Europol and the Policing of International Terrorism: Counter‐Terrorism in a Global Perspective

The European Police Office (Europol) is an international police organization that was formed to promote cooperation among law enforcement agencies in the European Union. Framed within the context of the Treaty of the European Union, Europol’s mandate includes all serious forms of international crime, including international terrorism. This paper offers an analysis of the organization of Europol’s counter‐terrorism operations in the context of the history and dynamics of international police cooperation. More specifically, on the basis of the bureaucratization theory of policing, Europol is reviewed to exemplify the dual forces of political control over the organization via the regulative bodies of the European Union, on the one hand, and the institutional autonomy and professional expertise of participating police agencies, on the other. The outcome of these dual forces can be expected to determine the course and outcome of counter‐terrorist policing in the European Union in years to come.     

The Role of Principles and General Principles in the ‘Constitutional Processes’ of International Law

Netherlands International Law Review - The fundamental elements of the international legal system remain subject to debate. Constitutionalism is merely the latest instalment of this continuing...     

International Commercial Arbitration in the People''''s Republic of China

IntroductionArbitrationhasbeenconsideredasanalternativetolitigationforalongtime.Comparedwithlitigation,itiswidelyrecognisedthatarbitrationhastheadvantagesofneutrality,flexibilityandconfidentialityanditisanefficientandlessexpensivemethodofresolvinginternational commercialdisputes.①Overthepastdecades,arbitrationhasbecomeanimportantandfrequentlyused methodforsettlinginternationalcommercialdisputesintheworld.ThelasttwentyyearshavewitnessedthedramaticexpansionoftheeconomyinChina.Meanwhile,dispute…     

Diffusion of the Budapest Convention on cybercrime and the development of cybercrime legislation in Pacific Island countries: ‘Law on the books’ vs ‘law in action’

The Council of Europe Convention on Cybercrime,¹ referred to as the Budapest Convention on Cybercrime, has been diffused globally, and is serving as a benchmark or a ‘model law’ for drafting national cybercrime legislation in many countries worldwide. This paper argues that, through the mechanism of ‘state socialization’ combined with incentives, e.g. assistance in building law enforcement capacity, the diffusion of the Budapest Convention has had a profound influence on the development of cybercrime legislation in a number of Pacific Island Countries (PICs).² Some PICs have expressed their great interest in acceding to the Convention and ‘imported’ several provisions from the Convention. This article, nevertheless, contends that these PICs do not seem to consider carefully whether the ‘imported’ law is applicable to their existing law enforcement capacity. It is evident that various domestic factors, such as lack of resources, have deterred the enforcement of cybercrime laws in these countries. As the result, although those PICs would have adequate cybercrime laws ‘on the books’, ‘law in action’ is still feeble.     

The Uses of the Outputs of the International Law Commission in International Adjudication: Subsidiary Means or Artefacts of Rules?

This paper examines the methods which international courts and tribunals (ICTs) employ when using ILC outputs for the purpose of determining rules of international law and their content. Specifically, it identifies common patterns in the ways in which ICTs, first, justify their reliance on ILC outputs and, second, deal with their ambiguities. The paper argues in favour of a consistent methodology for the treatment of ILC outputs in international adjudication. Such a framework is based on the distinction between the identification of the status of a normative proposition contained in these texts and the determination of its content or its interpretation. The identification of the status of a normative proposition requires a critical assessment and reconstruction of the evidence leading up to its development taking also into account that these instruments are not a monolith from the perspective of sources. However, the interpretation of a proposition whose status is uncontested follows a line of inquiry akin to treaty interpretation. This observation has broader implications for the process of interpretation in international law. Specifically, apart from the context of treaty interpretation, international courts or tribunals interpret the normative propositions contained in ILC outputs as a methodological shortcut for the interpretation of rules of customary international law or general principles of law. Conversely, the employment of methods akin to treaty interpretation in this context can constitute evidence of the emergence of common rules, principles, or good practices of interpretation that are also applicable to unwritten international law.

     

Surveillance and social control: the FBI’s handling of the Black Panther Party in North Carolina

Extant research on state policing of protest tends to focus on overt and physical forms of repression, yet far less work has examined more subtle types of social control. Such mechanisms often take place behind the scenes and are carried out within large government agencies. Drawing upon previously classified documents, we analyze the targeted investigation of the Black Panther Party by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) between 1968 and 1976. Findings indicate that directives from FBI headquarters to regional offices in North Carolina had three specific goals: forewarn law enforcement agencies of planned activities, gather evidence for possible preemptive prosecutions under an anti-sedition statute, and gather evidence for possible prosecution under existing firearm statutes. We highlight how local offices in North Carolina often distorted and embellished Black Panther activities to meet national FBI directives. Findings have important implications for ongoing state investigations of social movement activity.     

The perspective of “justice” of international law in the global context

After the Cold War and the quick development of globalization, non-state acts by international organizations, transnational corporations and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), etc., are becoming more active. Global issues with regard to, inter alia, environment, human rights, terrorism are constantly emerging, which bring great challenge to the Westphalia System that is based on state sovereignty and centered on the national state. At the same time, the values, which include “individualism” and “global justice,” are constantly casting impact on international legal system. Doubtlessly, in the current context of international relations, “justice among states” is still the reasonable positioning of the value of modern international law. However, making “individualism” and “global justice” compatible and modifying “justice among states” is an inevitable trend. At the same time, the rule brought about by the modification on the value of justice must be handled properly.     

Unilateral CDM—can developing countries finance generation of greenhouse gas emission credits on their own?

The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) was originally seen as an instrument with a bi- or multilateral character where an entity or fund from an industrialised country invests in a project in a developing country. The sluggish implementation of incentives for industrialised country companies to embark on CDM projects and low carbon prices led to a preference for just buying Certified Emission Reductions (CERs) instead of investing in projects. Thus a third option has gained prominence—the unilateral option where the project development is planned and financed within the developing country. We propose that a project should be called “pure unilateral” if it involves no foreign direct investment (FDI), only has the approval of the Designated National Authority (DNA) of the host country and sells its CERs after certification directly to an industrialised country. Unilateral projects can become attractive if the host country risk premium for foreign investors is high despite a high human, institutional and infrastructural capacity and domestic capital availability. Moreover, transaction costs can be reduced compared to foreign investments that have to overcome bureaucratic hurdles. On the other hand, technology transfer is likely to be lower, capacity building has to be undertaken by the host country and all risks have to be carried by host country entities. The potential to carry out unilateral CDM projects strongly varies among host countries. Whereas several countries from Asia and Latin America can design and implement projects autonomously, most of the Sub-Saharan countries rely on foreign support. International donors of capacity building grants should increasingly address those countries that are not presently focused on by foreign investors and support them in the design of local projects.

‘Letters aren’t good’: the operation of the right to request flexible working post-maternity leave in UK small and medium-sized companies

This article contributes to existing literature on flexible working at an organisational level by presenting the results of a qualitative study of women employees and managers in small firms who have been involved in negotiating part-time hours on return to work post-maternity leave. The study finds that the right to request flexible working has become embedded in the policies of small firms and that the overwhelming experience of women employees was positive: their requests were accepted because they were perceived as valuable and consequently their managers wanted to retain them. However employees who lacked ongoing managerial support had a less positive experience. The study also examines other aspects of the operation of the right to request such as the efficacy of written policies on flexible working and the extent to which the negotiation process was formalised.