"Europe of the Regions" and the Federalization of Europe

There is a close connection between regionalism, federalism,and the movement to create a united federal Europe. The recentmovement to create a "Europe of the Regions" is one expressionof these connections. However, there are many kinds of regions,and certain forms of regional policy that may not necessarilybe an expression of either regionalism or European federalism.It might be said, nevertheless, that a "Europe of the Regions"is emerging in the weaker sense that, in today s Europe, significantchanges are taking place in the nature and functions of thenation-state. These changes are providing new opportunitiesfor regions to become more important policy actors in a widerEuropean context. The nation-state, however, is unlikely todisappear.     

The "Transformation" of Governance: New Directions in Policy and Politics

The terms transformation and governance are used increasingly in the academic literature but often in a confused way. This article attempts to define both terms. It argues that there are three kinds of transformation: pseudo-change; incremental evolutionary transformation (IET), which is the most common form; and revolutionary transformation (RT). It applies this model of change to three paradigm shifts in developed countries since 1945: the Welfare State; the neo-liberal state; and the so-called Third Way. It argues that each of these paradigms involves a particular dominant mode of governance: statist; pluralist; and network respectively. It examines both the causes and consequences of these transformations for politics and policy.     

Investment Treaty Arbitration as a Species of Global Administrative Law

The article outlines a simple thesis: that international investmentarbitration – pursuant to regional and bilateral investmenttreaties – offers the clearest example of global administrativelaw, strictly construed, yet to have emerged. We present thisthesis by explicating four key features of investment treaties:they permit investor claims against the state without exhaustinglocal remedies; they allow claims for damages; they allow investorsto directly seek enforcement of awards before domestic courts;and they facilitate forum-shopping. Our argument is that, owingto this unique conjunction of features, the regulatory conductof states is, to an unusual extent, subject to control throughcompulsory international adjudication. Having highlighted thesefeatures, we then claim that investment arbitration is bestanalogized to domestic administrative law rather than to internationalcommercial arbitration, especially since investment arbitrationengages disputes arising from the exercise of public authorityby the state as opposed to private acts of the state. Further,we claim that the linkages between investment arbitration anddomestic legal systems are more direct and more closely integratedthan other forms of international adjudication in the publicsphere. For these reasons, we argue that the emerging regimeof investment arbitration is to be understood as constitutingan important and powerful manifestation of global administrativelaw.     

REVIEWS

Beyond Complacency; Administrative Law (Fifth Edition). By H. W. R. Wade. Principles of Public International Law. Third Edition. By Ian Brownlie. An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation. Jeremy Bentham. Edited by J. H. Burns and H. L. A. Hart. Courts, Prosecution, and Conviction. By M. McConville and J. Baldwin. Making Good: Prisons, Punishment and Beyond. By Martin Wright.     

The rise and fall of “Novorossiya”: examining support for a separatist geopolitical imaginary in southeast Ukraine

In the spring of 2014, some anti-Maidan protestors in southeast Ukraine, in alliance with activists from Russia, agitated for the creation of a large separatist entity on Ukrainian territory. These efforts sought to revive a historic region called Novorossiya (“New Russia”) on the northern shores of the Black Sea that was created by Russian imperial colonizers. In public remarks, Vladimir Putin cited Novorossiya as a historic and contemporary home of a two-part interest group, ethnic Russian and Russian-speaking Ukrainians, supposedly under threat in Ukraine. Anti-Maidan agitation in Ukraine gave way to outright secession in April 2014, as armed rebel groups established the Donetsk People’s Republic and Luhans’k People’s Republic on parts of the eponymous Ukrainian oblasts. Rebel leaders aspired to create a renewed Novorossiya that incorporated all of eastern and southern Ukraine from Kharkiv to Odesa oblasts. To examine the level of support for this secessionist imaginary in the targeted oblasts, our large scientific poll in December 2014 revealed the Novorossiya project had minority support, between 20 and 25% of the population. About half of the sample believed that the concept of Novorossiya was a “historical myth” and that its resuscitation and promotion was the result of “Russian political technologies.” Analysis of the responses by socio-demographic categories indicated that for ethnic Russians, residents of the oblasts of Kharkiv and Odesa, for older and poorer residents, and especially for those who retain a nostalgic positive opinion about the Soviet Union, the motivations and aims of the Novorossiya project had significant support.     

The Constitutional Imagination

The constitutional imagination refers to the way we have been able to conceive the relationship between thought, text and action in the constitution of modern political authority. The lecture seeks to demonstrate how modern constitutional texts come to be invested with a ‘world‐making’ capacity. The argument is advanced first by explaining how social contract thinkers have been able to set the parameters of the constitutional imagination (thought), then by showing that constitutions are agonistic documents and their interpretative method is determined by a dialectic of ideology and utopia (text), and finally by examining the degree to which constitutions have been able to colonise the political domain, thereby converting constitutional aspiration into political reality (action). It concludes by suggesting that although we seem to be entering a constitutional age, this is an ambiguous achievement and whether the power of the constitutional imagination can still be sustained remains an open question.