Suchergebnisse

The desire of many new states to have international air services of their own in an era of high-cost aircraft is imposing great pressure on traditional concepts of nationality and registration of aircraft. It has long been held that civil aircraft must have a nationality, that they must be registered in a state and that they must have the nationality of the state of registry. As the plan of the new states concerned is to have the international air services in question furnished through international operating agencies established by them and owning aircraft registered on other than a national basis, it is not surprising that this plan is currently the object of serious study. In particular, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) has established a legal subcommittee to study problems of nationality and registration of aircraft of international operating agencies arising in relation to the application of Article 77 of the Convention on International Civil Aviation, opened for signature at Chicago on December 7, 1944.

This study aims to explore the concept of authoritarianism, which – presented in terms of the "wicked problem" of the contemporary world – seems to be a severe challenge to present-day International Relations (IR), both in theoretical and practical dimensions. The author of the article defines the concept of authoritarianism as a form of the political system in which the power and material resources of the state have been centralized, appropriated, and put at the disposal of either an individual or an elitist group "in power." In this way, the possibilities of integrating the authoritarian state – both in the political and economic dimension – with the global system of international relations are limited, and the vital administrative institutions of the state have been manipulated and appropriated. The applied research method allows for interpreting the discussed issues in a complex – albeit specific – systemic form, characteristic not only for politically fragile or declining countries and regions but also for politically stable and economically developed ones. The author's analysis allows for the presentation and reinterpretation of the issue of contemporary authoritarian regimes concerning international relations in terms that not only define but often legitimize – and repeatedly even validate – some of the most despotic, autocratic, and hegemonistic forms of the political systems in modern times.

International intelligence sharing has boosted in the last twenty years or so, particularly after terrorist attacks on 11 September 2001. Already established intelligence cooperation agreements, bilateral and multilateral, have entered into a new phase, resulting in a vast amount of intelligence shared, including the information on their own citizens communicated by national agencies both among themselves, and with their foreign counterparts. Some of those intelligence cooperation agreements are formal, constituting legal instruments, but an important number of them has actually been informal, based upon the common understanding between heads of the national intelligence services or other state officials. When intelligence exchange is based on informal international cooperation, rooted only in a scarce and usually outdated national legislation, then there are no legal safeguards for the citizens, who are essentially the targets of such exchange. In other words, these practices have had many human rights implications. While there is a considerable body of literature on intelligence sharing per se, its human rights aspects remain largely neglected. Hence, our aim is to map the preconditions for an effective oversight of international intelligence sharing, concentrating on the external oversight that should be designed to guarantee a legally sound exchange of intelligence with foreign partners.

Abstract
The objective of this article is to establish a unified conceptual framework for State-owned enterprises in international investment law. I hope to furnish drafters and negotiators with the tools to define such enterprises in accordance with their policy concerns. The central thesis is that five definitional criteria must be considered: (i) separate legal personality; (ii) extent and form of control; (iii) eligible governmental units; (iv) nature of activity; and (v) purpose of activity. While variations within each criterion can reflect the policy choices of contracting parties, failure to adequately delimit the boundaries of all five will confer discretion on arbitrators to do so.
Application of this framework to existing international investment agreements reveals that many bilateral investment treaties are insufficiently precise as to the definition of State-owned enterprises. However, the Trans Pacific Partnership addresses all five criteria, and limits the scope of covered entities to those that are 'principally engaged in commercial activities' and have an 'orientation towards profit making'. China's strategic initiatives could necessitate a response that would further fragment the international investment regime. Furthermore, interpretive issues remain in relation to the scope of 'effective influence' and determining the purpose of investment activity.

Basierend auf dem Abschließenden Bericht des Sozialausschusses ("Concluding Observations") nimmt die Autorin eine Beurteilung der Umsetzung des Internationalen Paktes über wirtschaftliche, soziale und kulturelle Rechte (Sozialpakt) in China vor. Dabei erfolgt zunächst ein kurzer inhaltlicher Ueberblick sowie eine Einordnung der Kontrollmechanismen des Sozialpaktes, bevor die Verfasserin sodann auf spezifische positive und negative Entwicklung seit Inkrafttreten des Paktes eingeht. Hierzu legt sie die Umsetzung von Völkervertragsrecht in China im Allgemeinen dar und untersucht die im Sozialpakt vorzufindenden Regelungen bezüglich der innerstaatlichen Umsetzung. Hierbei wird deutlich, dass seit Inkrafttreten keine vollständige Umsetzung der Rechte in der Volksrepublik erfolgt ist, jedoch wichtige Massnahmen legislatorischer und anderer Art getroffen wurden, die fuer die Realisierung der Paktrechte bedeutend sind. ; Based on the Concluding Observations of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the author evaluates the implementation of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in China. After giving a short overview on the control mechanisms of the Covenant and the general implementation of public international law in China, she addresses specific positive and negative developments associated with the implementation of the Covenant since its entry into force. One main finding is that the rights prescribed by the Covenant have not yet been fully implemented in the People's Republic. However, it is also observed that important legislative and non-legislative measures have been taken that are crucial for the success of the process.

The European Union has long pursued a full program of unification of the national rules on private international law. For the theoretical advantages of uniformity, created by "denazionalizing" the systematic of civil law, corresponds, howewer, a loss of meaning in terms of culture and legal values, at the expense of the identities and the political choices, that only in the national communities – in the absence of democratic processes at the European level – can still find ways of legitimate expression.Paper presented at the Conference "La dimension culturelle du droit international privé (Journée en l'honneur de Tito Ballarino)", held on June 13, 2014 in Losanna, at the Swiss Institute of Comparative Law.L'Unione europea persegue da tempo un nutrito programma di uniformazione delle normative nazionali di diritto internazionale privato. Ai vantaggi teorici dell'uniformità, artificialmente creata denazionalizzando la sistematica del diritto civile, corrisponde tuttavia una perdita di senso in termini di cultura e di valori giuridici, a scapito delle identità e delle scelte politiche che solo nelle comunità nazionali – in assenza di processi autenticamente democratici a livello europeo – possono ancora trovare legittima espressione.Relazione presentata al Convegno "La dimension culturelle du droit international privé (Journée en l'honneur de Tito Ballarino)", tenutosi il 13 giugno 2014 a Losanna, presso l'Istituto svizzero di diritto comparato

Im Rahmen eines Gutachtens für das Bundesfinanzministerium wurde durch das IWH und Prof. Dr. U. Heilemann (Universität Leipzig) untersucht, welchen diagnostischen und prognostischen Aussagegehalt internationale Rankings zur Wettbewerbsfähigkeit von Volkswirtschaften besitzen und welche Bedeutung ihnen damit als Instrument der Politikberatung zukommt. In den vergangenen Jahren sind eine Reihe dieser Länderranglisten veröffentlicht worden, die laufend aktualisiert, aber auch modifiziert werden. Auf der Grundlage umfangreicher Kennzahlensysteme werden hierbei Ranking-Indizes berechnet, die Aussagen über die aktuelle und künftige wirtschaftliche Leistungsfähigkeit der betrachteten Länder liefern sollen. Dies entspringt dem Bedürfnis nach Reduktion hoch dimensionaler, komplexer Zusammenhänge auf einfache Positionsangaben. Angesichts der zunehmenden Beachtung, die solche Berechnungen in der interessierten Öffentlichkeit und Politik erfahren, stellt sich die Frage nach der Bewertung dieser Ergebnisse, zumal sie gerade für Deutschland seit Jahren eine relative Verschlechterung anzeigen. Am Beispiel der drei in Deutschland bekanntesten Rankings – des "Global Competitiveness Report" des Weltwirtschaftsforums (WEF), Genf, des "World Competitiveness Yearbook" des International Institute for Management Development (IMD), Lausanne, und des "Internationalen Standort-Ranking 2004" der Bertelsmann Stiftung, Gütersloh, – zeigt sich, daß solche Rankings in der konkreten Umsetzung aber auch in der Grundkonzeption erhebliche Defizite aufweisen. Sie beruhen allenfalls auf partiell plausiblen wirtschaftstheoretischen Überlegungen, was angesichts der diffusen Theorielage nicht überraschend ist, aber der beanspruchten Wissenschaftlichkeit entgegen steht. Zudem haben "ungeprüfte" subjektive Einschätzungen – die im Rahmen von Befragungen ermittelt werden – in einigen Rankings großen Einfluß auf die Ergebnisse. Das Vorgehen bei der Kennzahlenaggregation wird nur unzureichend begründet und trägt neben der fehlenden Vergleichbarkeit vieler Angaben zu den Unterschieden in der Bewertung der Länder bei, wenn man die konkurrierenden Ansätze gegenüberstellt. Die größten Einwände aus der Beratungs- bzw. Handlungsperspektive ergeben sich aber aus zwei simplen Befunden der vorliegenden Untersuchung: die nur schwer überzeugend zu rechtfertigende ordinale Bewertung der Länder und die geringe prognostische Leistungsfähigkeit der untersuchten Rankings. Zwar ist ihnen eine gewisse Aufmerksamkeitsfunktion nicht abzusprechen, aus wirtschaftspolitischer Sicht ist ihr diagnostischer und therapeutischer Gehalt aber gering.

Abstract
The concept of a society of states has been at the core of a cold war, the late Hedley Bull argued that the organisation of international society constituted a middle way between the extremes of anarchy and global governance and was to be valued as such. A decade after his death and five years after the cold war, the contemporary resurgence of interest in the concept and its invocation amongst scholars concerned with novel problems of world order is taking place against the backround of dramatic processes of globalisation and fragmentation in world politics. This article argues that such processes raise grave doubts as to the analytic utility of the domestic/interstate distinction, and that Bull's approach to the problem of international order is hampered by his failure to transcend the false dichotomy between political theory and International Relations.
The function of social myth has always been to restrict the area in which practical reasoning can operate for human improvement, by representing the particular social arrangements of particular societies as part of the natural order of things. Practical reason becomes innovative in human affairs when it demands reasons for practices so represented (Stuart Hampshire 1990, 57)