International Law: a European Perspective
... The Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations 1961 requires a diplomat or consular agent to protect and promote in the receiving State the rights of its nationals within the limits of international law when the receiving State is the final arbiter of the rights of the nationals of the sending State. Hence, the enforcement of the rights conferred on the individual by the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations 1963 is precarious because the rights rest on the will of the receiving State (Wouters et al, 2019). ...
There is uncertainty about the status of the individual in international law. The traditional positivist doctrine of international law is that States are the sole subjects of international law and that the individual is the object. The contemporary approach is that the individual is an original subject of international law and the owner of international individual rights. This approach relies for its justification on areas of international law such as investment protection treaties, intellectual property treaties, international human rights law, individual criminal liability in international law and Vienna Convention on Consular Relations where the individual has been brought into contact with international law. The objects of this article are: (i) to assess critically the various areas where the individual has been brought into contact with international law with a view to showing that the individual is not a full subject of international law; and (ii) to show that insofar as the individual possesses a limited locus standi in international law and a limited array of rights, that is, limited legal capacity, the proffered existence of an international legal personality of the individual is not only superfluous but also confuses international legal personality which involves the capacity to perform legal acts in the international sphere with legal personality in municipal law.
This chapter addresses Africa’s most pressing issue at independence and since: economic development, overwhelmingly neglected during colonization, but now, major global organizations were procuring the opportunity to right these wrongs especially through the RECs and global IGOs, to achieve economic development. It explores the OAU’s Department of Economic Affairs, and OAU’s persistence in elevating global development agencies and agendas in IGOs. It studies the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), the UN Development Program (UNDP) and the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) based in Ethiopia. Globally, it examines trade-based IGOs such as UNCTAD, GATT and its successor, the WTO. Other institutional arrangements are considered: the (Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), the Group of 77 (G77) that convened in the shadow of UNCTAD, and the New International Economic Order (NIEO) and the (as of April 2020 Organisation of) Africa(n), Caribbean and Pacific States ([O]ACPs) are some of these avenues discussed. The African Economic Community (AEC) stemmed from the 1991 Abuja Treaty, which also set in place the integration of RECs into regional cooperation and ultimately, the foundation of the nascent Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
The many recent cyber incidents have shown how cybersecurity has entered the realm of international relations. Several international organizations have taken cybersecurity policy initiatives, notably the United Nations (UN) and the European Union (EU). Both organizations aspire to a leading role in enhancing cybersecurity resilience. To date, however, these initiatives have not resulted in much regulation. This article examines which factors make lawmaking and the regulation of cybersecurity difficult at the international level, and whether some of these impediments are shared at the EU legislative level. Are difficulties in regulating cybersecurity embedded in the normative processes at the UN or the EU, or are they inherent to the high-tech phenomenon of cyber? As for the UN, the article looks at the work of the UN Group of Governmental Experts (GGE). While previous reports of the UN GGE seemed to point to an emerging international opinio juris, recent developments in the UN General Assembly (UNGA) show a strongly divided international community. At the EU level, the article discusses the two main legislative initiatives on cybersecurity that have seen the light of day: the 2016 Directive on Network and Information Security and the 2019 Regulation on the EU Cybersecurity Act.
European-based multinational corporations can cause or be complicit in human rights abuses in third countries. Victims of corporate human rights abuses frequently face many hurdles when attempting to hold corporations to account in their own country. Against this backdrop, judicial mechanisms have increasingly been relied on to bring legal proceedings in the home States of the corporations. This study attempts to map out all relevant cases (35 in total) filed in Member States of the European Union on the basis of alleged corporate human rights abuses in third countries. It also provides an in-depth analysis of 12 cases and identifies various obstacles (legal, procedural and practical) faced by claimants in accessing legal remedy. On the basis of these findings, it makes a number of recommendations to the EU institutions in order to improve access to legal remedies in the EU for victims of human rights abuses by European based companies in third countries.
De positie van de niet-begeleide minderjarige vreemdeling binnen de hervorming van het Europees asielstelsel
De grote toestroom van migranten en asielzoekers in de EU houdt vandaag nog steeds verschillende regelgevers wakker. Niet alleen de nationale overheden, maar ook de EU-regelgevers zoeken naarstig naar oplossingen voor de problematiek. Daartoe trachten de EU-regelgevers het Gemeenschappelijk Europees Asielstelsel (GEAS) bij te werken.
Binnen de groep migranten en asielzoekers bestaat een specifiek kwetsbaar individu: de niet-begeleide minderjarige vreemdeling (NBMV). Hij is zowel vreemdeling als kind en kreeg reeds ruime aandacht binnen de rechtsleer. Nochtans werd deze aandacht niet altijd weerspiegeld in de EU-wetgeving. Het lijkt alsof hij door de regelgevers af en toe uit het oog verloren werd.
Uit het onderzoek blijkt dat de EU-regelgevers nog een zekere weg te gaan hebben. In de eerste plaats bestaat er wat betreft het geheel aan regels met betrekking tot de NBMV weinig coherentie. De EU-regelgevers zouden bijvoorbeeld meer duidelijkheid kunnen scheppen door een uniforme methode vast te leggen voor de bepaling van de leeftijd van de NBMV. Hetzelfde geldt voor een verduidelijking van de notie ‘het belang van het kind’ binnen asiel en migratie. Verder blijken de Dublinoverdrachten en de vrijheidsontneming van de NBMV nog steeds gevoelige pijnpunten. Hier en daar moet aan de hervorming van het asielstelsel nog wat gesleuteld worden, zodat de rechten van de NBMV optimaal beschermd kunnen worden.
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Today, the large influx of migrants and asylum seekers into the European Union (EU) keeps several regulators awake. Not only national authorities, but EU regulators too are diligently searching for solutions to the problems. To this end, EU regulators are seeking to update the Common European Asylum System (CEAS).
There is however a particularly vulnerable individual within the group of migrants and asylum seekers: the unaccompanied alien minor (UAM). These minors already received a great deal of attention within legal doctrine. However, this attention was not always reflected in EU legislation. It seems as if UAM are occasionally lost from sight by the regulators.
This article shows that the EU regulators still have a certain way to go. First, there is little coherence in the set of rules relating to the UAM. The EU regulators could, for example, create more clarity by laying down a uniform method for determining the age of the UAM. The same applies to a clarification of the notion of 'best interests of the child' within the context of asylum and migration. Second, the proposal for a new Dublin Regulation and the proposal for a new Reception Conditions Directive still appear to be sensitive. Here and there, the reform of the asylum system still needs adjustments, so that the rights of UAM can be optimally protected."
European Yearbook on Human Rights 2019 - edited by Philip Czech October 2019
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