Author(s):  
Franz Christian Ebert
Keyword(s):  
World Bank ◽  
Financial Institutions ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Public Law ◽  
International Financial Institutions ◽  
Labour Law ◽  
The World Bank ◽  
Labour Standards ◽  
The International Monetary Fund ◽  
Domestic Level

Over the last decades, international financial institutions (‘IFIs’) such as the International Monetary Fund (‘IMF’) or the World Bank have emerged as important actors in the area of labour governance. While the conditionality attached to IFI lending programmes is of particular importance in this regard, labour governance by IFIs transcends these well-known mechanisms. Through a variety of other governance instruments IFIs influence labour standards in their members’ territories far beyond the countries that are recipients of their financial support. This paper sheds light on the so far under-researched IMF Article IV Consultations by analysing how they impact labour standards at the domestic level. After providing an overview of the origins, scope, and the procedure of the Article IV Consultations, the paper shows that these have sometimes advocated far-reaching labour law reforms. The paper then employs the International Public Authority approach to better understand the legitimacy concerns created by these Consultations in terms of labour governance. With a view to addressing these concerns, the paper discusses avenues to strengthen the legal framework for the IMF’s Article IV Consultations in substantive and procedural terms.

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