Organizing international armaments cooperation: institutional design and path dependencies in Europe

Abstract

Few issues are more important to scholars of Europe's emergence as a foreign policy actor than whether the European Union (EU) can forge a common defense-industrial policy out of 27 states' procurement policies and defense industries. Overlooked in most scholarly analyses of European defense-industrial cooperation, the story of Europe's international armaments organizations stretches back more than six decades. In this article, we examine the impact of past institutional outcomes on the defense-industrial field by applying the concepts and analytic tools of historic institutionalism to European armaments organizations. Because past institutional dynamics have channeled the subsequent development of armaments cooperation, what has emerged is a polycentric governance architecture wherein organizations with transatlantic, pan-European and restrictive-European memberships dominate distinct components of the cooperative process. We demonstrate that this maturing institutional pattern will likely limit the opportunities for the EU – and especially its Commission – to shape the future contours of European defense-industrial cooperation.     

National Parliaments and European Integration: What We Know and Agenda for Future Research

The role of national legislatures in European integration first received serious attention in the mid-1990s in connection with debates on the EU's democratic deficit. Since then, both academics and politicians have entered a lively debate on how best to involve national parliaments in EU affairs. The purpose of this article is to examine critically the state of research on the role of national parliaments in European integration and to use that existing knowledge to suggest avenues for further research. The main argument is that through focusing almost exclusively on scrutiny of European affairs, the literature has failed to acknowledge the multiple constraints that impact on legislatures. There is a demand for more theory-driven analyses of actual behaviour that extend beyond describing formal procedures and organisational choices. Future research should also pay more attention to the strategies of political parties and to the incentives of individual MPs to become involved in European affairs.     

European criminal law and European identity

This contribution aims to explain how European Criminal Law can be understood as constitutive of European identity. Instead of starting from European identity as a given, it provides a philosophical analysis of the construction of self-identity in relation to criminal law and legal tradition. The argument will be that the self-identity of those that share jurisdiction depends on and nourishes the legal tradition they adhere to and develop, while criminal jurisdiction is of crucial importance in this process of mutual constitution. This analysis will be complemented with a discussion of the integration of the first and the third pillar as aimed for by the Constitutional Treaty (TE), which would bring criminal law under majority rule and European democratic control. Attention will be paid to two ground breaking judgements of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) that seem to boil down to the fact that the Court actually manages to achieve some of the objectives of the CT even if this is not in force. This gives rise to a discussion of how the CT (and related judgements of the ECJ) may transform European criminal law in the Union to EU criminal law of the Union, thus producing an identity of the Union next to the identities prevalent in the Union. The contribution concludes with some normative questions about the kind of European identity we should aim to establish, given the fact that such identity will arise with further integration of criminal law into the first pillar.

治理贿赂犯罪国际公约立法发展及其启示

从上世纪70年代开始，经过三个阶段的发展，国际社会形成了以保障市场经济公平竞争秩序理念为指导、以打击行贿行为为主要策略、以加强商业组织治理为发展方向的国际公约立法体系，充分反映出市场经济下贿赂犯罪立法治理的基本规律。相比之下，中国贿赂犯罪立法治理存在理念较为滞后、治理策略相对简单、治理对象较为单一的问题，在未来中国贿赂犯罪治理改革中，有必要汲取国际社会贿赂犯罪治理之经验，及时调整相关立法理念和策略，以适应国内市场经济发展及世界市场竞争之需求。     

The problem with the “portfolio approach” in American energy policy

One predominant theme in American energy and electricity policy is the idea of a “portfolio approach,” or that society must embrace an assortment of different energy technologies simultaneously. This article argues that such a strategy, in practice, is (a) biased, since fossil fuel and nuclear technologies have been heavily favored; (b) opaque, obscuring the different full social costs of energy systems; (c) inequitable, promoting technologies that contribute to climate change; and (d) unsophisticated, ignoring important qualitative differences among technologies. The article estimates the full social costs of electricity generation, concluding that the five cheapest forms of electricity generation are all renewable resources; that intermittency is not a reason to reject renewable energy technologies; that nuclear power has significant technical and environmental problems, especially from a greenhouse gas emissions and climate change perspective; and that “clean coal” and carbon capture and sequestration technologies face significant challenges to deployment.     

Do all bridges collapse? Possibilities for democracy in the European Union

It is tempting, but wrong, to infer from the failures of the EU draft constitution that all reforms based on increasing citizen participation in the European Union are doomed to fail. Andrew Moravcsik’s trenchant dismissal of the constitutional project commits this error. Moravcsik’s sweeping claims, based on what he calls empirical social science, speak well beyond the evidence on democratic institutional innovations. Participatory measures such as consultative Citizens’ Assemblies may articulate a citizens’ perspective that can help to anchor the democratic legitimacy of the EU. We do not know if such innovations can resolve the problems of the democratic deficit, but we do know that empirical social science has not spoken decisively on the issue. It is worth examining their democratic potential rather than dismissing them outright. This article develops and draws on ideas we first expressed in an online symposium with Andrew Moravcsik and others, hosted by Notre Europe (Culpepper/Fung 2006b).     

去冬今春朝鲜形势管窥

去冬今春朝鲜形势沸沸扬扬,有两点尤为引人关注:其一,美朝核风波所以再起绝非偶然,系由美朝双方各自立场相左而引起。风波事态发展严峻,但还不致引发美国对朝实施类似对伊拉克的“外科手术式”打击。在中国卓有成效的斡旋之下,在北京召开的中、美、朝3方会谈,展现了和平解决朝核问题的曙光;其二,朝鲜推出的经济秩序调整和增设特区的举措,不否认对其活化濒临崩溃的经济具有重大意义,却因受一系列的制约因素影响,导致通货膨胀发生,个别特区建设搁浅。朝鲜距全面复苏经济、实现良性循环尚任重道远。     

不扩散全球治理:现实主义视角

在全球化时代,民族国家奉行主权防务的传统没有改变。基于现实主义的视角,所有大规模毁伤性武器的扩散主要都有安全动因的驱动,解决扩散问题必须提供可信的替代安全产品,集体防御以及合作安全都具有这种功效。霸权可能导致一时的稳定,但更会引起大规模毁伤性武器扩散所带来的长期性的不稳定。同时,扩散不仅容易产生地区失稳,它也不无平衡霸权从而产生新的稳定。然而所有个体的理性,未必保证系统的整体理性。在平衡国家安全和国际安全之间,经由全球治理来交换国家安全利益从而促使人类社会分享更为普遍的安全,乃是一种更为理想的出路。     

欧盟宪治:一种宪政法理学解读

<欧盟宪法条约>在2005年遭遇挫折,原因是多方面的,或许民主的因素不可忽视,当然这还涉及到人们刘欧盟性质、特征以及宪法条约文本的理解.欧盟立宪应当是一个社会互动的过程,包括民众在内的各种社会力量通过谈判达成共识,这样产生的宪法才是一部欧洲人民的宪法,而非仅仅是一部欧洲国家间的宪法,也唯有如此才可能构建新的宪政秩序.而宪政法理学为我们研究欧盟立宪问题提供了概念分析工具.     

《联合国反腐败公约》视野下的受贿罪

受贿罪是我国刑法中的一个重点罪名,也是刑事司法实践中一种多发性的腐败犯罪。本文以受贿罪的犯罪构成为线索,以《联合国反腐败公约》为视角,提出刑法规定应该扩大我国受贿罪犯罪主体的范围,扩大"贿赂"的范围,取消"为他人谋取利益"这一犯罪构成要件。