Mediation in Belgian Administrative Practice, with Special Focus on Municipal Administrative Sanctions and Urban Planning

2014 ◽  
Vol 12 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 163-181 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ludo Veny ◽  
Ivo Carlens ◽  
Bengt Verbeeck ◽  
Brecht Warnez
Keyword(s):  
Urban Planning ◽  
Administrative Law ◽  
Special Focus ◽  
Legal Doctrine ◽  
Administrative Practice ◽  
Administrative Sanctions ◽  
The Eu ◽  
Administrative Mediation

Given Belgian legal doctrine, the rise of mediation in other legal disciplines, and the influence of the EU, the call for mediation in administrative practice is increasing in Belgium. The proposed framework for ADR in the legal doctrine at the beginning of this century was the start of the increasing use of mediation in Belgian administrative law. This contribution is a study of these new forms of mediation as they occur in Belgium in the year 2014. On the basis of two examples (mediation in municipal administrative sanctions and urban planning), administrative mediation and the associated problems are outlined.

Public Audit Accountability

2020 ◽  
pp. 789-810
Author(s):  
Alex Brenninkmeijer ◽  
Laura Frederika Lalikova ◽  
Dylan Siry
Keyword(s):  
Good Governance ◽  
Administrative Law ◽  
International Standards ◽  
Administrative Power ◽  
Point Of Entry ◽  
Administrative Practice ◽  
European Court ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Eu

This chapter provides a comparative account of the role played by supreme audit institutions (SAIs) from across the EU, and the European Court of Auditors (ECA) in controlling administrative power. It demonstrates how audit can encourage good administrative practice and good governance by promoting administrative accountability. Rather than carrying little real impact, public audit institutions reinforce a society’s legal, institutional, and financial frameworks, acting as a potential deterrent against administrative overstep. Audit and administrative law are linked both in their substantive rules, and in their role of upholding government legitimacy through accountability. This chapter thus uses the example of SAIs in the EU as a point of entry into broader reflections about the comparative relationship of SAIs to administrative law more generally in light of emergent international standards for such institutions.

International Aspects of Investment Liberalization in the PRC: A Case of EU-China Cooperation

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 190-224
Author(s):  
D. A. Potapov
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Investment ◽  
World Order ◽  
Special Focus ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Foreign Investments ◽  
Eu Member States ◽  
International Aspects ◽  
The Eu

The paper examines the role of investment cooperation and national foreign investment regime as a means to promote China’s economic and political interests and to respond to new global challenges that the country faces nowadays. To this end, the author examines the main stages of China’s liberalization of the legal regime for foreign investment from the end of the 1970s with a special focus on a new foreign investment law. In doing so the author attempts to link the evolution of investment regulation in the PRC with the dynamics of international relations development and the changing role of China as a regional and global actor. The author emphasizes that a trend towards the emergence of a polycentric world order not only provokes the rise of international tensions but also provides new incentives to promote dialogue and enhance cooperation between states and non-governmental actors, particularly by encouraging foreign investments. At the same time, there is a growing need to improve regulatory mechanisms for direct foreign investments. All these contradictory trends have directly affected China’s foreign investment regime reform. In this context the investment cooperation between the PRC and the European Union is of particular importance. The EU possesses a set of innovative technological solutions and competencies that are of particular interest to the Chinese leaders in the context of their efforts to modernize the country’s economy. The paper examines the volume, dynamics and key directions of investment flows between China and the EU member-states. The fact that after seven years of difficult negotiations, the EU and China managed to develop a special bilateral regulatory mechanism — EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment — underscores again the importance of this cooperation for both parties. Even though the EU has suspended the ratification of this deal on the pretext of human right violations in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, the author concludes, that in the future this agreement will come into force, since the very logic of the emerging polycentric world order urges for deeper cooperation between the EU and China. In this context, the investment regulation appears not only as a means to protect the Chinese economic interests, but also as an instrument to strengthen China’s international positions in the changing global context.

scholarly journals The Europeanisation of Spanish Administrative Law through the Principle of Legitimate Expectations

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 55-86
Author(s):  
Luis Arroyo Jiménez ◽  
Gabriel Doménech Pascual
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
General Principle ◽  
Legal Status ◽  
Case Law ◽  
Administrative Law ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Eu Law ◽  
National Legislation ◽  
Legitimate Expectations ◽  
The Eu

This article describes the Europeanisation of Spanish administrative law as a result of the influence of the EU law general principle of legitimate expectations. It examines, firstly, whether the formal incorporation of the principle of legitimate expectations into national legislation and case law has modified the substance of the latter, and if so, secondly, whether this has led to a weaker or a more robust protection of the legal status quo. To carry out that examination, the article considers the influence of the principle of legitimate expectations in two different areas: in individual administrative decision-making, and in legislative and administrative rulemaking. Our conclusion is that the Europeanisation of Spanish administrative law through the principle of legitimate expectations has been variable and ambiguous.

scholarly journals Exploring cross-border cooperation in Eastern Europe: What kind of initiatives have developed in the Romanian-Hungarian border area?

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 35-43
Author(s):  
Elena Grad-Rusu
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Living Standards ◽  
Special Focus ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Border Area ◽  
Cross Border ◽  
Funding Sources ◽  
Cross Border Cooperation ◽  
The Eu

Since the beginning, the European Union has believed and promoted the idea that an increase in cross-border cooperation contributes to enhanced European integration. This means that cross-border cooperation supports sustainable development along the EU’s internal and external borders, helps reduce differences in living standards and addresses common challenges across these borders. The aim of this paper is to examine the cross-border initiatives between Romania and Hungary with a special focus on the INTERREG projects, which have provided new sources of funding for cross-border activities and regional development in the RomanianHungarian border area. In this context, the cooperation has intensified in the last two decades, especially since Romania joined the EU in 2007. The research proves that cross-border projects and initiatives represent an important source of funding for this type of intervention, when no similar funding sources are available.

scholarly journals Administrative Sanction Decisions, the More Favorable Law Application and Trust on Judiciary

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gürsel Özkan
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Law ◽  
Administrative Law ◽  
Constitutional Court ◽  
Criminal Offence ◽  
Administrative Act ◽  
The Law ◽  
Administrative Sanction ◽  
Set Up ◽  
Council Of State ◽  
Administrative Sanctions

In terms of administrative sanctions, application of the more favorable law means that when the law in force the time an act was committed and a law subsequently brought into force is different, the law which is more favorable should be applied. EHRC states that applying more stringent punishment to an offender on the grounds that more stringent punishment was in force when the time criminal offence was committed. Misdemeanors have been considered within the scope of criminal law by the Constitutional Court and the Constitutional Court accepts that the principle of the application of the more favorable law should be applied to misdemeanors. Danıştay (the Turkish Council of State) decides that “it should be take into account in terms of administrative sanctions, when a law which is the ground of punishment is set aside or more favorable law is brought into force”. Since administrative acts are reviewed during annulment cases, a law brought into force after an administrative act cannot affect the act retrospect. A law which is enters into force after an administrative act established, could set up a rule which has retrospective affect only if the rule clearly is an amnesty. After an administrative fine is imposed, applying criminal law principals to administrative law and administrative sanctions, in other words, rendering decision of annulment on the ground of the principle of the more favorable law betrays the trust on judicial bodies and law.

scholarly journals SOLIDARITY CHECK IN TIMES OF COVID-19. ANALYSIS OF THE EU APPROACH TOWARDS ITS CLOSEST NEIGHBOURS WITH A SPECIAL FOCUS ON MONTENEGRO

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefan Đurić ◽  
Bojana Lalatović
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Complex Structure ◽  
Special Focus ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Western Balkans ◽  
Governance System ◽  
Member States ◽  
Balkan Countries ◽  
The Eu

Solidarity as one of the cornerstone values of the European Union has been once again seated on the red chair and intensively discussed within the European Union and broader. After the economic recession and migrant crisis that marked the last two decades, the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has once again harshly tested the fundamental objectives and values of the European Union and the responsiveness and effectiveness of its governance system on many fronts. In April, 2020 several EU Member States were among the worst affected countries worldwide and this situation soon became similar in their closest neighbourhood. It put a huge pressure on the EU to act faster, while at the same time placing this sui generis community to the test that led to revealing its strengths and weaknesses. As it happened in the previous crises, the Union launched policies and various programmes that were meant to lessen the burden of the Member States and aspiring countries caused by the crises. The objectives of the mentioned soft law instruments that the EU adopted during the COVID-19 crisis has been not only to show that EU law is equipped to react to health and economic crises rapidly but to deliver its support in terms of solidarity to its Member States and its closest neighbours facing the unprecedented health and economic crisis. This article will explore the value and implication of the solidarity principle in times of Covid-19 in its various manifestations. A special focus will be on the financial and material aspects of the EU instruments created to combat the negative consequences of the pandemic and their further impact on shaping the solidarity principle within the EU system. While examining the character and types of these mechanisms a special focus will be placed on those available to Western Balkan countries, whereas Montenegro as the “fast runner” in the EU integration process will be taken as a case study for the purpose of more detailed analyses. One of the major conclusions of the paper will be that although the speed of the EU reactions due to highly complex structure of decision making was not always satisfying for all the actors concerned, the EU once again has shown that it is reliable and that it treats the Western Balkan countries as privileged partners all for the sake of ending pandemic and launching the socio-economic recovery of the Western Balkans. Analytical and comparative methods will be dominantly relied upon throughout the paper. This will allow the authors to draw the main conclusions of the paper and assess the degree of solidarity as well as the effectiveness of the existing EU instruments that are available to Montenegro and aimed at diminishing negative consequences of the crisis.

scholarly journals Growing Significance of EU Institutions in Promotion of Inter-regional policies

2014 ◽  
pp. 222-230
Author(s):  
E. V. Ermakova
Keyword(s):  
Political Crisis ◽  
Special Focus ◽  
Member States ◽  
Belgian Society ◽  
Eu Member States ◽  
Structural Funds ◽  
Regional Policies ◽  
Regional Committee ◽  
Walloon Region ◽  
The Eu

The article explores the variety of tools and vehicles applied within the EU to expand the prerogative of the regions of the EU member states. The author uses as an example the inter-regional policies in Belgium in respect of the Flemish Region and the Walloon Region. The author analyzes the mechanisms of promotion of external regional relations in Belgium as a means of addressing different problems both on national and all-European level, supporting the arguments and conclusions by examples of relevant EU initiatives. The article details the activities of the EU Regional Committee (RC), the EU advisory body with the powers of political initiative, upholding the principle ofsubsidarity in the implementation of the EU member states' regional policies. The involvement of the Flemish Region and the Walloon Region in the activities of EU RC is described and summarized. As a case study, the article deals with Belgium's rotating six months presidency in the EUin 2010 when the country, which was going through a severe political crisis with no federal government in place, was represented by the two regions. The special focus of the article is on the strategic EU program "Europe2020" and its implementation by the regions of Belgium. There is an account of the initiatives undertaken by the Flemish Region and the Walloon Region within the framework of this program outlining the interaction of the two regions. The author provides a comprehensive analysis of the involvement of the Flemish Region and the Walloon Region with various EU institutions describing how each party achieves the promotion of its regional interests. Within this context, it is a noteworthy development that the Flemish Region is participating in the international program "Pact 2020" on energy all by its own. The article features quotations by Flemish and Walloon political figures which serve as an illustration of the prevailing attitudes in the Belgian society to the process of regionalization of their country. The EU structural funds aimed at funding these policies play a crucial role in the maturing of the regional dimension of the activities pursued by the EU institutions. The author finalizes with the review of the EU reasons for placing high importance on the promotion of the development of inter-regional ties between member states.

scholarly journals 8. General principles of EU law and EU administrative law

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Herwig C H Hofmann
Keyword(s):  
Administrative Law ◽  
Eu Law ◽  
Applicable Law ◽  
Administrative Action ◽  
The Eu

This chapter examines the steps which take place after legislation has been passed. It also looks at the principles and rules that exist to ensure the legality and legitimacy of administrative action implementing EU law. It begins with an overview of the key institutions and agencies of the EU and what they do. It then discusses the applicable law which is key to developing notions of accountability and the protection of rights in this field.

The Practices of ‘Splitting’ and ‘Common Accord’ Under Scrutiny: the European Parliament‘s Request for an Opinion of the European Court of Justice on the Istanbul Convention

2020 ◽  
Vol 45 (4) ◽  
pp. 472-486
Author(s):  
Elizaveta Samoilova
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Special Focus ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Member States ◽  
Court Of Justice ◽  
European Court ◽  
Forms Of Violence ◽  
Istanbul Convention ◽  
The Eu

Abstract With all eyes on the recent global COVID-19 pandemic, another pandemic has been growing in the shadows: violence against women. The Council of Europe’s Istanbul Convention creates a legal framework in order to protect women against all forms of violence. Its ratification process, however, has faced considerable challenges, particularly in the Central and Eastern European Member States. This article discusses the basic elements of the Istanbul Convention, reflects on the ratification process in the EU and its Member States, and sets out the main legal issues raised in the European Parliament’s request for an opinion (A-1/19 of 22 November 2019) to the Court of Justice of the European Union. Special focus is put on the choice of the correct EU legal basis and the practices of ‘splitting’ and ‘common accord’. This article argues that the European Parliament’s request for an opinion provides the perfect opportunity for the Court of Justice of the European Union to further clarify the law and the practice of concluding mixed agreements by the EU and its Member States.

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