Europeanising Gender Mainstreaming: Constraints and Opportunities in the Multilevel Euro-polity

What are the conditions for empowering `gender mainstreaming' as a new policy frame beyond the supranational level in member states and regions of the European Union? This paper is premised on the following assumptions: that mainstreaming will reduce gender disparities in Europe only if it takes root at all levels of decision-making, but that some national gender regimes can be expected to resist mainstreaming more than others, especially because it does not command `hard' legal tools. The puzzle to be examined is how mainstreaming can become effective across the European multilevel polity. It is argued that vis-à-visthe resistance of domestic gender regimes, the Europeanisation of equal treatment norms in national, regional and local contexts over the past decades has generated a variety of mechanisms for the cross-border diffusion of new policy ideas that can help to promote mainstreaming. Drawing on comparative Europeanisation research, this argument is developed in three steps. First, the past performance of member states in the implementation of E.U. gender directives is explored, to identify patterns and dynamics and classify leaders and laggards. Second, current mainstreaming experiences in one of the most conspicuous laggard states – Germany – are examined closely. Finally, as a means of explaining the rather intense engagement of German federal and regional governments with mainstreaming, two factors are highlighted: elite learning, and new governance instruments developed by the E.U. Notwithstanding the steps taken to promote mainstreaming, the prospects for further institutionalization within the E.U. appear contingent on the outcome of the Convention on the Future of the Union and the Intergovernmental Conference planned for 2004, since the invigorating of the subsidiarity principle and the division of competences across the multilevel polity are key issues of debate. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

欧盟涉外离婚法律适用的新发展——以《罗马条例Ⅲ》为中心

伴随欧洲一体化进程的深入,欧盟内部人员的跨国流动和社会家庭秩序的正常运转,要求成员国彼此间在涉外婚姻家庭冲突法领域实现统一化。以欧盟婚姻事项冲突法立法演变为出发点,以《罗马条例Ⅲ》的法律规定为中心,笔者着重探究将意思自治原则引入涉外婚姻家庭法律适用的合理性;并在现行规定的基础上反观惯常居所地这一连结因素的折衷性,试图思考理论层面可能浮出的疑难及其解决路径。