The paper is one of the first empirical attempts that builds on the moral dilemmas and group rationality literature to explore the way in which group composition with respect to group members’ individual choices in moral dilemmas and social influence processes impact on group moral choices. First individually and then, in small groups, 221 participants were asked to decide on 10 moral dilemmas. Our results show that emergent group level utilitarianism is higher than the average individual utilitarianism, yet, lower than (...) the highest individual utilitarianism within groups. We also show that average individual utilitarianism positively predicts group utilitarianism while group fragmentation in individual utilitarianism has a negative effect on group utilitarianism. Next to group composition, minority influence processes explain additional variance in group utilitarianism, cognitive dissent having a positive influence, while normative deviance a negative influence on group utilitarianism. Majority influence has no significant influence on group utilitarianism. Finally, our results show that the relationship between group fragmentation in individual utilitarianism and emergent group utilitarianism is mediated by the two forms of minority influence. (shrink)

Gender stereotypes are shaped by the roles men and women fulfill in society. Our study uses a cultural artifact analysis and explores the way in which remunerated jobs, development across lifespan and historical time frames influence the content of gender stereotypes. We coded the feminine and masculine attributes in a selection of epitaphs written on the painted crosses of the Merry Cemetery of Săpânţa (Romania) between 1935 and 2010. This novel historical approach allowed us to explore the dynamic nature of (...) gender stereotypes and the extent to which changes in the social context or the social roles have transformed the content of gender stereotypes. We show that during years of social unrest associated with the World War II and the early communist years the masculine attributes are dominant while during the last decades of the communist regime and the post-communist period the feminine attributes become more prevalent. Moreover, people having paid jobs are described as being more masculine than the homemakers. Finally, our results show an increase of masculinity during the lifespan for both male and female as well as an increase of androgyny with age for women and a slight decrease with age for men. (shrink)

Dario Argento and the Mother-Witch: Psychoanalysis of an Obsessive Image. This paper tries to present the complexity of the maternal figures in the work and biography of film director Dario Argento. The methods of interpretation are inspired by psychoanalysis, because Argento often referred to Freud’s writings in his films or in his recent autobiography, Fear, published in 2014. The criminal mothers depicted in some films signed by Dario Argento show, through violent narratives, the difficulties he had in dealing with the (...) maternal imago. But the most striking embodiments of the maternal monstrosity are to be found in the figure of the mother-witch, in the trilogy composed by Suspiria (1977), Inferno (1980), La Terza Madre (2007). The mother-witch has, of course, biographical sources, but its presence in some classical fairy-tales or in fin-de-siècle decadent literature also inspired the film director. (shrink)

Multiple team membership is a form of work organization extensively used nowadays to flexibly deploy human resources across multiple simultaneous projects. Individual members bring in their cognitive resources in these multiple teams and at the same time use the resources and competencies developed while working together. We test in an experimental study whether working in MTM as compared to a single team yields more individual performance benefits in estimation tasks. Our results fully support the group-to-individual transfer of learning, yet the (...) hypothesized benefits of knowledge variety and broader access to meta-knowledge relevant to the task in MTM as compared to single teams were not supported. In addition, we show that individual estimates improve only when members are part of groups with low or average collective estimation errors, while confidence in individual estimates significantly increases only when the collective confidence in the group estimates is average or high. The study opens valuable venues for using the dynamic model of G-I transfer of learning to explore individual learning in MTM. (shrink)

This article examines whether restrictions on access to welfare rights for EU immigrants are justifiable on grounds of reciprocity. Recently political theorists have supported some robust restricti...

From the political point of view, European Union (EU) integration implies some kind of unity in the community constituted by EU citizens. Unity is difficult to attain if the diversity of citizens (and their nations) is to be respected. A thick bond that melts members' diversity into a 'European pot' is therefore out of the question. On the other hand, giving up unity altogether makes political integration impossible. Through a meta-theoretical analysis of normative positions, this paper proposes a composed notion (...) of European identity that links without binding. It contains four facets – cultural, political, social, external – with nuances, expressed in three binaries, that cut across all of them – history-project, ethos-achievement, commonness-uncommonness. I will submit that a workable European identity (and the related concepts of unity, polity and citizenship) can be better conceived as analogical – a mid way between blending unity and irreconcilable diversity. (shrink)

This chapter examines the role of law in European Union (EU) external relations from two perspectives. First, it examines the EU as a rule‐based (international) actor Law and focuses mainly on EU law‐ governs both the extent of the European Union's external powers and their exercise, the constitutional foundations of EU external relations and the legal principles that govern external action. Second the chapter turns to the European Union's characteristic use of law as an instrument and objective of its foreign (...) policy, the European Union as a promoter of a rule‐based international order. The role of the Parliament in the conclusion of international treaties, which are often regulatory or quasi‐legislative in character, brings to the final theme of this contribution: the role played by law as both an instrument and a goal of EU foreign policy. (shrink)

This chapter discusses the application of international humanitarian law (IHL) to EU military operations outside of the European Union (EU). It describes where the Union has performed best: promoting the development, acceptance, and respect of IHL by others. EU restrictive measures may be taken in its commercial policy, its foreign and security policy, and its development cooperation policy. A field in which the European Union may have a direct impact on violations of IHL is the export of arms. EU member (...) states continue to be involved in armed conflicts, but EU law did not govern their involvement. Therefore, the relationship between IHL and EU law is fortunately not (yet) an issue of daily concern for practitioners and EU institutions. In the instances in which the European Union has been a military actor abroad, IHL arguably did not apply because the Union had not become a party to an armed conflict. (shrink)

This article argues that only a limited form of EU citizenship is available to transgender people. As the paper demonstrates, transgender Union citizens face numerous difficulties when they exercise their right to free movement, despite such movement being the core of Union citizenship. Rather, transgender individuals only have access to a considerably restricted form of EU citizenship which is guaranteed as part of their fundamental status conferred by EU Treaties. The article points out that the current approach of including transgender (...) discrimination in the purview of discrimination on the grounds of sex fails to tackle the issue because it is conceptually problematic and largely ineffective. As a solution to remedy the issue, the paper suggests overhauling the existent approach to trans discrimination in a way that makes it capable of ensuring that transgender persons enjoy their Union citizenship to its fullest extent. (shrink)

At first sight, it would appear as though the question of the definition of membership of the European Union (EU) is superfluous. The Treaty on EU unequivocally defines, in its Article 1, that the contracting parties are the Member States of the EU. However, closer examination could cast some doubt on this unitary status of Member States, or at the very least it could reveal that it needs nuancing. While diversity and, to some extent, differentiation, or even fragmentation, have been (...) part and parcel of the European integration process since its very beginning, several developments invite a new reflection on membership within the EU and relatedly on differentiation in and outside the EU today. This is what the contributions to this edited volume propose. These contributions are organized around four aspects of the tensions faced by the concept of a unitary and formal EU membership: first, an examination of key policy areas in which we have already witnessed various forms of differentiated integration; second, an analysis of ‘special statuses’ within the EU; third, important examples of non-Member States in which EU law is applied (with and without their participation in the EU’s decision-making process); and fourth, the situation of states under accession or secession procedures which obliges them to accept EU norms and policies even prior to/after formal membership. These analyses are complemented by a reflection on the concept of EU membership in itself. In a context in which EU enlargement appears likely, the provided analyses pave the way towards a reflection on the need to introduce several kinds of memberships to the EU in the future. (shrink)

The European Union is one of the ‘big ideas’ of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries and has been built on the idea of the European Community, which it supersedes. Seen in this light the emergent law of the European Union is becoming omnipresent in so many ways and yet it does not appear to have been the subject of as much semiotic study as it deserves. This paper takes a multilingual stance and explores emerging EC and EU law from a (...) perspective of a lawyer-linguist practitioner in the field. The purpose is to describe a range of practitioner ‘realities’ and to explore how semiotics provides a tool for analysis and insights for a better understanding and awareness of EU law, with particular emphasis on the legislative, or law-making aspects. (shrink)

This book provides a panorama of EU food law and legislation. It covers European Integration and Food Law (Part I); Food Safety Umbrella Laws: The General Food Law Regulation and the Official Controls Regulation (Part II); The Food Law Acquis (Parts III–VII), which comprises food technology law, food safety law, food information law, food quality law, food nutrition law; international food law (Part VIII) and a final chapter that presents the conclusions and an outlook on the future of food law. (...) The book demonstrates that EU food law is currently predominantly food-safety oriented, and outlines initiatives and opportunities for a future of food law that is more oriented towards aspects of sustainability, health, and integrated food system regulation. (shrink)

This paper provides a realist analysis of the EU's legitimacy. We propose a modification of Bernard Williams' theory of legitimacy, which we term critical responsiveness. For Williams, 'Basic Legitimation Demand + Modernity = Liberalism'. Drawing on that model, we make three claims. (i) The right side of the equation is insufficiently sensitive to popular sovereignty; (ii) The left side of the equation is best thought of as a 'legitimation story': a non-moralised normative account of how to shore up belief in (...) legitimacy while steering clear of both raw domination and ideological distortions. (iii) The EU's current legitimation story draws on a tradition of popular sovereignty that sits badly with the supranational delegation and pooling of sovereign powers. We conclude by suggesting that the EU's legitimation deficit may be best addressed demoicratically, by recovering the value of popular sovereignty at the expense of a degree of state sovereignty. (shrink)

The importance of the specifi relationship between the US and the EU is determined by the role they play in solving international problems. The purpose of the article is to study the impact of common and distinctive position in US and EU foreign policy on the development of their relations and ability to effectively solve the world’s problems. At the beginning of the XXI century relations between the US and the EU have been developing in various spheres of foreign policy. (...) The priorities were security cooperation, the fiht against international terrorism and the development of economic relations. US and EU are mutually benefiial and priority partners for each other. This is determined in the foreign policy instruments of the United States and the European Union. However, this does not preclude the existence in the United States and the European Union different approaches to solving international problems and competition between them. The biggest differences between the US and the EU are shown in approaches to the settlement of military conflcts, the fiht against global warming and the greenhouse effect. The largest component of competitive relations is manifested in the development of the Arctic region. The US seeks to engage the EU foreign policy implementation taking into account American interests. However, at the beginning of the XXI century the EU had its own foreign policy program. The EU has an unhappy tendency towards US methods of solving world problems and unilateral actions in the international arena. The bipolar system was dominated by bilateral cooperation between the US and individual states of the European Union, but during the presidency of Barack Obama, the United States prefer relations with European politicians who represent the agreed position of 28 EU member states. The US in implementing its foreign policy should take into account the position of individual states and the European Union as a whole entity. This affects the process of solving international problems. Despite the existence of contradictions in the relations of the United States and the European Union, cooperation will continue to contribute to this long-term relationship, similarities in approaches to building political and economic systems and similarities in mentality. (shrink)

This article analyzes how the development of the European Union (EU) fundamental rights policy feeds Euroscepticism—and notably political Euroscepticism—within segments of national political elites in EU Member States. More specifically, it argues that this relatively new policy also gives rise to a new form of political Euroscepticism, which has been defined as “value-based Euroscepticism,” e.g., the perception that the EU via its fundamental rights policy, unduly interferes in matters where value systems and core domestic preferences on ethical issues are at (...) stake. This happens in a context where the EU is resented, by some segments of political elites, for allegedly empowering diverse groups (such as ethnic minorities, immigrants' associations, judges, and so on) at the expense of popular sovereignty. This resentment is exacerbated by the fact that national governments are increasingly submitted to the critical assessment of EU-level actors (e.g., the European Parliament or the European Commission) in terms of democratic credentials. (shrink)

An organization emits carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gases (GHGs) through its daily operations, such as the electricity used to power its offices, manufacture products, and then fossil fuels used in vehicles to distribute them. This is referred to as an organization’s carbon footprint, and there is increasing stakeholder and regulatory pressure on management teams globally to reduce them. On other words, it is increasingly critical that the quantity of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that a company is (...) releasing into the atmosphere can be accurately measured in order to ensure that is being reduced accordingly. The European Union Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) is the most crucial tool for decarbonizing Europe, but it has also become a money-making machine. States and financial investors earn; for the power industry, which pays for it, the worst thing is not the system’s presence but its instability. Huge price jumps make it impossible to plan budgets and investments sensibly. This paper provides an introduction to the EU’s Emissions Trading System. As such it provides a discussion of the historical and legal context in which the EU ETS developed and now operates. This article covers the various ways in which these market dynamics, regulatory requirements and stakeholder expectations have converged to make European carbon markets a critical topic for today’s analyst. (shrink)

Populists in the EU often call for restrictions on EU immigrants’ access to welfare rights. These calls are often demagogic and parochial. This paper aims to show what exactly is both distinct and problematic with these populist calls from a normative point of view while not necessarily reducible to demagogy and parochialism. The overall aim of the paper is not to argue that all populists call for such restrictions nor to claim that all calls for such restrictions are populist. The (...) purpose of the paper is rather humble. It only aims to show that populist calls for restrictions on EU immigrants’ access to welfare rights are characterised by two normatively problematic arguments that target two different subsets of the citizenry: what I dub for the purpose of this paper the moralists and the immoralists. It is the way populists address these two subsets of the citizenry, as well as the fact that they could simultaneously appeal to the concerns of both groups, that makes populist approaches to welfare rights both conceptually distinct to other approaches as well as potentially politically appealing to a more diverse population of voters. (shrink)

A major goal of the Republic of Serbia's foreign policy since 2000 has been the country's integration into the EU. In this respect, in 2012, Serbia became a candidate for EU membership. However, there has been a growing skepticism among the Serbian people about this objective. This ambivalence can be correlated not only with the recent economic crises in some EU countries but also with what are regarded as profound differences in cultural and religious values between Serbia and the EU. (...) This is particularly significant since the majority of Serbia's population are adherents of the Serbian Orthodox Church, which is widely regarded as the defender of traditional values, as well as a staunch opponent of Kosovo's independence, secularization and “so called’ modern Western values. Nevertheless, my recent research among a sample of Serbian Orthodox believers regarding their attitudes about the cultural ramifications of Serbia’s EU integration is far more nuanced than these attitudes might otherwise appear to be. (shrink)

In recent years consumer law has come more and more into the focus of legislation within the EU. One of the EU’s key objectives, completing the final stage of the internal market, is to place consumer rights in the centre of it. Following the adaption of various consumer law measures for some decades, the EU has undertaken a thorough review of its consumer acquis. After years of consultations, the Consumer Rights Directive 2011/83/ EU, which was supposed to set new standards (...) of consumer protection, came into force and will have to be implemented by the Member States by 13 December, 2013. Renouncing its principal practice of minimum harmonisation in the area of consumer law, i.e. allowing Member States on the basis of Directives to adopt more protective rules, the EU legislator now turned to a targeted full harmonisation approach by means of the Consumer Rights Directive, aiming at increasing the consumer protection across the EU by bringing together the currently distinct laws for distance selling and off-premises contracts as well as other types of consumer contracts in a single instrument. The article briefly introduces the background of the Directive and discusses the shift in means of harmonisation concepts. Then, it analyses the scope, concepts and content of the Directive, which mainly brings considerable reforms in the areas of information requirements and the right of withdrawal. Taking into account the Directive’s improvements and shortcomings, conclusions are drawn that further harmonisation and a uniform and universally applicable set of European consumer rights are needed. (shrink)

The EU-Korea Free Trade Agreement (FTA) was the first of its kind between the EU and an Asian country. The EU-Korea FTA was signed in 2011 and ratified in 2015, which allows for a reliable assessment, unlike other recently ratified FTAs such as the EU-Singapore or the EU-Vietnam FTA. Therefore, its analysis is crucial for future agreements that other Asian countries or trade blocs such as ASEAN might conclude with the EU. Since it is a stylized fact that the technological (...) content of exports has a significant impact on long-term economic growth and total factor productivity, it is particularly important to consider the level of development of traded goods as part of the analysis to evaluate the performance of the agreement from a technological perspective. Therefore, trade flows between the EU and Korea are analyzed using the synthetic control method. Consequently, this statistical method is used to assess the extent to which the EU-Korea FTA has borne the expected fruit, not only overall, but also in terms of trade gains from the national and technological standpoint. (shrink)

“Como eu leio” (Come leggo io, no original), é um ensaio do escritor italiano Federigo Tozzi. A redação do ensaio data de 1919. Nele, Tozzi descreve seu método idiossincrático e não linear de leitura, baseado na desconfiança e na interrupção sistemática da narrativa. Tozzi propõe, “apenas para meu uso”, um sistema de leitura fragmentada, que privilegia a análise de frases isoladas e a resistência aos “efeitos garantidos” da trama. Para ele, a qualidade literária se revela na precisão estilística e na (...) profundidade com que o escritor capta a realidade humana, prescindindo de artifícios e convenções literárias. O ensaio constitui uma crítica à leitura passiva e à retórica vazia. Mais do que revelar o seu método de leitura, Tozzi fornece também ao seu leitor indícios de como ele escrevia. (shrink)

This article argues that the practical difficulties and normative dilemmas at stake in the European refugee crisis as a crisis of EU integration extend beyond refugee policies into what we may call ‘the citizenship regime’ of the European Union in ways that are consequential for refugees, member states, and the European Union. It advances arguments for the relatively rapid access to citizenship of refugees, demonstrates that this norm has at least some acknowledgment in the policies of EU member states and (...) considers what further differentiation of refugees from other classes of migrant might be a part of developing a just and legitimate Common European Asylum Regime. It argues that there are some reasons to favour a CEAS in which refugees receive EU citizenship prior to national citizenship in a member state. (shrink)

EU citizenship as a particular type of regional citizenship merits special attention due to its character, meaning and implications in a gender and intersectionality perspective. Formally established in the Treaty of Maastricht (1992), the European Communities had already developed the framework for the application of social and civic rights in their founding treaties and introduced individual political rights with the direct elections to the European Parliament in 1979. European citizenship exists as a transnational legal status and as a practice regarding (...) the claim for equal rights and inclusion. This has also applied to the advancement of gender equality, where the European Communities have set standards for equal pay and women’s free access to employment. Today, the concept of EU citizenship forms core elements of the political dimension of European integration. The chapter explores what the potentials and limits of EU citizenship are for the promotion of equality and the mobilization and accommodation of gender-diversity claims at the European level. On the one hand, women’s struggles for equal rights and gender justice have embraced the legal framework of EU citizenship. On the other hand, the struggle over the future of social and democratic citizenship has opened new horizons of intersectional, multilayered citizenship still hard to reconcile with existing notion of bounded citizenship. A comprehensive analysis of EU citizenship thus needs to entail a double focus on “policy formulation” and “implementation” from above by the political institutions of the EU and on “bottom-up processes” from below in relation to the demands from social movements and civil society. EU currently experiences gender backlashes, increasing manifestations of anti-gender mobilization and a return of authoritarian government that can lead to new forms of gender exclusion, enhanced risks for women and discrimination. (shrink)

Citizenship is the cornerstone of a democratic polity. It has three dimensions: legal, civic and affiliative. Citizens constitute the polity's demos, which often coincides with a nation. European Union (EU) citizenship was introduced to enhance ‘European identity’ (Europeans’ sense of belonging to their political community). Yet such citizenship faces at least two problems. First: Is there a European demos? If so, what is the status of peoples (nations, demoi) in the Member States? The original European project aimed at ‘an ever (...) closer union among the peoples of Europe.’ Second: Citizens are members of a political community; to what kind of polity do EU citizens belong? Does the EU substitute Member States, assume them or coexist alongside them? After an analytical exposition of the demos and telos problems, I will argue for a normative self‐understanding of the EU polity and citizenship, neither in national nor in federal but in analogical terms. (shrink)

Ao enunciar “eu sou o monstro que vos fala”, Preciado colocou a psicanálise contra a parede, desafiando suas premissas e a naturalização de certas categorias. Preciado se colocou como o corpo analisado, diagnosticado e patologizado pela psicanálise e pelos saberes psi como um todo, e enfrentou o tradicionalismo psicanalítico, os discursos médicos e psiquiátricos que sustentam a ciência moderna. A partir disso, podemos compreender o lugar que o sujeito trans e gênero dissidente ocupa para os saberes psi, mas qual o (...) lugar que este ocupa dentro destes saberes? O que ocorre quando um corpo trans se apresenta como analista, como clínico, como o sujeito a exercer a escuta clínica? O que ocorre quando a posição é invertida? Neste artigo, temos como objetivo questionar os discursos psis e suas naturalizações, tal como investigar as possibilidades e potências de um corpo trans na clínica – não como analisando, mas como analista. (shrink)

“Eu Pedagoga Memoriando: depois do dito e revivido, quem sou agora ‘Amadurecida’?” completa a “trilogia” iniciada no Projeto de Experiências Criadoras na década de 90 junto a discentes e egressos de Pedagogia da Universidade do Estado da Bahia/UNEB. O vol. nº 03 se constitui como artigo conclusivo rodeando as mesmas inquietações, cuja provocação se deu na pergunta problema: “pensando em episódios como preconceito, discriminação, intolerância “qual dentre os fatos mais marcantes da sua vida acadêmica e/ou familiar, teve grande impacto e/ou (...) interferiu no rumo da sua existência?”. Para respondê-la, recorremos às narrativas autobiográficas, enfatizado o relato de uma egressa implicada com o UC’S, nomeada como ‘Amadurecida’ junto ao tensionamento de clássicos e contemporâneos, como Freire ; Marques ; Evaristo e Medeiros que nos ajudaram a compreender a sua convicção de que o processo de crescimento não se finda, e se soma a caminhada formacional que intervém como estratégia de retomada da direção que definiu para a sua vida. (shrink)

O "eu penso" solitário de Descartes é fonte inspiradora para Pascal. Mantendo-o em sua solidáo, o autor ressalta a dificuldade de, pela razáo, estabelecer algum vínculo entre Deus e o homem. As cesuras entre o eu e Deus, resulta, em Pascal, na impossibilidade de estabelecer objetivamente a existência do eu no tempo. Nosso objetivo neste artigo é sublinhar tais questões.

In line with Ken Manders’s seminal account of Euclid’s diagrammatic method in the “The Euclidean Diagram,” two proof systems with a diagrammatic syntax have been advanced as formalizations of the method FG and Eu. In a paper examining Eu, Nathaniel Miller, the creator of FG, has identified a variety of technical problems with the formal details of Eu. This response shows how the problems are remedied.

The article aims to assess a change in the EU’s soft power in the Western Balkan and Eastern Partnership states in the light of the crises the bloc has undergone in recent years. Generally agreeing with the common argument that the EU’s attractiveness for those countries has decreased, the author challenges the popular wisdom that such a decrease is likely to reverse those states’ pro-EU foreign policy orientations. To prove it, the author applies Joseph Nye’s and Alexander Vuving’s “power currencies” (...) approach to operationalize soft power, considering the bloc’s attraction as a combination of “brilliance” (the actor’s relationship with its work), “benignity” (the actor’s relationship with other actors) and “beauty” (the actor’s relationship with values and ideas). Elaborating on the crises’ influence on each of these currencies, the author shows that their lessening, first, has mainly taken place in absolute rather than relative terms, so the EU’s attractiveness remains strong compared to that of its competitors, and second, it has primarily affected the bloc’s soft power potential rather than its actual behavior towards the target countries. (shrink)

The European Union (EU) has developed a vast body of environmental law, relying on a treaty title setting out normatively and descriptively complex environmental principles and approaches, as well as on those parts of the treaties focusing on the internal market. This chapter provides some introductory insights into EU environmental law. It explores that the Industrial Emissions Directive (IED) shows the potential of an approach to governance that sets environmental norms in a collaborative, problem‐solving forum beyond the face of legislation. (...) The chapter shows harmonization is not a straightforward category in EU environmental law. Much was made of the decentralization and local or national flexibility in the predecessor to the IED. By comparison, the IED places greater emphasis on the mandatory application of EU‐wide environmental standards. However, both the initial decentralization and the recentralization are highly ambiguous. (shrink)

Defenders of current restrictions on EU immigrants’ access to welfare rights in host member states often invoke a principle of reciprocity among member states to justify these policies. The argument is that membership of a system of social cooperation triggers duties of reciprocity characteristic of welfare rights. Newly arriving EU immigrants who look for work do not meet the relevant criteria of membership, the argument goes, because they have not yet contributed enough to qualify as members on the grounds of (...) reciprocity. Therefore, current restrictions on their access to welfare rights are justified. In this article, I challenge this argument by showing how restrictions on EU immigrants’ access to welfare rights are inconsistent with duties of international reciprocity. There are different variations of this challenge, but my focus here will be on one that uses a veil of ignorance device to support this claim. What matters from a perspective concerned with international reciprocity, I will argue, is what kind of welfare policy EU member states would choose were they not to know whether those receiving EU migrants were net contributors or net beneficiaries to the relevant scheme of international cooperation made possible by the four freedoms, and freedom of movement in particular. I argue that framing the requirement of reciprocity in this way provides a more comprehensive understanding of what should count as an ‘unreasonable burden’ on the welfare systems of host member states. The paper also examines alternative accounts of ‘unreasonable burdens’. It shows when and how the current institutional structure of the EU could take steps to deal with such burdens by preventing member states from gaming a comprehensive system of welfare rights protections across member states and by recognising the achievements of those member states that best serve them. (shrink)

Over the past three decades, the EU has undertaken a wide range of activities aimed at its proliferation as a serious and respected security actor. Namely, in 1993 the Union adopted the Common Foreign and Security Policy, then, in 1998, it laid the foundations of the European Security and Defense Policy, while in 2003 it adopted the first security strategy, by which practically began the development process of its strategic approach to security. Starting from the significance that strategic aspects have (...) in security approaches designing (at national, regional and international levels), the paper attention is directed to the analysis of the strategic approach of the European Union in this regard. To this end, the focus is specifically placed on the research of the three strategic documents to date (2003, 2016 and 2022), with which the Union designs its own strategic approach and response to the dynamic and challenging security environment. Hence, the intention is aimed at providing a clear perception and a more detailed understand of the evolutionary character of the EU’s strategic approach to security, with particular reference to the main challenges and perspectives in this context. (shrink)

In the Coman case, the European Court of Justice was asked whether the term “spouse”—for the purposes of EU law—includes the same-sex spouse of an EU citizen who has moved between EU Member States. The ECJ answered this question affirmatively, holding that a refusal to recognise a same-sex marriage and the resultant refusal to grant family reunification rights to a Union citizen who moves to another Member State, would constitute an unjustified restriction on the right to free movement that Union (...) citizens enjoy under EU law. This case comment analyses the judgment, arguing that the Court’s pronouncement is a very welcome first step towards marriage equality at a cross-border level in the EU. At the same time, following the delivery of this ruling, a lot of questions have arisen and gaps in the protection of same-sex couples persist, and these are also analysed in this piece. (shrink)

This article explores EU gender policy through the lens of the `Wollstonecraft dilemma', a guiding conceptual device that helps to summarize women's difficult path towards equality in a patriarchal system. EU gender policy reflects the contradictions women must face in their struggle for equality, which are common to most public gender policies. All provisions devised to progress in gender equality have negative retroactive effects on women, due to the patriarchal context in which they are applied. Empirical evidence from the Spanish (...) case offers further support to the argument, showing how EU gender policy is still trapped in the `Wollstonecraft dilemma'. A more holistic approach to EU gender policy, able to tackle all the areas of which patriarchy is composed, and an improved monitoring of EU gender policy implementation in the member states, could both generate a more effective gender policy in the EU and make further progress in solving the dilemma. (shrink)

The European Green Deal (EGD) promises a transition to a carbon-free economy and to a more just industrial production. Far from aiming only at a slogan, the objective includes a wide variety of policy-restructuring measures: from extraction to energy production, from a shift to green finance to global governance. However, is the new EU Green model really introducing a shift in the production paradigm? Besides issues related to a sustainable transition towards a green economy, the question is whether the green (...) policy of the EU is proposing a new model for economic organization or if it is supporting yet another version of capitalism characterized by expansive and cannibalizing dynamics of uncontrolled growth. If the latter is the case, a green economy cannot be expected to provide a solution to standard capitalist crises nor to recent environmental emergencies. If, instead, the former is the case, a more radical rethinking of the transformative relations between labor and nature is to be expected. Depending on which of the two options is at stake, a different transformation of EU policy must follow. If a ‘green turn’ is intended as a tool to overcome a production crisis and global market competition, EU institutions will inevitably be in control of this economic transition by assuming features of state capitalist models. If instead the green economy is intended to open a new production era, the current capitalist phase appears more simply as a post-capitalist coda. (shrink)

Neste artigo analisamos o conceito de eu quantificado a partir na Perspectiva de Segunda Pessoa, segundo a qual a eu-dade, ou pessoalidade, é atualizada em relações contexto-dependentes de total ou parcial transparência cognitiva não redutíveis aos aspectos considerados nas perspectivas de primeira ou de terceira pessoa. O eu quantificado designa o indivíduo que realiza medições sobre si mesmo por meio de tecnologias ubíquas em rede para obter um suposto maior autoconhecimento, instanciando, segundo alguns autores, um ponto de vista de Quarta (...) Pessoa constituído por relações de alteridade (pessoa-máquina-pessoa) emergentes, em especial, em um cenário sociocultural permeado por tecnologias ubíquas e análises de big data. Procuraremos problematizar a tese de que o automonitoramento digital promoveria um aprofundamento do autoconhecimento, defendida pelos postuladores da quantificação do eu. Procuraremos mostrar que a coleta de dados sobre si mesmo por meio de tecnologias ubíquas não favorece necessariamente a constituição/atualização da pessoalidade porque o automonitoramento digital mediado pode interferir significativamente nos modos de interação social da Segunda Pessoa e no autoconhecimento que tal interação pode promover. (shrink)

The European Union Artificial Intelligence Act (EU AI Act) establishes a pioneering risk-based regulatory framework that will significantly impact AI governance and compliance worldwide. By classifying AI systems into four risk categories—unacceptable, high, limited, and minimal—the Act introduces tiered obligations to ensure transparency, accountability, and ethical AI deployment. This regulatory shift presents substantial challenges for U.S. companies operating in Europe, as compliance requirements will necessitate adjustments in governance frameworks, risk assessment methodologies, and audit procedures.

The complexity and emergent autonomy of Generative AI systems introduce challenges in predictability and legal compliance. This paper analyses some of the legal and regulatory implications of such challenges in the European Union context, focusing on four areas: liability, privacy, intellectual property, and cybersecurity. It examines the adequacy of the existing and proposed EU legislation, including the Artificial Intelligence Act (AIA), in addressing the challenges posed by Generative AI in general and LLMs in particular. The paper identifies potential gaps and (...) shortcomings in the EU legislative framework and proposes recommendations to ensure the safe and compliant deployment of generative models. (shrink)

European Journal of Political Theory, Volume 21, Issue 1, Page 178-186, January 2022. Few debates in political theory are challenged as much by the constant change of their empirical subject as those about democracy in the European Union. With A Republican Europe of States, Richard Bellamy responds to the EU’s post-Lisbon era, which has been characterized by the euro crisis, conflicts over migration, the rise of Euroscepticism and Brexit. Keeping an eye on these contextual conditions and the related legal and (...) political transformations, he has developed a general theory of international democracy aimed at securing non-domination between peoples and between citizens and their representatives at the international level, and elaborated its implications for the EU. The result is a distinctive version of demoi-cracy, whose firm centring on the nation-state as the natural locus of democracy is likely to be controversially discussed. In this article, I raise some critical considerations regarding the design of demoi-cratic institutions, the adequate understanding of EU citizenship and the normative credentials of differentiated integration. (shrink)

This chapter presents an overview of how the European Union (EU) has developed as a crisis actor in the case of biological, chemical, radiological, nuclear and explosive (CBRNE) incidents. The EU’s policies rely on preventing proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) and CBRNE terrorism which have been developed in different policy areas. The responsibility for responding to CBRNE incidents rests with the Member States (MS). The EU has developed crisis management procedures and tools to support the MS in case (...) of a crisis with cross-border implications. Coordination and information sharing mechanisms, capacity building, joint exercises, and sharing of best practices are examples of EU actions which support and complement the actions taken by MS (EU. EU capacities to respond to CBRN attacks and CBRN incidents. Submitted by Belgium on behalf of the European Union, 2010). In 2016, the EU presented its new Global Strategy for its foreign and security policy as a follow-on to its 2003 Security Strategy, though it has limited references to WMD (European Union. Shared vision, common action: a stronger Europe, a global strategy for the European Union’s Foreign and Security Policy, Brussels, June. https://eeas.europa.eu/archives/docs/top_stories/pdf/eugs_review_web.pdf. Assessed 28 Sept 2018, 2016; Lundin L-E. The European Union and weapons of mass destruction: a follow-on to the global strategy? EU Non-Proliferation Consortium. Non-proliferation Paper. no. 58. Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. May, 2017). The EU needs to further improve preparedness, coordination and CBRNE Action Plans to better handle future CBRNE incidents. (shrink)

This paper argues that the EU’s culture of justification in law should be expanded beyond traditional human rights rhetoric to incorporate a deeper sense of solidarity and sympathy for other species. By critically examining how the EU and Member States currently justify their actions in the area of human rights, and supported by practical examples across various EU policy areas, it becomes clear that adopting a broader vocabulary rooted in solidarity and sympathy —drawing on Richard Rorty’s scholarship—can strengthen the legitimacy (...) of the EU project and its values. Furthermore, integrating a culture of sympathy for all living beings fosters a more comprehensive approach to justice, highlighting the importance of understanding and re-thinking reciprocity in human rights law and urging a shift towards a more inclusive legal framework. (shrink)

Income redistribution and insurance are core functions of welfare states. What role should the EU play in this domain? I examine the purchase of normative theorizing on social justice on this question, focusing on the contrast between three models of EU involvement: the EU as Support, which implies the sharing of resources through intergovernmental transfers; the EU as Provider, which implies EU cross‐border transfers towards individual citizens; the EU as Norm‐setter, which implies that the EU formulates normative policy ideals. I (...) review different accounts of justice for the EU and how they bear on the choice between these models of EU involvement. Conceptions of “background justice” have some purchase in a debate on the EU's role, but that purchase is limited. They need to be complemented by shared conceptions of domestic justice and a degree of moral cosmopolitanism. I argue that a “European Social Union” should be a Support and Norm‐setter in the realm of insurance and redistribution. Through the establishment of interstate insurance, it would be a true “insurance union.” It would engage in interstate redistribution, but there are no compelling reasons of justice for it to become a direct Provider of insurance or redistribution towards individual citizens. (shrink)

Next to the European Economic Area (EEA) countries, Switzerland is involved in the closest form of ‘integration without accession’ of any EU non-member. This contribution explores a unique example of piecemeal integration whose design has come under increased pressure from the EU and Swiss sides, but for different reasons. The EU sets more and more conditions to enable third-country integration into EU policies and especially the internal market. Switzerland, in turn, expects more flexibility from the EU side with the Swiss (...) conditions of cooperation. These perspectives will be analyzed against the backdrop of the EU’s norm diffusion to Switzerland. (shrink)

The gradual development of European Union (EU) immigration and asylum law has been characterized by two related, ongoing tensions: the conflict between EU competence in this field and national sovereignty, and the friction between immigration control and the protection of human rights. The EU's approach to resolving the two key tensions in this area are assessed by examining the four key subjects addressed by immigration law: visas and border controls, irregular migration, legal migration, and asylum. The European Union has been (...) more active in the fields of visas and border controls than in any other area of immigration and asylum law owing to the early development of a legal framework, originally in the form of the Schengen Convention. As for irregular migration, the European Union's initial piecemeal approach has been supplemented by the adoption of the fairly comprehensive Returns Directive. (shrink)