O Papel do Tribunal de Justiça da União Europeia Como Guardião do Direito Fundamental Comunitário Europeu à Livre Circulação de Trabalhadores

This research has as general objective to analyze the guardian role exercised by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJUE) for the protection of the Fundamental Community Right to the free movement of workers within the scope of the European economic bloc and the importance of the migratory flow for the maintenance of the said block. The spouse of this article previously analyzes the emergence of the European Communities and the need for the defense, reconstruction and stabilization of Europe after the end of the Second World War, as well as dealing with the Treaties of Paris and Rome, propellants of the European Communities, characterized as an autonomous legal system and of great importance for the development of European primary law. Then, he discusses the movement of workers within the European Union (EU) and the right of the European citizen to look for a job, to work, to settle or to provide services in any EU Member State, and then to address the issue of the role of the worker. CJEU as guardian of the fundamental European Community law on the free movement of workers. After the analysis of recent judgments of the European Court of Justice, the need to protect the free movement of European workers, with due regard to the founding treaties of the European Union, remains necessary for the proper maintenance of the European bloc European Union. The methodology used in the research is critical reflexive, which operates through the bibliographic review and the analysis of concrete cases assessed by the CJEU.

The Latin American Integration Route and local development in light of the constitutions of Brazil, Paraguay, Argentine and Chile

Based on the social, legal and economic implications imposed by globalization, as well as the integration between nations, this paper proposes to discuss the concept of development by analyzing the constitutions of Brazil, Paraguay, Argentine, and Chile, considering that a debate between academia and other institutions emerges in the Latin America integration context. This is an urgent and necessary dialogue to guide possible courses for this region. Countries from the most diverse continents already indicate a break in customs tariffs and the rise of new economic agreements, bringing countries of the Latin-American Integration Route (RILA) closer to the countries of today's greatest and most solid economic bloc, the European Union. This sets a precedent for the idea that RILA is becoming a macro-territory of increasing economic, social and legal visibility, which is a reason why thinking about regional development is a priority task, as well as drawing up studies and reflections that lead to a possible harmonization and integration of legal norms. These are tasks of the governments, academia, companies, and civil society. Furthermore, the present work discusses the need for legal grounds involving countries that make up the RILA, in order to provide greater legal security and dignity for the subjects involved in this intense process.

Revisiting earnings quality and bank efficiency among East African developing economies: do systemic banking and financial crises matter?

PurposeIn this paper, the authors investigate whether the systemic local banking crises (LBCs) and global financial crisis (GFC) impact the association between bank profit efficiency and earnings quality in developing economies.Design/methodology/approachUsing panel data spanning 29 years over the period 1991–2019 for 169 banks drawn from five East African countries, the authors perform difference-in-difference multivariate analyses using the generalised method of moments (GMM) system estimator on a sample consisting of 2,261 bank-year observations.FindingsThe results, which are robust for endogeneity and other checks, show that banks with higher profit efficiency consistently report higher quality earnings. The authors further establish that whereas systemic LBCs contribute negatively to bank earnings quality, the GFC tends to have a positive impact. These results are upheld when the joint impacts of both systemic LBCs, GFC and profit efficiency on earnings quality are considered. The positive influence of profit efficiency and GFC on earnings quality is pronounced under income-decreasing earnings management. The impacts of profit efficiency, LBCs and GFC on earnings quality appear to be non-monotonic and vary across the sampled countries.Research limitations/implicationsThe study's findings are based on banks in five developing countries within a regional economic bloc. Additional studies could focus on other economic blocs for enhanced generalisability of the findings. In addition, some of the variables examined are studied at bank-level, while other variables are at country-level. Finally, the study establishes an association between the variables of interest, and this does not necessarily imply causation.Practical implicationsThe results provide useful insights to bank regulatory and supervisory agencies on the need to exercise increased risk-based scrutiny over bank loan loss provisioning and minimum loan loss reserve requirements. From an audit perspective, auditors need to be cautious and apply an enhanced risk-based audit especially when auditing banks during and after a financial, banking or systemic crisis. Credit rating agencies need to pay closer attention to the LLPs of distressed banks. Finally, bank investors and customers should be cautious when using bank financial statements, since bank managers of poorly performing banks might engage in aggressive earnings management.Originality/valueThe study is perhaps the first to examine the joint effects of systemic LBCs on the association between bank profit efficiency and the quality of earnings in a larger dataset of banks in a developing regional economic bloc. The authors also employ the GMM system estimator in the modelling, which helps address some weaknesses in prior studies.

Pakistan’s emerging regional politico-economic role in the SCO

Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) is presently a Eurasian politico-economic bloc having two South Asian members, Pakistan and India. The aim of the study was to evaluate the prospective role of Pakistan in the SCO with qualitative study based on interviews. On June 2017, Pakistan was granted permanent membership in the SCO during its 16th Heads of State Summit in Astana. By associating itself as a permanent member, summit allows Pakistan to contribute to regional development alongside other key regional players, Russia and China and India. The study gave four findings that how multilateralism was having a calming effect on a regional conflict, Pakistan embracing independence from isolation through Trans-Afghanistan gas pipeline. Through CPEC, Pakistan was offering the SCO member countries an economic hallway. And how the Eurasian politico-economic ambitions to reach the warm waters of the Arabian Sea was perceived as hampering the Western economic interests, thereby offering a major impediment to Pakistan’s emerging role in the SCO. Moreover, SCO participation will help enhance Pakistan's worldwide socio-economic objectives. This study examines the socio-politico and economic aspirations of Pakistan and benefit due to ties with SCO member countries.

Mapping Online Geographical Indication: Agrifood Products on E-Commerce Shelves of Mercosur and the European Union

The agrifood products market has never before contained as many niches than it does at this moment in history. The use of geographical indication (GIs) is one of the oldest ways of granting protection for and promoting these goods. Although they date back thousands of years, only since the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement has there been a common understanding in regard to their use. Although the GI system has the same structure globally, each region shows different performance. Therefore, the influence of institutions in this market is still an enigma to be explored. In this work, we sought to compare the performance of Mercosur and the European Union in relation to GI products and categories in this exchange arena by analyzing e-retail supermarkets. To do so, we collected data from 44 online supermarkets from both economic blocs and analyzed the relevant attributes of the products offered. Then, we compared both blocs through the use of graphics and economic sociology tools. We present novel results relating to differences in GI performance, discuss the reasons for such differences and examine the construction of the market. Our results show that the EU had significantly more products than Mercosur and had a wider variety of GI products on e-retail shelves. Moreover, in the EU, the advertised products originated mainly from within the economic bloc, whereas the majority of GI products advertised in Mercosur originated primarily from abroad. This difference indicates to dominance of the EU’ systems, demonstrating that its institutions are effective in terms of trade and commerce development mechanisms. However, in both blocs, a restricted number of categories and registers were found.

Heritage Management in East Africa

The countries of Burundi, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, and South Sudan geographically lie on the eastern part of the African continent and are member states of the East African Community (EAC), a regional economic bloc. These countries, as many other countries in the world, have important heritage places that are significant to their communities. As a result, these countries have developed various methods of managing this heritage. Heritage management should be understood as caring for a heritage site without compromising its significance so that present and future generations can continue enjoying it. Consequently, countries around the world have put in place various legal regimes that enable them to manage and protect their heritage. Though the East African countries listed belong to the same geographical region and economic bloc, they had differing colonial experiences and, therefore, their legislation regimes, including that governing heritage, may not be exactly the same. Kenya and Uganda, for instance, were British colonies, whereas Tanzania started as a Germany colony but later ended up as a British Protectorate. Rwanda and Burundi also started as Germany colonies but ended up as Belgian colonies. South Sudan, once part of the larger Republic of Sudan, was a British colony. Common to all these countries, however, is the fact that the colonial management system laid more emphasis on the protection of tangible as opposed to intangible heritage, and it also ignored and in most cases destroyed the indigenous management systems that local communities had hitherto used to manage their heritage. Despite gaining their independence from the colonial governments in the early 1960s, these countries, have however, apart from Rwanda, continued to use the inherited colonial legal systems. It is now widely accepted within heritage management circles that unless indigenous heritage management systems are embraced, the local communities tend to feel alienated from their heritage and thus in most cases tend to disregard, ignore, or in some cases destroy the heritage site as it no longer belongs to them but to the state; the end result is that pressure is put on the heritage as the national government institutions do not have adequate financial and human capacity to manage all the heritage resources in their jurisdiction.

Trade and Convergence: Empirical Evidence from BRICS Countries

The present article attempts to analyse trade and per capita income convergence for the BRICS countries. The effects of economic bloc formation on their trade and income distribution or convergence (divergence) among the countries have been analysed. To observe the effect of trade on convergence rates, intra-trade group, single difference approach and panel unit roots tests have been used. The convergence measure is estimated between BRICS countries and their major trading partners from post-trade liberalization period. The study revealed that BRICS countries converged over the study period. However, the evidence on post-BRICS economic bloc formation shows an insignificant relationship. The results of the analysis of post-trade liberalization of BRICS countries vary among the BRICS countries. Further, panel unit roots test results confirm that conditional convergence is taking place within BRICS bloc and all export-based groups except for Indian economy and import-based groups. Besides, absolute convergence has been confirmed for all the groups. Thus, the study suggests the need of BRICS countries to actively engage in trade and investment activities.

E-commerce adoption in ASEAN: who and where?

As an economic bloc, the Association of Southeast Asia Nations (ASEAN) aims to leverage the usage of e-commerce for the benefits of all: government, enterprises, and citizens of its member countries. However, each country varies greatly in terms of economic development and cultural factors, which explains the uneven level of e-commerce adoption in the region. This paper seeks to provide empirical evidence by integrating individual and country-level characteristics to profile e-commerce users in ASEAN. By analyzing multi-source data from 5870 individuals in six countries in 2017, the results reveal that e-commerce adoption is more prevalent among female, younger, more educated, employed, and higher income users. Also, the adoption of e-commerce is found to be stronger in societies that exhibit high individualism, low masculinity and low uncertainty avoidance. This study proposes that e-commerce adoption shall not only be explained by individual characteristics and formal institutions, but also by country-level variables and national culture.