Disaggregating public-private governance interactions: European Union interventions in transnational private sustainability governance

Transnational private sustainability governance, such as eco-certification, does not operate in a regulatory or jurisdictional vacuum. A public authority may intervene in private governance for various reasons, including to improve private governance's efficient functioning or to assert public regulatory primacy. This article argues that to properly understand the nature of public-private governance interactions—whether more competitive or complementary—we need to disaggregate a public authority's intervention. The article distinguishes between four features of private governance in which a public authority can intervene: standard setting, procedural aspects, supply chain signaling, and compliance incentives. Using the cases of the European Union's policies on organic agriculture and biofuels production, the article shows that public-private governance interaction dynamics vary across these private governance features as well as over time. Furthermore, the analysis highlights the importance of active lobbying by private governance actors in influencing these dynamics and the resulting policy outputs.     

The Concept of the Supremacy of the Constitution

The article compares and assesses the idea of the supremacy of the constitution found in Germany with the competing British tradition of parliamentary sovereignty. It concludes by examining the need for a supreme constitutional law in the European Union.     

The Fight Against Organised Crime in Europe: A Comparative Perspective

This article provides an overview of the measures and actions taken by the Member States of the European Union in their fight against organised crime and transborder crime. The Action Plan to Combat Organized Crime adopted by the Ministers for Justice and Home Affairs during the Dutch EU Presidency, submitted some 30 recommendations with respect to greater harmonisation regarding the fight against organised crime in the EU Member States. The author gives a concise summary of the most relevant changes and the structural characteristics per Member State, paying attention to developments in the specific countries and the organisations involved. One of the conclusions reached is that few or no reforms within national investigative and prosecution authorities may be directly traced back to the regulatory impulses of the EU. Although the EU Action Plan has not yet realised a convergence of the systems, the European process of integration has increased the mutual transparency and knowledge of one another's systems.     

美国三权分立制度与我国议行合一制度之比较

由于历史、文化和社会条件等的差异,不同的国家所实施的国家管理形式会不相同。美国实行三权分立政治制度,中国实行的是议行合一政治体制。抑恶功能是前者的价值理念,扬善功能是后者的价值理念。它们在实践中都有所长,有所短,需要相互借鉴,取长补短。     

布什政府在东南亚的三重战略及走向

布什政府在东南亚展开的一系列外交活动中,有着明晰的战略目标。它在这一地区的战略目标有3个方面：美国价值观的推行、双边关系的建立和加强、参与并影响地区进程。对上述三重战略走向分别进行阐述分析后,笔者认为,美国会继续推行它的既定战略,但是会遇到一定的阻力。     

中美警务比较对我国公安改革的启示

我们通过对中美警察的警察机构、警察快速反应机制、社区警务、技术装备等方面的比较后得出:中国应该从美国的警务发展中汲取有益经验,夯实群众基础工作,建设立体治安防控体系,提高公安科技水平,建立具有中国特色的高效警务机制,做好社会稳定工作。     

The charismatic leadership of the ECB presidency: A language-based analysis

There is little doubt that the European Central Bank (ECB), and in particular its presidency, has taken the lead in tackling the euro crisis. But can this leadership be also characterised as charismatic? This article answers the question by focusing on language – a key component as well as a reliable indicator of charisma. By means of a software-assisted content analysis of the entire corpus of ECB presidential speeches, it is found that the crisis has indeed led to the emergence of the Bank's presidency as a charismatic euro leader. This in turn confirms the recent politicisation of the ECB, but at the same time might be seen as mitigating the problems related to the Bank's democratic deficit, to the extent that charisma can be seen, from a Weberian standpoint, as an alternative source of political legitimacy.     

Bridging borders through institution-building: the EGTC as a facilitator of institutional integration in cross-border regions

This article examines cross-border integration at the sub-state level in the frame of a European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation (EGTC). The EGTC is a supranational and directly applicable EU legal instrument that regulates the creation of cross-border ‘associations' with legal personality between public authorities. Thus, it represents a policy tool that can have an effect on the institutional frame of cross-border cooperation and potentially enhance cross-border institutional integration at the sub-state level. The aim of this article is to examine the potential effect of this EU instrument on cross-border institutional integration by studying the institutional architecture of selected EGTCs. This is done on the basis of an analytical grid that defines elements of a possible integration process based on an institutional-oriented approach. This analytical grid is applied to four case studies: the Eurométropole Lille-Kortrijk-Tournai, the EGTC Ister-Granum, the Pyrenees-Mediterranean Euroregion and the European Region Tyrol-South Tyrol-Trentino. The empirical analysis shows that despite the considerable improvement of the legal basis for cooperation, the possible effect of the EGTC for further institutional cross-border integration is still rather limited due to a narrow design of institutions and a low level of actor involvement.     

欧债危机对欧洲华裔青少年华文教育的影响及其对策

本文分析了欧债危机对欧洲华裔青少年华文教育的主要影响及分析其造成影响的主要原因,从政府、华文学校和华人家庭的视角,为欧洲华裔青少年华文教育的问题提出相应的对策建议。     

Exile and Diaspora in an Atypical Context: Chileans and Argentineans in the United States (1973–2005)

This article focuses on two groups of Southern Cone exiles' communities, Chileans and Argentineans, choosing to settle down in an atypical destination: the United States. After estimating some qualitative and quantitative findings, the article delves into the ways these communities settle down, remember their relationship with politics, maintain their connection with exiled fellow‐countrymen worldwide and perceive their national identity. By relying on an empirical, single‐case perspective, with no theoretical ambitions to extrapolate its conclusions to other contexts, this article examines the extent to which the conceptualisation of the exile and diaspora categories changes when applied to these two communities.