Software patenting is an increasingly important phenomenon in the European Union. Using a novel database of more than 30,000 software patents granted to both European and Non-European companies, we investigate the relevant factors explaining firm-level software patenting at the European Patent Office. We find that software patents are mainly applied for by American and Japanese firms, that they are characterised by a higher than average length of the granting procedure and that firms belonging to the software sector generally do not apply for them. Finally, results from non-linear panel data estimation reveal that patents are not deemed as useful appropriability instruments by software firms and that a " threat effect" by hardware firms is growing in importance. This last result is in line with recent developments in the literature relative to strategic patenting.
From the start of her independence, India was forced to choose a foreign policy which would serve her national interests in the context of a world divided between communism and anti-communism. The paper looks at the foundations of India foreign policy paying special attention to the role played by the former Prime Minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru in formulating this policy. Nehru as one of the creators of the peace bloc idea. (DÜI-Sen)
Henrik Larsen presents discourse analysis as an alternative approach to foreign policy analysis. Through an extensive empirical study of British and French policies towards Europe in the 1980s, he demonstrates the importance of political discourse in shaping foreign policy.The author discusses key theoretical problems within traditional belief system approaches and proposes an alternative one: political discourse analysis. The theory is illustrated through detailed analyses of British and French discourses on Europe, nation/state security and the nature of international relations
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This article investigates the influence of the European Union (EU) on legal resources available to labour to tackle labour market challenges in Central and Eastern European countries after their accession to the EU in 2004 and 2007. Its conclusion is that the EU's impact has been complex and contradictory, with differences between countries and time periods. The EU has to varying degrees encouraged social partnership and supported a model of employment relations giving high levels of legal and collective protection to employees. Since 2008, the EU has advocated reductions in protection for employees on standard contracts and a very substantial reduction in collective bargaining coverage in one case, only partially balanced by advocacy for improving the lot of those on less secure employment relationships. However, the EU agenda has in practice been largely irrelevant to the widespread informalization and casualization of employment relations in the region.
Die Einstellung des amerikanischen Präsidenten Eisenhowers zu Fragen des Gebrauchs militärischer Macht als Mittel der Außenpolitik, seine Vorstellungsbilder hinsichtlich der Einschätzung internationaler Beziehungen sowie außenpolitische Entscheidungsprozesse innerhalb seiner Administration werden analysiert. (SWP-Rbg)
Abstract The Council is a crucial intergovernmental institution of the European Union. However, the complex, opaque and consensual character of the decision-making process in the Council puts its legitimacy into question. Intergovernmentalist theory posits that it is sufficiently legitimised, indirectly, by the member state governments. Constructivist research, on the other hand, suggests that socialisation might disturb the relaying of positions from the national to the supranational level, as the former approach implies. This paper aims to explore these issues, in particular related to representation and consensus. It contains an analysis of material generated in in-depth interviews and concludes that more effort is invested into reaching a more inclusive compromise in the Council than one would expect if it were to decide by qualified majority. Socialisation is weakening the input legitimacy of decisions made in the Council, while at the same time enhancing their output legitimacy by favouring genuine consensus.
AbstractThis article studies the determinants of international bargaining power in instances of trade negotiations between the European Union and the United States. The authors' central hypothesis is that an appraisal of the US–EU trade relationship requires an understanding of the ways in which ``domestic'' political institutions shape the bargaining behavior of international actors. In particular, this article argues that the frequent EU ``successes'' in its negotiations with the US are the result of the bargaining power that its unique institutional arrangements grant its negotiators. In order to explain the distributional outcomes of international trade negotiations, the authors explore the ``Schelling conjecture'' and analyze why it is particularly relevant to the understanding of the unique bargaining power of EU negotiators when they are confronted with their American counterparts. To examine the explanatory power of domestic institutions in episodes of trade negotiations, the article analyzes the US-EC Uruguay Round agricultural negotiations (1986–1993).
Employing systematic document analysis and other methods, this article analyses a long-standing and still relevant issue related to the interpretation and application of the law regulating relationships in the field of European Union criminal justice within the framework of the national criminal proceedings that are taking place in EU member states. The article places special emphasis on the explanation and application of the principle of mutual recognition within the framework of one of the newest instruments of international cooperation in the European Union criminal proceedings meant to prevent conflicts of exercise of jurisdiction and to solve issues arising between two or more member states. The analysis of conflicts of exercise of jurisdiction provided in this paper is not limited to a mere explanation of the concept as such, but includes an essential analysis of other related issues, such as the principle of mutual recognition, its influence on the recognition of criminal proceedings as parallel proceedings, and including other aspects related to the matching of the form of national criminal proceedings with the criminal proceedings taking place in another member state. Finally, significant attention is given to one of the objectives in terms of prevention and solution of conflicts of exercise of jurisdiction, namely, the ne bis in idem principle and its application in case of parallel criminal proceedings taking place in two or more member states. One of the key conclusions offered here is that in order to eliminate conflicts of exercise of jurisdiction, positive law in the process of conflicts of jurisdiction must become an effective measure in criminal justice; however, only on the condition that at least a minimum likelihood in the form of criminal proceedings adopted by different EU members states is ensured as a precondition necessary to enable a smooth application of the principle of mutual recognition.
Employing systematic document analysis and other methods, this article analyses a long-standing and still relevant issue related to the interpretation and application of the law regulating relationships in the field of European Union criminal justice within the framework of the national criminal proceedings that are taking place in EU member states. The article places special emphasis on the explanation and application of the principle of mutual recognition within the framework of one of the newest instruments of international cooperation in the European Union criminal proceedings meant to prevent conflicts of exercise of jurisdiction and to solve issues arising between two or more member states. The analysis of conflicts of exercise of jurisdiction provided in this paper is not limited to a mere explanation of the concept as such, but includes an essential analysis of other related issues, such as the principle of mutual recognition, its influence on the recognition of criminal proceedings as parallel proceedings, and including other aspects related to the matching of the form of national criminal proceedings with the criminal proceedings taking place in another member state. Finally, significant attention is given to one of the objectives in terms of prevention and solution of conflicts of exercise of jurisdiction, namely, the ne bis in idem principle and its application in case of parallel criminal proceedings taking place in two or more member states. One of the key conclusions offered here is that in order to eliminate conflicts of exercise of jurisdiction, positive law in the process of conflicts of jurisdiction must become an effective measure in criminal justice; however, only on the condition that at least a minimum likelihood in the form of criminal proceedings adopted by different EU members states is ensured as a precondition necessary to enable a smooth application of the principle of mutual recognition.
