‘You do not become a European by choice but by necessity’: The Alsace border region and its opening up to Europe in the writings of Otto Flake, René Schickele and Hermann Wendel

The three writers Otto Flake, René Schickele and Hermann Wendel met in Straßburg in 1901. Together with other artists and writers they founded the group ‘Das jüngste Elsaß’ (also known as ‘Der Stürmerkreis’). One of the purposes of this artistic group was to shed the ‘hybrid state’ of Alsace as a border region and instead urge that Alsace take on a mediating role in a future united Europe. Their pacifist European approach, which they adhered to during World War I and later on in exile, originated from controversial debates emerging from the extreme tensions caused by German and French nationalism. The three writers viewed Alsace as a symbol of Europe. For their ‘border literature’ Europe offered the possibility of refraining from the concept of nationhood, which is based on homogeneity and therefore violent exclusion, something in which they did not find themselves represented.

Legal Protection of the Right to be Forgotten on the Internet in European and Arab Legislation

The development of the Internet and mass media has facilitated access to information and freedom of expression in unprecedented ways, but in so doing there have been many violations, especially of the right to privacy. Such violations have led to calls for the establishment of the right to be forgotten. In this paper, we focus on clarifying the concept of the right to be forgotten and the conditions for establishing this. Moreover, we consider the European approach to the right to be forgotten (RTBF), showing how different European instruments have been employed to recognize this right, such as recommendations, regulations, and directives, in order to coordinate national efforts on this issue. In addition, this paper will analyze the stance of some national Arabic legislation regarding the RTBF.

The Role of Rules in the Law of Evidence

This chapter starts out with Bentham’s antinomian thesis that rejected the very idea of setting up rules for selecting and evaluating evidence. Bentham believed that factfinding should be governed by epistemically good reasons as a process unconstrained by artificial legal rules. The author observes that most legal systems took up this approach by softening the hard edges of rules (as in common law jurisdictions) and by following the basically free-proof model of factfinding (as in countries that adopted the continental European approach). Yet, he claims that the law of evidence still remains substantially an affair of rules. Why this is the case and whether it should be the case, is the subject of this chapter.

DESIGNING QUALITY ASSURANCE SYSTEM FOR INTERNATIONAL JOINT STUDY PROGRAMS

The article is concentrating on the new approach to quality assurance system within joint international study programs (joint programs). This problem is quite relevant for the implementation of Federal projects "Young professionals (Improving the competitiveness of vocational education)" and "Export of education" within the national project "Education". The authors argue that new approach to Quality Assurance is based on multilevel model. General structure of the quality assurance system of the joint program is presented. It takes into account internal and external quality assurance in accordance with the logic and concept of ESG-standards, the European approach. A comparative analysis of these fundamental documents is also provided and impact of the European approach on the national legislation, is considered. We prove that the proper multilevel quality assurance system in international joint programs is an important mechanism providing increase of Russian education export.

The ‘16+1’ Framework and China-EU Cooperation in the Western Balkans: A Region Building Perspective

This paper adopts a region-building perspective to shed light on the nature of the 16+1 framework and elucidates what it means for EU-China cooperation in the Western Balkans. By comparing the 16+1 framework with the European approach to region-building in the Western Balkans, the paper argues that the Chinese and European approaches towards the Western Balkans are largely complementary rather than competitive as China’s engagement works to facilitate the EU’s agenda in the region. The ‘outside-in’ perspective brought about by China via the 16+1 framework could contribute to region- building in the Western Balkans and the EU and China could jointly move forward the next stage of European integration.

THE EUROPEAN APPROACH TO REGULATING DISINFORMATION

This paper will present and analyze the European approach in combating disinformation, which has posed a major threat to democratic processes particularly after Brexit and the 2016 US presidential election. Social networks have emerged as a key factor that has allowed disinformation to spread at an unprecedented rate, damaging and polarizing the public sphere. Poorly informed citizens have less and less trust in the media and large political parties, and a society of post-truth is emerging as the post-modernist narrative has abolished great stories and brought cultural relativism (Cosentino, 2020). In these conditions, the European Union resorted to counteracting disinformation by focusing on large technology companies, the founders of social networks, and offering them a self-regulatory document, the Code of Practice on Disinformation (2018), two years after the US elections and Brexit, and a year before the European elections. The first encouraging results are noticed and announced in the reports submitted every month by the companies that signed the Code (Facebook, Google, Twitter, Mozilla, Microsoft, TikTok, and representatives of the advertising industry).