Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Right to water – European Union countries'

Defence date: 2 July 2019
Examining Board: Professor Hanspeter Kriesi, European University Institute (Supervisor); Professor Elias Dinas, European University Institute; Professor Liesbet Hooghe, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Professor Kai Arzheimer, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz
Does European integration contribute to the rise of the radical right? This dissertation offers three empirical contributions that aid understanding the interplay between political integration within the European Union (EU) and the surge of the populist radical right across Europe. The first account studies the impact that the European Parliament (EP) elections have for the national fortune of the populist right. The findings of a country fixed-effects model leveraging variation in the European electoral cycle demonstrate that EP elections foster the domestic prospects of the radical right when national and EP elections are close in time. The second study demonstrates that the populist radical right cannot use the EP elections as a platform to socialise the most impressionable voters. The results of a regression discontinuity analysis highlight that the EP contest does not instil partisan ties to the political antagonists of the European idea. The third study shows that anti-European integration sentiments that existed prior to accession to the EU cast a long shadow in the present by contributing to the success of contemporary populist right actors. Relying on an original dataset entailing data on all EU accession referenda on the level of municipalities and exploiting variation within regions, the study demonstrates that those localities that were most hostile to the European project before even becoming part of the Union, today, vote in the largest numbers for the radical right. In synthesis, the dissertation approaches the relationship between two major current transformations of social reality: European integration and the surge of the radical right. The results highlight that contention around the issue of European integration provides a fertile ground for the populist radical right, helping to activate nationalistic and EU-hostile sentiments among parts of the European public.

Clean water has always been an indispensable good to life, human health and dignity, and it is a precondition for survival. Yet, its formal recognition as human right to water has been a recent event. This situation was the result of considering water as freely available as the air to breath. The situation is changing due to water scarcity and water stress problems affecting the overall globe. Many reasons causing this situations can be found. For example, population growth, climate change and the global water consumption patterns are the most known causes. In this way the international society felt the necessity of acting on this vital good. In order to tackle the issue, the international community has started working on water problems from two perspectives. On one hand, there is the environmental law perspective that basically concerns the quality of the water sources, its protection and maintenance. On the other hand, there is the human rights law perspective. Compared to the environmental law perspective, this one can be taken as a new approach that has been introduced to the traditional water law to the end of guaranteeing good quality of drinking water to everyone. To the end of understanding the process of recognition and implementation of the human right to water either at international level or at EU level, this doctoral thesis has been developed as follows: The first chapter will consist on the international dimension of the right to water, the second and the third chapter will focus on the EU water law and its policy, and finally, the fourth chapter will consist on a comparative analysis of the right to water at the international level and at the EU level, taking into account the results obtained in the previous chapters.

Clean water has always been an indispensable good to life, human health and dignity, and it is a precondition for survival. Yet, its formal recognition as human right to water has been a recent event. This situation was the result of considering water as freely available as the air to breath. The situation is changing due to water scarcity and water stress problems affecting the overall globe. Many reasons causing this situations can be found. For example, population growth, climate change and the global water consumption patterns are the most known causes. In this way the international society felt the necessity of acting on this vital good. In order to tackle the issue, the international community has started working on water problems from two perspectives. On one hand, there is the environmental law perspective that basically concerns the quality of the water sources, its protection and maintenance. On the other hand, there is the human rights law perspective. Compared to the environmental law perspective, this one can be taken as a new approach that has been introduced to the traditional water law to the end of guaranteeing good quality of drinking water to everyone. To the end of understanding the process of recognition and implementation of the human right to water either at international level or at EU level, this doctoral thesis has been developed as follows: The first chapter will consist on the international dimension of the right to water, the second and the third chapter will focus on the EU water law and its policy, and finally, the fourth chapter will consist on a comparative analysis of the right to water at the international level and at the EU level, taking into account the results obtained in the previous chapters.

Three models are developed to analyze the state level conditions fostering the rise of far right parties in the European Union in the last two decades. The political background of these parties is examined. This study offers a definition for far right parties, which combines several previous attempts. The research has focused on the effects of the number of the parties, immigration, and unemployment on support for the far right in Europe. Empirical tests, using a random effects model of fifty elections in eight nations, suggest that there are political, social, and economic conditions that are conducive to electoral success. Specifically, increases in the number of "effective" parties favor the far right, while electoral thresholds serve to dampen support. Immigration proves to be a significant variable. Surprisingly, changes in crime and unemployment rates have a negative effect on support for the far right. Suggestions for future research are offered.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--George Mason University, 2009.
Vita: p. 279. Thesis director: Janine Wedel. Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Public Policy. Title from PDF t.p. (viewed June 10, 2009). Includes bibliographical references (p. 223-278). Also issued in print.

Along with the rapid development of industry and agriculture, growth of population, improvement of urbanization level, China has been confronted with increasingly serious deficiency and pollution of water resource. In order to deal with the challenge as well as reduce waste discharge, it is necessary to strengthen all the possible efforts in controlling water pollution. Therefore, the control and management of water pollution is of vital significance to the development of national economy and social society, which is worth doing research on academically and practically. Water pollution management, in a sense, results from the urbanization and cosmopolitanization process. In this aspect, the European countries have acquired a lot of successful experience in water pollution control, which provides plenty of useful knowledge and reference for China’s ongoing efforts in water pollution control. This thesis, by taking a comparative analysis approach, looks into the European countries’ experience of water pollution control, makes evaluations on their managerial strategies, system and methods. Then it reviews China’s efforts on water pollution control, and analyzes the current situation of China’s water management, especially the water pollution control system of Huaihe River Basin, and as a result puts forward suggestions to improve China’s water pollution control system such as verification of property rights of water resources, enhancement of legal framework, investment and taxation policy preference, technological improvements, public participation and prevention measures.
www.ima.kth.se

The European Union has exclusive competence to negotiate trade agreements with third countries. Using this competence the European Commission developed an extensive policy to conclude free trade agreements with numerous countries around the world. These agreements include regulation of the import and export of food products and also involve developing countries prone to hunger and malnutrition. This thesis investigates the recent trade agreements between the European Union and developing countries from the perspective of the human right to adequate food. This thesis demonstrates that the clauses on import and export of food products of such agreements limit the capacity of the developing countries involved to realise the right to food of their citizens. This outcome does not take into account the normative content of the right to food as contained in international human rights law and is dismissive of the references to human rights contained in European Union funding treaties and in the previous agreements between the European Union and developing countries. This thesis also demonstrates that this outcome is mainly an autonomous policy decision of the European Union and its trade partners independent from the obligations of World Trade Organization law. The thesis concludes with several proposals of reform to conciliate the external trade objectives of the European Union with the human right to adequate food.

The thesis engages with a dynamic discourse on the human rights approach to human trafficking. Building on the traditional doctrine of human rights, the thesis demonstrates that human trafficking is not a human rights violation, save for a state involvement in it, either directly or through a failure to observe its positive obligations imposed by the existent human rights. In situations that do engage human rights law, the thesis defends an argument that conceptually, human trafficking falls within a domain of the right to be free from slavery, servitude and forced labour. This argument is grounded in both a doctrinal and a conceptual analysis. In particular, the thesis conducts a unique conceptual and legal analysis of Article 4 of the European Convention of Human Rights offering an original interpretation of the concept of exploitation in the context of practices associated with trafficking and 'modern slavery'. This type of inquiry is missing in the existent scholarship. The thesis also conducts a detailed analysis of the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights on positive obligations to protect vulnerable individuals arising out of 'absolute' rights. In addition to providing a complete analysis and classification of these positive obligations, the thesis draws attention to the important difference between the scope of the right and the scope of state responsibility in situations of private infringements of 'absolute' rights. Accordingly, the thesis demonstrates that whereas the prohibition contained in these rights is absolute for the state, positive obligations in situations of their infringements by private individuals are of a limited scope. The analysis of the jurisprudence of the Strasbourg Court is supplemented by a comprehensive discussion of the obligations established in the trafficking-specific instruments. The thesis explains how victim protection provisions contained in these instruments may inform human rights obligations, yet, it demonstrates that these do not represent such obligations on their own. This analysis provides a roadmap for practitioners and activists when arguing cases before the Strasbourg Court and domestically. In addition to this practical dimension, the thesis intends to provide an important contribution to the scholarship on human rights law, and on human trafficking specifically.

Cette thèse constitue une analyse de contenu des critiques contre l'Union européenne exprimées par plusieurs acteurs politiques et sociaux de gauche en France et en Allemagne, au cours des débats sur le projet de Constitution européenne. Elle s'intéresse plus particulièrement aux idéologies sous-jacentes à ces critiques. Pour comprendre le sens de ces arguments, les comparer entre eux et les classer, certains idéaux-types ont été élaborés sur quatre dimensions (politique, socio-économique, identitaire et stratégique). Cette recherche a permis de combler une lacune importante dans l'analyse des acteurs dits "eurosceptiques", à savoir, l'étude des idéologies animant ces courants. L'essentiel de la littérature se concentre en effet surtout sur l'explication de l'euroscepticisme et, lorsqu'elle aborde leur idéologie, c'est pour construire des taxinomies excessivement globales. La thèse explore aussi en conclusion certaines pistes d'explications de ces résistances à l'UE en essayant d'aller au-delà des visions stratégiques, culturalistes et institutionnalistes, dominantes dans ce domaine, et en insistant davantage sur les dimensions idéelles et structurelles.

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This doctoral dissertation analyses the content of the critiques made by some left-wing social and political actors in France and Germany against the current EU. The study focuses on the debates that surrounded the project of European Constitution and more specifically on the more general ideologies underlying these arguments. In order to understand, compare and classify these critiques, idealtypes have been elaborated on four dimensions (socio-economic, political, identity-related and strategic). This research fills a gap in the literature analysing so-called "eurosceptic" actors by concentrating on the ideas conveyed by these currents. Indeed, most of this literature mostly tries to explain this phenomenon. And when it addresses the issue of ideology, it is only to build too far-reaching categories. The conclusion also aims at exploring possible explanations of theses resistances to the EU beyond the traditional theories, based on strategic agency, culturalism and institutionalism, and insisting more on the role of ideas and material structures.

Doctorat en Sciences politiques et sociales
info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Concilier le droit à l'action collective et les autres droits fondamentaux :recours au principe de proportionnalité ?

Difficile équilibre entre efficacité du droit de grève et respect des autres droits fondamentaux

Viviane Vannes

L’objet de la thèse est de vérifier si le principe de proportionnalité, entouré de certains critères fixes et cohérents, permet au juge de justifier de manière plus rationnelle une décision portant sur l’exercice du droit de grève. La proportionnalité est en effet de plus en plus invoquée dans la matière des conflits collectifs du travail soit pour admettre son exercice soit pour le limiter voire le sanctionner.

La première partie de la thèse entend identifier le concept de proportionnalité: notion, champ d’application, critères, limites, avantages et inconvénients. Elle est, aujourd’hui, l’instrument de référence comme mode de résolution des conflits de droit, à un point tel qu’elle est érigée au rang des principes de droit. C’est, la raison pour laquelle nous avons voulu déterminer les tenants et aboutissants du concept. Son inconvénient majeur est de s’appuyer, le plus souvent, sur des critères subjectifs :le raisonnable en droit, l’éthique du comportement et la morale sociale. Nous avons, alors, recherché des critères plus objectifs qui seraient susceptibles d’écarter le risque de subjectivité du juge. Nous avons observé qu’en droit européen, la Cour de Justice apprécie la validité d’un acte communautaire ou d’une mesure nationale en vérifiant s’il répond des critères précis :l’aptitude de l’acte à atteindre l’objectif poursuivi, la nécessité de l’acte en vue de l’atteindre et la proportionnalité intrinsèque de l’acte analysée dans ses rapports à l’égard de son ou ses destinataires. Ces critères sont également appliqués par la Cour européenne des droits de l’homme dans la matière portant sur l’application de la Convention européenne des droits de l’homme et des libertés fondamentales. L’analyse de cette jurisprudence permet d’affirmer qu’ils présentent une meilleure cohérence et plus d’objectivité que le raisonnable en droit.

La deuxième partie de la thèse s’attache à fixer le statut du droit de grève en Belgique. Compte tenu de l’absence de réglementation générale belge, nous avons, d’abord, pris en considération le droit international et européen. Nous en avons retiré des lignes directives de l’exercice normal du droit de grève. L’analyse de la doctrine et de la jurisprudence belge a, ensuite, permis de fixer les éléments suivants du droit de grève :notion, contours, conditions d’existence, de légalité, de légitimité; compétence du juge du fond et des référés en cas de litige portant sur l’exercice du droit de grève.

La troisième partie de la thèse identifie, dans la matière des conflits collectifs du travail, les droits susceptibles d’être soumis au raisonnement de proportionnalité et ceux qui ne le sont pas. Car, la proportionnalité ne résout pas tous les conflits. Elle ne s’applique pas lorsqu’il s’agit de juger de la légalité de la grève, de sa régularité et dans les situations de grève spontanée déclenchée en réaction aux violations par l’employeur de ses propres obligations. Elle concerne celles où le juge est amené à juger de la légitimité du moment de sa mise en œuvre, des buts poursuivis ou des atteintes que ses modalités causent aux droits subjectifs d’autrui. C’est, alors, le conflit entre des droits de même valeur juridique qui met en œuvre le jugement de proportionnalité :droit de grève et droit de propriété et liberté d’industrie des employeurs ;droit au travail des travailleurs non grévistes ;liberté d’industrie des tiers en relation commerciale avec l’entreprise en grève, fournisseurs, clients, usagers, d’exercer leur commerce, leur industrie ;liberté d’aller et venir des usagers d’un service public.

Dans les situations où elle s’applique, la thèse propose d’inviter le juge à appliquer des critères précis pour juger de la proportionnalité de la grève. Les demandes actuelles du justiciable de rationalité et de compréhension de la décision de justice l’exigent. C’est, dans son application comme mode de résolution des conflits de droit, que notre questionnement est de savoir si, les critères contenus dans le principe de proportionnalité de droit communautaire de l’aptitude, de la nécessité et la proportionnalité de l’acte, peuvent fixer une ligne de conduite destinée à établir les règles de l’exercice normal de la grève ?La réponse donnée est, selon nous, positive.

La thèse n’entend nullement porter atteinte au droit de grève. Il appartient au socle des droits sociaux fondamentaux. La reconnaissance du droit de grève aux travailleurs ou à leurs organisations syndicales est l’un des attributs essentiels des régimes démocratiques. Il n’est donc pas question de remettre en cause un droit fondamental durement acquis. Toutefois, l’essence même d’une société démocratique repose sur le respect d’autres droits, l’intérêt général, la sécurité, la propriété, la liberté au travail, la liberté d’entreprendre. C’est la raison pour laquelle, la thèse s’attache à la difficile question de la conciliation entre, d’une part, droit de grève et efficacité de la grève et, d’autre part, droits d’autrui.

Doctorat en droit
info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Même si la réduction des apports de nutriments dans les écosystèmes aquatiques est généralement envisagée avec des approches « effects-based », ce n’est pas le cadre qui a été suivi dans cette thèse. En effet, dans une démarche de développement durable, il semble plus pertinent, de définir des mesures de contrôle de la pollution agissant sur les relations de cause à effet. Selon cette logique, la méthodologie proposée par la Directive Cadre sur l’Eau (DCE) pour protéger les écosystèmes aquatiques présente plusieurs faiblesses. Par le fait qu’elle réfère à certains principes de l’économie standard de l’environnement, l’analyse économique de la DCE pose plusieurs problèmes pour agir sur la causalité de la pollution. Néanmoins, la méthodologie proposée par la DCE est pertinente par le fait qu’elle recommande l’utilisation combinée de mesures techniques et d’instruments pour diminuer les dommages environnementaux. Conformément à cette disposition, l’effet de mesures techniques et d’instruments sur le secteur agricole et sur la chaine alimentaire l’englobant a été évalué puisque cette dernière est responsable de la majorité des émissions diffuses et ponctuelles d’azote et de phosphore dans les eaux de surface. La définition de mesures techniques en fonction de l’efficience de l’utilisation des nutriments (Nutrient Use Efficiency, NUE) dans la production agricole a été complétée par l’étude des instruments économiques utilisés dans la Politique Agricole Commune (PAC) pour développer une agriculture multifonctionnelle. Si la thèse concerne de manière générale l’eutrophisation des écosystèmes aquatiques, elle se penche plus particulièrement sur les pressions au sein du bassin de l’Escaut et sur leurs impacts jusqu’à la zone côtière de la mer du Nord. Des mesures techniques agissant sur les causes des émissions diffuses du secteur agricole et sur les émissions ponctuelles des stations d’épuration ont été proposées pour ce bassin. Ces mesures techniques ont été caractérisées prioritairement par leur efficacité environnementale (grâce aux modèles Sénèque-Riverstrahler et MIRO) et en fonction de leurs coûts directs.

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Although reducing the load of nutrients in aquatic ecosystems is usually looked at through "effects-based" approaches, this is not the context which this paper has chosen to follow. In fact, keeping in line with sustainable development, it seems more relevant to define measures to control pollution which act on cause and effect relations. According to this way of thinking, the methodology proposed by the Water Framework Directive (WFD) to protect aquatic ecosystems presents a number of weaknesses. By the fact that it refers to certain standard economic principles for the environment, the WFD’s economic analysis poses several problems towards acting on the cause of the pollution. Nevertheless, the methodology proposed by the WFD is relevant, as it recommends the combined use of technical measures and of instruments to reduce environmental damage. In accordance with this disposition, an assessment has been made of the effect of technical measures and instruments on the agricultural sector and on the food chain encompassing it, since the food chain is responsible for the majority of diffuse and point emissions of nitrogen and phosphorus in surface waters. The definition of technical measures in terms of efficient use of nutrients (Nutrient Use Efficiency, NUE) in agricultural production has been complemented by a study of economic instruments used in the Common Agricultural Politicy (CAP) to develop a multifunctional type of agriculture. Although the paper deals with the eutrophication of aquatic ecosystems in a general way, it concentrates particularly on the increasing pressures in the Scheldt basin and on their impacts as far as the North Sea coastal zone. Technical measures acting on the causes of diffuse emissions in the agricultural sector and on point emissions in the water treatment plants have been proposed for this basin. These technical measures have been categorised in order of priority according to their environmental effectiveness (thanks to the Sénèque-Riverstrahler et MIRO models) and depending on their direct costs.
Doctorat en Sciences agronomiques et ingénierie biologique
info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Defence date: 15 December 2010
Examining Board: Philip Alston (New York University School of Law); Catarina De Albuquerque (UN Independent Expert, Lisbon); Ernst-Ulrich Petersmann (Supervisor, EUI); Martin Scheinin (EUI)
PDF of thesis uploaded from the Library digital archive of EUI PhD theses
As indicated in the title, 'The Rights to Water', this thesis will argue that one self-standing, comprehensive and legally-binding human right to water does currently not exist on the international level. However, it is important to note, that this is not the same thing as stating that 'there is no human right to water'. It is simply to say that this human right does not meet some of the characteristics of many other human rights (in particular: self-standingness, comprehensiveness and legalbindingness) all at once. The research question will be addressed in three steps. A first analytical part will examine the present status of the right to water in international, European and domestic law. A second, theoretical part, will scrutinize whether and in which form it is even conceptually possible and meaningful to consider water as the object of a distinct human right. Finally, a third, applied part will consider how concrete reforms and developments can improve the effectiveness of the right in practical terms, if accepted. Only by considering the right to water in its legal, philosophical and practical context can the present status and future potential of the right to water be addressed fully.

Defence date: 11 April 2018
Examining Board: Prof. Rainer Bauböck, European University Institute (Supervisor); Prof. Maurizio Ferrera, University of Milan; Prof. Andrew Geddes, European University Institute; Prof. Liesbet Hooghe, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Over the last forty years, regions in Europe have acquired an increasingly important role in the provision of rights that were traditionally used by states to define the boundaries of national citizenship. Despite this trend, there are still few comparative examinations of what citizenship means for subnational actors, how these affect the provision of rights, and what the consequences of this process are for internal solidarity, the democratic process, and ultimately the constitutional integrity of modern states. These are important questions at a time when ideas about membership and rights within multilevel polities are vigorously contested in courts, legislative chambers, and election booths. Instances of these contestations are the Spanish Constitutional Court’s decision on the legality of subsequent referendums on Catalan secession in 2014 and 2017; the ongoing standoff between the state of California and the American federal government over who ought to regulate the rights of undocumented immigrants; and the Scottish and UK referendums on independence and exit from the European Union, respectively. This dissertation sets out to explain under what conditions, how, and with what kind of consequences some regions are more inclusionary than others in their approach to what citizenship entails and to whom it applies. This is what I refer to as the politics of regional citizenship. The empirical analysis focuses on subnational variations in the realisation of the right to health care for undocumented immigrants in three multilevel states where regional governments have some control over health care and, within these, on pairs of regions that have been governed by either left- or right-wing parties and coalitions: Lombardy (Italy, conservative government from 1995), Tuscany (Italy, progressive government from 1970), Andalusia (Spain, progressive government from 1980), Madrid (Spain conservative government from 1995), Vaud (Switzerland, progressive government from 2002) and Zürich (Switzerland, conservative government from 1991). Evidence is collected via the analysis of over 31 legislative documents and 62 interviews with policy-makers, health care professionals, and members of NGOs. The comparison shows that the interaction of political ideologies at different territorial levels leads to the emergence of contested ideas about citizenship through the use that regional governments make of the distinct traditions of regional protection of vulnerable individuals like minor children, the disabled, and the homeless. The comparison also shows that the structure of the territorial system of the state plays an important role in determining the direction of the politics of regional citizenship. The value assigned to territorial pluralism within a country, in particular, determines whether regional citizenship is developed against the state, as a strategy to manifest dissent and mark the difference—as is the case in Spain and, to some extent, in Italy—or, instead, together with the state, as an expression of multilevel differentiation—as in Switzerland. Importantly, however, regional citizenship does never develop in complete isolation from the state because it always represents an attempt to weaken or reinforce the policies of the central government.

Defence date: 4 July 2000
Examining board: Renaud Dehousse, EUI (supervisor) ; Bruno De Witte, EUI ; Yves Mény, EUI ; Denis Simon, University Robert Schuman, Strasbourg, and College of Europe
PDF of thesis uploaded from the Library digitised archive of EUI PhD theses completed between 2013 and 2017

Defence date: 21 June 2017
Examining Board: Professor Alexander H. Trechsel, University of Lucerne (Supervisor); Professor Hanspeter Kriesi, European University Institute; Professor Russell J. Dalton, University of California, Irvine; Professor David Farrell, University College Dublin
How is electoral competition structured in Europe? This fundamental problem lies at the core of democracy, as popular sovereignty depends on the existence of a real policy choice, and requires the most preferred alternative being selected and implemented (Dahl 1956). However, there is no consensus yet regarding the actual occurrence of this mechanism of responsive electoral competition (Schumpeter 1942). I develop a new empirical design to test whether a structure of electoral competition in Europe actually exists, based on the idea that greater party system polarization should be associated with a smaller propensity for voters to switch between electoral blocks. To do so, I identify two potential loci of electoral competition in Europe: the left-right dimension (Downs 1957; Bartolini and Mair 1990), and the more recently introduced integration-demarcation cleavage (Kriesi 1998; Kriesi et al. 2006). Data from the European Election Survey (2009, 2014) allow the implementation of the novel design in order to study electoral competition in 27 EU member states. For this thesis to empirically address the question of electoral competition in Europe a preliminary, methodological development has to be made. Indices of political polarization are generally produced using survey respondents’ average perceptions of party positions. I show that this approach leads to systematic measurement error: the problem, known as Differential Item Functioning (DIF), depends on the fact that voter perceptions are subjective and cannot be directly compared, neither within nor between countries. To separate the actual polarization from perceptual bias, I develop a two-stage Bayesian Aldrich-McKelvey (2S-BAM) scaling procedure and apply Dalton’s index on DIF-corrected measures of party positions (ideal points) on both dimensions. Results show that when standard DIF-inflated polarization indices are used, left-right ideology seems to be still structuring European electoral competition. However, once the indices are optimized, using party ideal points, the integration-demarcation cleavage gains the upper hand over the left-right dimension in structuring electoral competition in contemporary Europe. Thus, this thesis makes both a methodological and theoretical, as well as an empirical contribution to the literature in this field.

Defence date: 11 October 1999
Examining board: Prof. Didier Bigo (IEP, Paris) ; Prof. Klaus Eder (Humboldt University, Berlin - Co-supervisor) ; Prof. Adrienne Héritier (EUI-Florence - Supervisor) ; Prof. Thomas Risse (EUI, Florence)
PDF of thesis uploaded from the Library digitised archive of EUI PhD theses completed between 2013 and 2017
From the beginnings of intergovernmental co-operation in the 1980s to the Amsterdam Treaty and the Charter of Fundamental Rights, the developing EU refugee policies have oscillated between the conflicting policy frames of internal security on the one hand and human rights on the other. Taking a multilevel perspective on the process of Europeanisation, this work highlights the entanglement between domestic as In m reforms in Germany and France and European co-operation and investigates the scope for a common refugee policy in the EU. Enlightening and innovative, this much-needed analysis of the Europeanisat ion of asylum policies is essential reading for scholars of European integration. asylum and refugee policy, and all those interested in the prospect of political unification in Europe.

Defence date: 13 June 2012
Examining Board: Professor Martin Scheinin, European University Institute (EUI Supervisor); Professor Valsamis Mitsilegas, Queen Mary University of London; Professor Tuomas Ojanen, University of Helsinki; Professor Giovanni Sartor, European University Institute.
First made available online: 25 August 2021
This thesis examines the added value of the fundamental right to data protection within the EU legal order when law enforcement measures are at stake. It provides a comprehensive analysis of the concept of data protection, its underlying values and aims, and the approaches to this right. It discusses the current theories and the existing case-law on data protection by identifying their shortcomings. It introduces a new theory on data protection that reconstructs the right and reshapes in a clear and comprehensive manner its understanding. The thesis tests the added value of the ‘reconstructed’ right to data protection in the most difficult context: law enforcement and counter-terrorism. Three specific case-studies of data processing in the field of law enforcement are used: 1) the information collection 2) the information storage and, 3) the information transfer case. The information collection case discusses the EU Data Retention Directive and addresses the conceptual confusions between the rights to privacy and data protection that surround it, before turning to a substantive fundamental rights assessment of the Directive. The information storage case examines the added value of the fundamental right to data protection in the context of the access of law enforcement authorities to information stored on EU-scale databases such as the second generation Schengen Information System (SIS II), the Visa Information System (VIS) and Eurodac. Finally, the information transfer case discusses the role of the rights to privacy and data protection with regard to the transfer of data from the EU to the US for counterterrorism purposes. In this context, it addresses the EU-US PNR and TFTP cases.

Defence date: 12 December 2008
Examining Board: Professor Donatella della Porta, European University Institute (Supervisor) Professor Virginie Guiraudon, European University Institute, Université de Lille II (Co-Supervisor) Professor Didier Chabanet, Triangle - Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon Professor Andrew Geddes, University of Sheffield
PDF of thesis uploaded from the Library digital archive of EUI PhD theses
This PhD dissertation concerns the processes of Europeanization of French and German associations mobilizing around the asylum issue. It seeks to analyse how these associations have been evolving since the start of the harmonisation of European asylum policies in the beginning of the 1990s. It focuses on a panel of associations (23 in total) representing the French and German pro-asylum movements. Their process of Europeanization is analysed through the examination of three fundamental dynamics: the Europeanization of their networks (the construction of inter-associative linkages across Europe), discourses (the construction of framing-processes having a European dimension) and collective actions (the construction of mobilizations addressing the European institutions). This thesis is situated at the intersection between three domains of research: social movements, European integration and migration policies studies. It aims to analyse a process of Europeanization 'from below' (as it concerns civil society actors) and 'from the margin' (as it concerns issues linked to the definition of its borders). Relying on an approach that is comparative (the analysis of France and Germany as different fields of mobilization on the asylum issue) and dynamic (the progressive definition of the EU level as a new field of mobilization), it analyses the question of knowing if associations having differentiated profiles and/or coming from different national contexts tend to have differentiated paths and degrees of Europeanization. Through the use of the concept of field of European mobilizations (associations constructing Europeanized collective actions evolve in a particular social space, defined by specific resources, rules and issues at stake), it shows that the Europeanization of social movement organizations corresponds to a process of inclusion into - and exclusion from - a particular field: that of the organizations gravitating around European institutions since the beginning of the 1990s. It shows then that associations having differentiated profiles and coming from differentiated national contexts follow a process of Europeanization from below, contesting the definition of EU borders that power-holders let prevail. They evolve in distinct fields of European mobilizations and use different resources and strategies to mobilize against EU asylum policy. Two main sources are used: semi-structured interviews and associative publications. The data collected was analysed through different methods developed in social movements studies: frame analysis, network analysis, protest-event analysis.

The main purpose of this study is to understand the effect of the government’s political orientation on the countries’ tax burden, testing if the left-right political binomial has a positive or negative effect on this variable. To do so, we collected information of the last three decades of the European Union countries using the OECD and ParlGov databases. The results showed that on average, for the European Union countries, right-wing parties tend to obtain lower levels of tax burden when compared to left-wing parties. One of the main reasons that justify this statement is the fact that non-socialist parties usually have lower levels of public expenditure leading them to lower necessity of tax revenue and consequently to lower levels of tax burden. Yet, the same results indicate that the parties located to the right side of the political spectrum tend to collect more direct than indirect taxes, preferring to tax the income of the people and companies instead of their consumption. This study can be useful for the companies and individual taxpayers, once it allows them to predict if their tax burden will increase or decrease, just by analyzing their government political orientation, creating the possibility of better tax planning.
O principal objetivo deste estudo é entender o efeito da orientação política dos governos na carga fiscal dos respetivos países. Para isto testou-se se o binómio político esquerda-direita tem um efeito positivo ou negativo na variável anteriormente referida. Foi reunida informação relacionada com o tema, com período correspondente às últimas três décadas, e relativa aos países que compõem a União Europeia, recorrendo às bases de dados da OCDE e ParlGov. Os resultados mostraram que, em média, para os países da União Europeia, os governos dominados por partidos de direita tendem a obter menores níveis de carga fiscal quando comparados a governos de esquerda. Uma das principais razões que pode justificar esta afirmação é o facto de os partidos de direita por norma incorrem em menores níveis de despesa pública, o que conduz a uma menor necessidade de maiores níveis de receita fiscal. Este mesmo estudo indica também que os partidos de direita tendem a preferir uma maior coleta de impostos diretos do que indiretos, preferindo taxar o lucro das pessoas e empresas em vez do consumo das mesmas. Considera-se que este estudo poderá ser bastante útil para os sujeitos passivos individuais e coletivos, uma vez que permite que seja feita uma previsão do aumento/redução da carga fiscal a que estão sujeitos, apenas através da análise da orientação política do governo eleito.

Defence date: 13 July 2017
Examining Board: Professor Loïc Azoulai, EUI Supervisor; Professor Marise Cremona, EUI; Associate Professor Evelien Brouwer, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam; Professor Daniel Wilsher, City University of London
This research considers State control and legal responsibility for the violation of migrant’s fundamental rights at the hands of privatised or externalised procedures of European Union (EU) Member State migration control and border management. The assertion is made that a migrant’s access to justice can be frustrated based on who (privatisation) it is that is implementing the procedure or because of where (externalisation) it is being implemented. Access to justice is frustrated by the failure of a court to overcome certain key preliminary issues which must be established before the merits of the case – the alleged rights violation – can be considered. These preliminary issues therefore represent triggers for greater consideration of State legal responsibility. Privatisation’s trigger is a court’s potential application of a narrow reading of the State such that a private actor is deemed to be liable for rights violations arising out of the implementation of a procedure. This decision can be made even when the State holds a significant amount of control and authority over the implementation of the procedure in question. Externalisation’s trigger is that a court may pursue a restrictive reading of extraterritorial jurisdiction such that the State is not interpreted as having engaged its jurisdiction and as a result that court will not consider the alleged violations and thus legal responsibility will not be established. The State’s exercise of ‘compulsory powers’, the use of physical force in the implementation of a migration control and border management procedure, has been relied upon as the indicator as to whether legal responsibility should be triggered for the State. This research argues that the exercise of compulsory powers is an arbitrary tool by which to decide legal responsibility and results in the neglect of other, more subtle indicators that State legal responsibility should be established. In the absence of a silver bullet resolution to the challenges posed by the triggers of legal responsibility for both externalisation and privatisation, doctrinal solutions are proposed. These solutions enable the courts to provide easier access to justice for migrants and better reflect State legal responsibility for the State’s exercise of control.
Chapter 3 ‘The distance explored I – Externalization' and Chapter 1 ‘Control and legal responsibility for externalised and privatised procedures' of the PhD thesis draw upon an earlier version published as an article 'Member State responsibility for migration control within third states : externalisation revisited' (2013) in the journal ‘European journal of migration and law’
Chapter 2 ‘Externalisation and privatisation - the procedures' of the PhD thesis draws upon an earlier version published as an article 'Do good fences make good neighbours?' (2014) in the journal ‘This century's review : journal for rational legal debate’

Defence date: 30 March 2017
Examining Board: Professor Marise Cremona, EUI (Supervisor); Professor Deirdre Curtin, EUI; Professor Anne Flanagan, Queen Mary University of London; Professor Ronald Leenes, Tilburg University
This thesis concerns a specific instance of the trade-off between security and ‘privacy rights’, namely cybersecurity, as it applies to EU Law. The research question is whether, and how, the pursuit of cybersecurity can be reconciled with the protection of personal data and respect for private and family life, which I treat as two independent rights. Classic legal argumentation is used to support a normative critique against the trade-off; an in-depth scrutiny of ‘(cyber)security’ and ‘privacy’ further shows that the trade-off is methodologically flawed: it is an inappropriate intellectual device that offers a biased understanding of the subject matter. Once the terms of discussion are reappraised, the relationship between cybersecurity and privacy appears more nuanced, and is mediated by elements otherwise overlooked, chiefly technology. If this fatally wounds the over-simplistic trade-off model, and even opens up avenues for integration between privacy and cybersecurity in EU law, on the other hand it also raises new questions. Looked at from the perspective of applicable law, technology can both protect and infringe privacy rights, which leads to the paradox of the same technology being both permissible and impermissible, resulting in a seeming impasse. I identify the problem as lying in the combination of technology neutrality, the courts’ avoidance in pronouncing on matters of technology, and the open-ended understanding of privacy rights. To appraise whether cybersecurity and privacy rights can be reconciled, I develop a method that bridges the technological and legal understandings of information security and privacy, based on the notions/methods of protection goals, attributes and core/periphery or essence, and which has the advantage of highlighting the independence of the two privacy rights. A trial run of the method discloses aspects of the ‘how’ question that were buried under the trade-off debate, viz. the re-appropriation of the political and judicial process vis-àvis technology.
Chapter 4 draws upon an article in Neue Kriminalpolitik 4/2013

Defence date: 18 July 2003
Examining board: Prof. Gráinne de Búrca, Supervisor ; Prof. Elspeth Guild ; Prof. Steve Peers ; Prof. Bruno de Witte
PDF of thesis uploaded from the Library digitised archive of EUI PhD theses completed between 2013 and 2017

With the increasing population heterogeneity and rising tensions in Western nations, the governments of those nations have sought ways to manage conflict between different groups. This often comes in the form of laws criminalizing certain speech, and numerous Western nations have passed bills strengthening sanctions against hate speech or adding previously unprotected groups. However, when the European Union attempted to pass strict hate speech legislation, many EU member states disagreed with its provisions and, due to the structure of the EU, managed to substantially change the resulting legislation. This study examines how proponents and opponents of hate speech legislative change frame the issue and the role the EU.
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Defence date: 31 March 2017
Examining Board: Professor Pepper Culpepper, formerly EUI/University of Oxford (Supervisor); Professor Hanspeter Kriesi, EUI (Co-Supervisor); Professor Ferdinand Müller-Rommel, Leuphana Universität Lüneburg; Professor Maurits Van der Veen, College of William & Mary
This dissertation deals with the question of how the partisan nature of government still matters in the current globalized and post-industrial world. In particular, it compares the representativeness of two contemporary centre-left governments with that of two centre-left executives from the 1970s in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. According to the more provocative theories about the state of contemporary representative democracy, these countries should be forerunners of a general European trend in which governments care more about technical competence rather than political representation and responsiveness. These tendencies are expected to particularly affect the partisanship of Labour ministers. In order to test these theories, I do a comparative content analysis of how Labour finance ministers/Chancellors justify the yearly government budget in front of the parliament. The justifications are divided into those that characterize the government as representative of the partisan redistributive preferences (input-justifications) VS those that profile it as a competent caretaker of public finances (output-justifications). Following the above-mentioned theories, the hypothesis is that today the output-justifications are more important than in the past. As this approach is relatively novel with regards to the study of responsiveness, the thesis also dedicates one chapter to the justification strategies of a technical and a neoliberal government. The purpose of this extra comparison is to have more empirical evidence of what renders an output-justification different from an input-justification. By incorporating these two cases, thus, I get a deeper comparative insight into what is a typical left-wing/partisan discourse characteristic and what constitutes governmental/institutional talk. This extra comparison, consequently, allows me to reflect more deeply on the findings emerging from the overtime comparison of Labour governments. The findings of my research tell a two-sided story. On the one hand, contrary to my hypothesis, the contemporary cases feature slightly more input-justifications than the governments from the 1970s. On the other, the logic of the discourses suggests that, while in the 1970s the responsiveness to social needs was presented as a policy goal per se, today the input-justifications tend to be more subordinated to justifications about economic and financial considerations. The findings thus speak both to theories according to which today we are not witnessing a decline of political representation, but simply a change in kind, as well to the theories speaking of a gradual hollowing out of political competition. In the iv conclusion of my dissertation I reflect on what is right and wrong on the two sides of the debate.

This study explores the international obligations of the European Union to the unaccompanied asylum-seeking and refugee child. In doing so, it involves an investigation into the concept and content of durable solutions for the refugee child. As such, it analyses the effect of the temporary European relocation scheme in the search for durable solutions. To that end, it engages a comprehensive explanation of the relevant refugee law, the law of the rights of the child and the European legislative framework governing the reception and protection of refugees. Cumulatively, an assessment is made as to the effectiveness of the durable solutions that currently exist. This study seeks to establish whether, in an attempt to relieve the pressure from the frontline member states by creating a system for effective integration, Europe encourages the development of a children’s rights perspective and ultimately, provides a path for the unaccompanied child’s development and self-fulfilment.
Public, Constitutional and International Law
LL. M.

Defence date: 10 June 2010
Examining Board: Andrea Lenschow (Univ. Osnabrueck); Peter Mair (EUI) (Supervisor); Claudio Radaelli (Univ. Exeter); Alexander Trechsel (EUI)
PDF of thesis uploaded from the Library digital archive of EUI PhD theses
The regulation of water and marine resources is undergoing profound structural transformations under the conceptual influence of policy integration and community-based approaches. Including environmental considerations at the early stages of policy-making, as well as acknowledging usage inter-dependencies and their impact on ecosystems, has led to the multiplication of localised participatory policies and multi-stakeholder platforms. In that context, the objective of the PhD is twofold. It aims to analyse how local politics, through political parties, influences those new participatory forms of management, especially in the implementation of EU environmental directives. On the other hand, it explores how the diffusion of participatory norms of governance affects the strategies of political parties. The results show that electoral position and territorial levels strongly condition the local politics of participatory governance. It also provides evidence that collaborative management reduces formal accountability and parties’ political discretion. In that sense, it confirms the cartelisation hypothesis: parties’ governing functions are strengthened, while participatory provisions have relocated the representation of interests outside the party system. The thesis highlights the positive effects of participation and holistic environmental approaches in terms of social regulation and transparency, especially in long-established national administrations. Yet, it questions its environmental strength, namely its capacity to solve deeply entrenched distributive dilemmas and the exclusiveness of social groups’ stakes. Even if multi-stakeholder participation must be appreciated as an empowering and more sustainable process, it is essential that practitioners and academics alike deal with its limitations and political ambiguities.

Deux décennies après l’adoption de la Convention relative au statut des réfugiés en 1951, l’affluence du nombre de réfugiés réclamant l’asile aux frontières occidentales a mené les États européens à instaurer des règles restrictives pour dissuader les demandeurs d’asile à se réclamer de cette protection internationale au sein de leurs territoires respectifs. Une des mesures préventives récentes est la directive sur « Pays d’origine sûrs » (POS) dont l’objectif est d’identifier les requérants non éligibles à recevoir la protection internationale, car issus de pays considérés sécuritaires. Ce travail de recherche propose une étude comparative entre les directives de l’Union européenne adoptées en 2005, puis réformées en 2013 et la Loi sur l’immigration et la protection des réfugiés en vigueur au Canada. D’une part, nous analysons l’impact néfaste de cette directive dissuasive sur les droits fondamentaux des demandeurs d’asile en provenance de pays d’origine désignés, notamment en ce qui a trait à leur droit à une entrevue individuelle ainsi que leur droit d’en appeler de la décision qui a été prise et leur refusant l’asile. D’autre part, nous démontrerons comment l’étendue des limites substantielles à l’égard des droits fondamentaux des demandeurs d’asile en provenance des POS est contradictoire avec les obligations constitutionnelles de l’UE et du Canada, notamment celles formulées dans la Charte des droits fondamentaux de l’Union européenne, la Convention européenne des droits de l’homme et la Charte canadienne des droits et libertés. Bien que l’élaboration et l’application des règles adoptées par les systèmes juridiques mentionnés souffrent de plusieurs défauts violant les droits fondamentaux des demandeurs d’asile en provenance de pays d’origine désignés, nous démontrerons que l’approche du Canada a des conséquences plus draconiennes sur des demandeurs d’asile en provenance de POS que celles découlant de la loi commune applicable dans l’UE. Finalement, nous conclurons que les États occidentaux ne devraient pas se limiter à une solution à court terme telle celle du POS. Ces États devraient avoir plus de responsabilités et offrir une protection internationale accrue en soutenant les pays près de zones de conflits tout en établissant un programme réaliste permettant d’accueillir un nombre précis de réfugiés tous les ans. Mots Clés : Pays d’origine sûrs – Pays d’origine désignés – Droits humains – Droits procéduraux – Droit à l’entrevue individuelle – Droit d’appel – l’Union européenne – Canada – Réfugiés requérants – Demandeurs d’asile
Two decades following the adoption of the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, the growing number of asylum seekers arriving at the Western countries’ borders convinced European States to put in place new asylum rules to prevent asylum seekers from reaching their borders and dissuade the potential refugee applicants from seeking international protection in their respective territories. One of the most recent preventive measures has been the “Safe Countries of Origin” rule (hereafter SCO) whose main purpose is to identify and reject refugee applicants who are not in real need of international protection since they originate from countries which are deemed generally safe. In this research, we conduct a comparative study between the European Union’s Directives adopted in 2005 and recasted in 2013, and the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act enacted by the Canada. At the first step, we intend to verify the adverse impact of this deterrent rule, during the expeditious determination procedure, on the SCO asylum seekers’ fundamental human rights including the right to personal interview and the right to appeal. At the second step, our objective is to demonstrate to which extent the fundamental human rights limitations imposed on SCO asylum seekers are in contradiction with the EU’s and Canada’s constitutional obligations undertaken respectively in EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, the European Convention on Human Rights and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Based on this comparative research we illustrate that, while the elaboration and the application of the SCO rule in both the above-mentioned legal systems suffer from inherent flaws which infringe the basic human rights of SCO refugee applicants, Canada’s approach has had more drastic consequences on the SCO refugee applicants than those resulting from the EU’s common asylum law. Finally, we conclude that, instead of a short-term solution such as the SCO rule, the Western States must accept more responsibilities in providing international protection by supporting the countries that border the crisis zones, and establishing a workable program to accept a specific number of asylum seekers every year. Keywords: Safe Countries of Origin - Designated Countries of Origin - Human Rights -Procedural Rights - Right to Personal Interview - Right to Appeal - the European Union - Canada - Refugee Applicants - Asylum Seekers

Defence date: 7 May 2007
Examining Board: Prof. Neil Walker (Supervisor, European University Institute) ; Prof. Marise Cremona (European University Institute) ; Prof. Pieter Boeles (Leiden University) ; Prof. Dora Kostakopoulou (University of Manchester)
First made available online on 10 July 2018
From a sociological point of view, camps or transit zones may present the institutionalisation o f temporariness as a form of radical social exclusion and marginalisation in modem society and a conservation of borders as dividing lines