Family Reunification Rights of (Migrant) Union Citizens: Towards a More Liberal Approach

Over the years, in the case‐law of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) determining the availability of family reunification rights for migrant Member State nationals, the pendulum has swung back and forth, from a ‘moderate approach’ in cases such as Morson and Jhanjan (1982) and Akrich (2003), towards a more ‘liberal approach’ in cases such as Carpenter (2002) and Jia (2007). Under the Court's ‘moderate approach’, family reunification rights in the context of the Community's internal market policy are only granted in situations where this is necessary for enabling a Member State national to move between Member States in the process of exercising one of the economic fundamental freedoms; in other words, where there is a sufficient link between the exercise of one of those freedoms and the need to grant family reunification rights under EC law. Conversely, under the Court's ‘liberal approach’, in order for family reunification rights to be bestowed by EC law, it suffices that the situation involves the exercise of one of the market freedoms and that the claimants have a familial link which is covered by Community law; in other words, there is no need to illustrate that there is a link between the grant of such rights and the furtherance of the Community's aim of establishing an internal market. The recent judgments of the ECJ in Eind and Metock (and its order in Sahin) appear to have decidedly moved the pendulum towards the ‘liberal approach’ side. In this article, it will be explained that the fact that the EU is aspiring to be not only a supranational organisation with a successful and smoothly functioning market but also a polity, the citizens of which enjoy a number of basic rights which form the core of a meaningful status of Union citizenship, is the major driving force behind this move. In particular, the move towards a wholehearted adoption of the ‘liberal approach’ seems to have been fuelled by a desire, on the part of the Court, to respond to a number of problems arising from its ‘moderate approach’ and which appear to be an anomaly in a citizens' Europe. These are: a) the incongruity caused between the (new) aim of the Community of creating a meaningful status of Union citizenship and the treatment of Union citizens (under the Court's ‘moderate approach’) as mere factors of production; and b) the emergence of reverse discrimination. The article will conclude with an explanation of why the adoption of the Court's liberal approach does not appear to be a proper solution to these problems.     

卧室里的宪法权利

一、本案中的卧室 本案中的卧室在宪法学上具有典型的象征意义.围绕卧室所展开的案件事实的一个要点,可陈述为:4名警察为查处淫秽物品而强行地进入了张某夫妇的卧室. 卧室本来不是宪法上的概念,但住宅则是.宪法上存在住宅不受侵犯的权利,如我国现行宪法第39条中就规定:“中华人民共和国公民的住……     

Transparency in the EU Council of Ministers: An Institutional Analysis

The development of access to documents and open meetings provisions by the Council of Ministers of the European Union shows an interesting pattern: before 1992 no formal transparency provisions existed, between 1992 and 2006 formal transparency provisions dramatically increased, and since 2006 this increase has come to a halt. This paper aims to enhance our understanding of these shifts by conducting a historical institutional analysis of policy change. As explanatory factors, we consider the preferences and power resources of Member States, as well as external catalysts and social structures. We conclude that the current revision deadlock is more stable than the situation before 1992 because now the pro‐transparency coalition and transparency‐sceptic Council majority have entrenched their positions. Nevertheless, and in spite of Council entrenchment, we expect that Council transparency will continue to develop in the longer term, under the pressure of increasingly influential outside actors, particularly the European Parliament.     

论基本权利的发展趋势

基本权利是宪法的核心和关键,是宪法的生命和价值所在,是宪法之所以成为根本法的原因.通过历史和实证分析,探讨近代宪法和现代宪法在确认和保障公民基本权利方面的若干发展趋势,即由自由权发展到社会权,由法律保障发展为宪法保障,由国内保障发展为国际保障.基本权利的这些发展趋势对我国的宪政制度建设提出了若干引人深思的问题.     

Constitutional Comparisons by A Supranational Court in Flux: The Privy Council and Caribbean Bills of Rights

This article examines how the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council makes constitutional comparisons between ‘related’ constitutions that are or were within its jurisdiction, deploying its own precedents, as a pragmatic method of resolving idiosyncratic questions that arise across multiple constitutions. In particular, it considers the Committee's approach to the longstanding question of the interpretation of the opening section of Caribbean constitutional bills of rights, which has far reaching implications for the scope of constitutional protection of human rights. The JCPC's answer over time to this question reveals the fault lines for this supranational constitutional court as its jurisdiction peters out yet remains. The gaze of comparativism is very harsh as older constitutions are evaluated in light of newer ones and also as fossilised constitutional interpretations presented in earlier JCPC cases where the Committee no longer has jurisdiction are given new life in contemporary cases.     

Accountability for Delegated and Implementing Acts after the Treaty of Lisbon

The comitology regime, the committee‐based system developed as a mechanism for controlling the Commission's exercise of its powers to implement EU measures, has been subject to severe criticism on grounds of lack of accountability and transparency. The system has recently been fundamentally reformed by means of the new Implementing Acts Regulation, which came into force on 1 March 2011. This paper investigates whether the new rules are sufficient to remedy accountability deficits as regards implementing acts and concludes that as far as accountability to the Member States is concerned, their control powers have remained static. In addition, the new‐delegated acts procedure introduced by the Treaty of Lisbon grants the European Parliament (EP) more control powers, although the EP's gains are more modest than they might appear. This change has come at the cost of reduced control powers for Member States as well as lowered standards of transparency for the public.     

公民环境权的宪法学考察

随着社会经济的发展,环境污染日益严重,在宪法中将公民环境权作为公民基本权利予以明确规定是未来宪法发展的趋势,是公民基本权利的发展和丰富.同时,也为公民环境权的保护奠定了宪法基础,使其从应有权利转化为法定权利,是我国人权事业的一大进步.     

论中国宪法基本权利的发展

基本权利与宪法发展的关系是宪法学研究不能回避的重要问题,基本权利是宪法发展的基点,宪法的发展是对基本权利需求的反映,宪法的发展状况影响着基本权利的发展水平。随着我国公民社会的孕育、法治社会的推进以及人权理念的发展等情势的出现,基本权利与宪法发展具备有利时机。树立人权理念,加强人权的系统性立法和有效性保障是推进我国人权实现和宪法纵深发展的必然选择。     

人权的宪法保护的几个误区

2004年3月14日下午,十届全国人大二次会议通过了宪法修正案,其中的第24条修正案规定:"国家尊重和保障人权."自此,人权也就从一个纯属学术的概念进入到了1982年宪法中的法的概念,接下来的问题就是如何使宪法中的人权得到保护.为了朝着这个目标前进,我们还要克服一些目前普遍存在着的一些理论误区,否则,人权即便写在了宪法里也只能是字面意义上的人权.     

Another Look at Constitutional Pluralism in the European Union

Constitutional pluralism is a theory, or movement, or idea, for some perhaps even an ideal, about the relationship between the legal system of the European Union and those of its Member States. In this paper, Julio Baquero Cruz analyses its assumptions and implications in the light of historical experience and of the consequences it could have for the practice of law in Europe. To do so, constitutional pluralism is compared with the other main positions about that relationship: the national constitutional position and the position of Union law.     

Constitutional Legitimacy and Credible Commitments in the European Union

Abstract:  The idea that the European Union must not adopt a constitution is gaining ground in current legal research on European constitutionalism. The N-C (No Constitution) thesis is being forcefully defended, in particular, by authors in the 'contextual' or 'law in context' tradition. However, likewise using a 'contextual' methodology, in this article I argue that the N-C thesis is in many regards misplaced. In this work, I defend the idea that Europe must adopt a constitution for reasons of credibility. I also try to show the main pitfalls of the N-C thesis.     

论欧洲理事会的人权保护制度对建立和完善国际人权保护制度的影响

欧洲理事会采取集体办法促进和保护人权的理论和实践对建立和完善国际人权保护制度产生了深远的影响 :区域性人权保护办法是在区域层面上施行《世界人权宣言》的有效途径 ;国际人权机构应通过改革不断提高人权的可司法性 ;主权国家应在采取集体办法保护区域人权方面积极行使主权权利 ;人权国际保护内在地要求增强个人的权利主体意识 ;国际人权保护机构应不断提高其工作效率。随着欧洲理事会的人权保护制度的不断完善 ,它在人权国际保护中的“领跑者”的形象和影响将得以继续显现。     

Voting Powers and the Efficiency of the Decision-Making Process in the European Council of Ministers

We analyse the efficiency effects in combination with some accepted fairness criteria for the voting games in the European Council of Ministers (ECM) under the qualified majority voting (QMV), before and after the Nice new scheme, in comparison with hypothetical simple majority voting rules (SMV), by jointly examining voting weights and voting powers. The differences between the voting weights and the voting powers increase considering the attitude of the Governments of the Member States of the ECM, to form voting-blocs'—historically that among France, Germany and Belgium and, more recently, the bloc between the United Kingdom and Spain. Their voting powers by blocking proposals result in stalemates and weak compromise with likely benefits for existing well organised interest groups. Unexpectedly, the enlargement of EU from 12 to 15 States, with the diminution of the voting weights of the member countries has not reduced the decisional deficit of QMV, basically because the incentive toward blocs' formation has been reinforced. And, while the power of getting a proposal approved has diminished, the veto-power has remained very high. The effects of the new dual QMV rule, based on a new distribution of votes and correcting the unbalance against the big countries with their demographic weights, for the enlargement to 27 States, seems to go in the same direction. The adoption of a dual SMV, would solve the problems of decision efficiency, with a fairness constraint to protect the major countries. To make this voting rule acceptable one might adopt the Buchanan and Tullock (1962) distinction between constitutional principles to whom the unanimity or QMV might be reserved and post constitutional rules suitable to SMV. Clubs of enhanced co-operation among countries with more homogeneous preferences could also ease the application of SMV.     

法国宪法委员会功能新论

提起法国宪法委员会,人们都会很自然地将其功能与宪法监督划上等号。但事实上它却是一个有着宪法监督功能,以平衡政府与议会关系为主要职责的特殊政治机构。从宪法委员会官方网站提供的历年裁决来看,其功能可分为两级。通过第五共和国权力机关运作流程,对其功能进行动态分析,发现宪法委员会的主要功能不是宪法监督,而是平衡政府和议会之间的权力。     

宪法文本中"人权条款"的规范分析

2004年宪法修正案的亮点之一是人权"人宪"①,突出了人权在国家生活中的坐标与功能,使人权从一般的政治原则转变为统一的法律概念和具有独立规范价值的宪法原则,预示着国家价值观的深刻变化.     

国外宪法权利的司法实施研究——兼论行政诉讼在宪法实施中的作用

宪法案例是西方宪政国家宪法实施的标志,探讨行政诉讼在宪法案例中的作用,有助于借鉴国外宪法实施的经验:在诉讼中行政法问题演变为宪法问题,宪法是处理权利争议的最高标准,权利是宪法司法实施的动力,社会转型为宪法的司法实施带来了机遇.     

人权入宪的重大意义

今年3月14日,十届人大通过的宪法修正案第24条,增写了"国家尊重和保障人权",列为宪法第33条第3款.这个增修,体现了党中央倡导的以人为本的原则精神,反映了社会主义民主建设的发展和进步,具有重大的政治意义.