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In recent decades, the United States has increasingly used the means of economic warfare in its geopolitical struggles. Among these instruments – in addition to the financial markets – it most often launches geoeconomic attacks in the oil market against its geopolitical adversaries. The United States can cause significant economic damage both for oil exporter (eg. Iran, Venezuela) and oil importer (eg. Cuba, North Korea) countries by restricting their access to oil markets.This paper analyzes the economic warfare in the oil market between the United States and Iran, Russia, and North Korea. Through these examples this paper demonstrates how the United States organizes and executes geoeconomic attacks in the oil market and how it handles country-specific problems. The United States has the means to organize broad international coalition alongside the oil market sanctions – even in the lack of UN Security Council resolutions.United Nations has decided on a number of economic sanctions against Iran because of its nuclear program. These sanctions reduced the supply in the world oil market and resulted in about 10-20% price increase, while Iran – despite of the sanctions – found the way to sell significant amount of oil, mainly to China and India.Russia is a member of the UN Security Council, so no UN sanctions can be imposed on it, nevertheless the United States and its allies launched a geoeconomics assault against Russia after the annexation of the Crimea. Russia was prepared for these economic sanctions and could effectively reduce the negative effects on its oil export, which could even increase after the western sanctions. North Korea is under UN sanctions since 2006 because of its nuclear program. The sanctions refer to oil and oil products as well, but has no significant effect on world oil market and oil price, because North Korea is a relatively small country with low oil consumption.North Korea is suffering a huge economic burden due to severe restrictions and its only way to circumvent the embargo – according to American accusations – is to smuggle some oil from China and Russia. ; In recent decades, the United States has increasingly used the means of economic warfare in its geopolitical struggles. Among these instruments – in addition to the financial markets – it most often launches geoeconomic attacks in the oil market against its geopolitical adversaries. The United States can cause significant economic damage both for oil exporter (eg. Iran, Venezuela) and oil importer (eg. Cuba, North Korea) countries by restricting their access to oil markets.This paper analyzes the economic warfare in the oil market between the United States and Iran, Russia, and North Korea. Through these examples this paper demonstrates how the United States organizes and executes geoeconomic attacks in the oil market and how it handles country-specific problems. The United States has the means to organize broad international coalition alongside the oil market sanctions – even in the lack of UN Security Council resolutions.United Nations has decided on a number of economic sanctions against Iran because of its nuclear program. These sanctions reduced the supply in the world oil market and resulted in about 10-20% price increase, while Iran – despite of the sanctions – found the way to sell significant amount of oil, mainly to China and India.Russia is a member of the UN Security Council, so no UN sanctions can be imposed on it, nevertheless the United States and its allies launched a geoeconomics assault against Russia after the annexation of the Crimea. Russia was prepared for these economic sanctions and could effectively reduce the negative effects on its oil export, which could even increase after the western sanctions. North Korea is under UN sanctions since 2006 because of its nuclear program. The sanctions refer to oil and oil products as well, but has no significant effect on world oil market and oil price, because North Korea is a relatively small country with low oil consumption.North Korea is suffering a huge economic burden due to severe restrictions and its only way to circumvent the embargo – according to American accusations – is to smuggle some oil from China and Russia.

During the past centuries many great philosophers and statesmen dreamt about the possible constitutional scope of exceeding Europe's political division and fulfilling the unified/united Europe. Most conceptions outlined the practical realization at a supranational level, although in the last decades there has been a greater emphasis on the sub-national (regional, micro-regional) level or else the "multi-level" Europe. Considering its scientific importance there has been less mention of the importance of the local, regional networks, however, their functionality –in the form of sister town connections –has been experienced by many towns in Hungary. In my thesis I intended to shed light on the fact that the sistertown connections –if being able to overstep the mayors and the local authorities' protocol meetings -and it can be the pledge of their viability, take a prominent part in framing the "bottom up" Europe. The personal, civil relationships, the common interests and the solutions to collective problems may all lead to a continuity in the increasingly "multigeared" European integration. In order to present the subject matter I selected the analysis of sister town connections related to the county town, Zalaegerszeg. My research questions were as follows: to what extent the sister town connection of Zalaegerszeg has changed in terms of geographical and content orientation, what elements of networking, independent from any political orientation, have been used, how the intensity fluctuation of the connections can be explained. The conclusion of my research is that the citizens, the civil organisations and the local authority of Zalaegerszeg, whose number of sister towns –fourteen –is greater than the Hungarian average, build their sister town connections in a conscious way, meanwhile integrating them functionally and successfully at a local level into the network of international connections.

A doktori dolgozat központi kutatási kérdése a következőképpen határozható meg: miként érvényesül az azonos nemű párok elismerésére vonatkozó normatív egyenlőségi követelmény Magyarországon? A disszertáció az azonos nemű párok elismerését és az egyenlő házasság kérdését szociológiai, jogi és történeti szempontok alapján vizsgálja. A disszertáció öt fejezetből áll. A bevezetés meghatározza a disszertáció kereteit. A második fejezet azt vizsgálja, hogy mi a házasság és hogy a házasság jointézménye miként hozható összhangba az egyenlőség normatív követelményével. A dolgozat a Martha C. Nussbaum által képviselt képességszemléletű felfogás (a házasság jogi és expresszív aspektusai) és a kantiánus alapú dworkini egyenlőségfelfogás (egyenlően és egyenlőként kezelés követelménye) alapján határozza meg az irányadó egyenlőségi mércét. Ez az egyenlőségi mérce szolgál alapul ahhoz, hogy a harmadik és a negyedi fejezet elemezze és értékelje a releváns nemzetközi emberi jog dokumnetumokból, illetve európai bírósági döntésekből (az Európai Unió Bírósága és az Emberi Jogok Európai Bírósága) következ őnemzetközi kötelezettségeket, valamint a magyarországi jogfejlődést. A konklúzió összefoglalja a kutatás eredményeit. A disszertáció különböző módszertani megközelítéseket ötvöz annak érdekében, hogy átfogó képet adjon a kutatási kérdésről: egyrészt jogi szempontból normatív elemző, másrészt diskurzív, hamradrészt empirikus.

The foundation for a national economy's positioning and strengthening in global competition is the permanent support of its innovation and research and development activities. Of this, R&D funding is of paramount importance, which is directly or indirectly one of the most important tools for increasing corporate competitiveness. The study examines trends in domestic R&D expenditures over the past one and a half decades. It focuses on the extent to which the financial crisis has affected the amount of funding resources and their structure. From an international comparison, Hungary and the European Union spend much less on research and development thant hose in the global competition. The impact of the crisis is reflected in the decline in the growth dynamics of R&D expenditures, but it has not been solved solely as a result of the crisis. Changes in the domestic structure of expenditures in recent years are encouraging and are in sync with the change in attitude that is considered desirable in R&D funding. However, from trends in data from recent years, it becomes apparent that neither Hungary nor the European Union will achieve the 1.8 and 3.0 per cent of GDP R&D spending by 2020. ; A nemzetgazdaság globális versenyben való helytállásának és erősödésének alapja az innovációs és kutatás-fejlesztési tevékenységének permanens támogatása. Ebből kiemelkedőjelentőséggel bír a kutatás-fejlesztés, annak finanszírozása, ami közvetlenül vagy közvetetten a vállalati versenyképesség növelésének egyik legfontosabb eszköze. A tanulmány megvizsgálja a hazai K+F ráfordításainak elmúlt másfél évtizedben végbement alakulását, annak tendenciáit.Kiemelten vizsgálja azt, hogy a pénzügyi válság mennyiben befolyásolta a finanszírozó források összegét és azok struktúráját. A nemzetközi összehasonlításból kiderül, hogy Magyarország és az Európai Unió is lényegesen kevesebbet költ kutatás-fejlesztésre, mint a globális versenyben élenjáró országok. A válság hatása megnyilvánul a K+F ráfordítások növekedési dinamikájának mérséklődésében, de az nem kizárólag a krízis következményeként lanyhult. A ráfordítások hazai szerkezetében az utóbbi években bekövetkezett arányváltozások biztatóak, szinkronban vannak a K+F finanszírozásában kívánatosnak tartott szemléletváltozással. Az utóbbi évek adatainak tendenciáiból azonban nyilvánvalóvá válik, hogy sem Magyarország, sem pedig az Európai Unió neméri el a 2020-ra kitűzött kutatás-fejlesztési ráfordítások GDP-hez mért 1,8, illetve 3,0 százalékos arányát.

A régiók nem csak a közelmúltban jelentek meg az európai politika színpadán, mint önálló szereplők, tevékenységüket már évtizedek óta jegyzik. Ennek középpontjában mindenekelőtt a régiók határokon átnyúló együttműködése áll, ezt egészítették ki a régiók transznacionális megállapodásaival, amelyek arra szolgáltak, hogy a nemzetállamok kormányaival valamint a nemzetközi szervezetekkel, különösképpen az Európa Tanáccsal és az Európai Közösséggel szemben érdekképviseletüket gyakorolják. Az utóbbi időben a régiók egyre energikusabban és követelőbben hívták fel magukra a figyelmet. Tevékenységük súlypontja jelenleg nyilvánvalóan az EU és az integrációs folyamatokon belül helyezkedik el. A régiók mint az EU-kontextus politikai tényezői igen sokrétű tevékenységet mutatnak fel, amelyek az "Európa régiói" megjelölésben foglalhatók össze. Az elnevezésből, mint sokszor használatos szlogenből azonban hiányzik egy egyértelmű és ugyanakkor közös megegyezéssel alapuló, elfogadott tartalom. Regions appeared as autonomous entities on the European political stage not only in recent years. The activity of regions has been recorded for decades. It focuses above all on the cross-border cooperation of regions, and was supplemented by the trans-national agreements of regions, which served to practice their representation against the governments of nation states as well as international organisations, in particular, the European Council and the European Community. Most recently, regions have drawn attention to their presence more and more and when doing so have found increasing attention. Their centre of activity is now obviously located within the EU and the integration processes. Regions as the political factors of the EU context show a wide range of activities that can be summarized under the label of 'the regions of Europe'. The name, as a frequently used slogan, is lacking a clear and at the same time jointly agreed, accepted content. Regions and regionalism are rather flourishing in Europe. But what do regionalism and the expression Europe of regions exactly mean? There are many approaches to the question, the concept of cross-border interregionality between the Member States of the European Union, or the effort to make regions the basic building blocks of European integration instead of states, and the objective to introduce a three-tier structure to the European Union which would extend the already existing tiers of the European Union and the Member States with a third one, the territorial units within nation states. The first approach has long been adopted, the second approach is rather utopian. The third one is subject to fierce debates: a three-tier European Union with European, nation state and regional levels.

The legal relationship between civil servants and the state, is not governed by the theory of sovereignty, which is relevant in the outer relationships between the state and its citizens, though it has some, limited effect on the inner relationships between the civil servant and the state organ, as well. The inner relationship falls into the category of "dependent work" and therefore civil servants must enjoy the employment rights generally applicable to employees with some alterations. Among such rights, two are investigated more closely in the paper: protection against unjust dismissal and collective rights of workers (right to organise, right to bargain collectively, and right to strike). In 2010 the Hungarian state modified its regulations on civil servants and introduced dismissal without notice referring to the argument that the parties of the legal relationship must be treated equally and because the civil servant can resign from its position without notice, the same right should be enjoyed by the state, as well. The Hungarian Constitutional Court and European Court of Justice nullified this law because of violating the right to work, the right to human dignity, and the right to hold public positions. The regulations on collective rights of civil servants have been systematically violated by the Hungarian legislator since 1992, when the first regulation on civil servants passed. Until 2011 the right to organise has been enjoyed without disturbance by civil servants but since than the state has organise the Bar of Hungarian Civil Servants into which all civil servants are obliged to enter. Because the Bar has rights which are usually considered to be union rights, therefore the Bar is a competitor of the civil servants' unions; consequently the regulations on the Bar violate the right to organise. The right to bargain collectively has never been enjoyed by unions of civil servants since 1992, despite such right is generally applied in developed countries app. since 1960-1970s and is also accepted by the international conventions on social and economic rights. The right to strike is also restricted by the Agreement on Right to Strike in Civil Service (1994) which prohibits the rights to strike far beyond the limits established by the Fundamental Law and the Act on Right to Strike (Act No. VII of 1989). Alternative methods of collective dispute settlement (mediation, arbitration) are also neglected by the Hungarian legal regime.

The education has been exceedingly affected by the economic recession, the transformed state governance and the demographic waves, so the educational system of each country underwent some changes. The aim of my research is the comparative study of the educational systems in the East-Central European region. I examined the relationships between the different qualities, historical backgrounds, reforms and I explored the relationship between the current states of the systems (Karsten & Majoor, 1994; Lannert, 1998; Knell & Srholec, 2007; Horn & Sinka, 2007; Báthory, 2008; Dienes, 2007; Kelemen, 2010; Dakowska & Harmsenbert, 2015). My research questions are the following: What were the main reforms in the transformation of education systems? What similarities can be observed in the school systems of the countries? The region I studied is a specific East-Central European region, so the countries I have chosen are Hungary, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Austria, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Poland. In my study, I have created three groups and I present the changes in the education systems of these countries, taking into consideration economic, social and political issues (Lannert, 2004; Kozma, 2006; Barber & Moirshed, 2007; Valuch, 2009; Kelemen, 2010; Jakubowski, 2015). Analyzing the results, it can be concluded that the regime change has enabled the countries to redefine themselves and find their new status in domestic and international politics, and also in world economy. The world economy situation created same problems for the states of the region, but their resources were different, so the public spending on education, the characteristics of education management and the infrastructure characteristics of the institutions were different. Among the main results, I have identified two groups during compulsory schooling, the first group being countries that introduce compulsory schooling up to the age of 6-15 years, and the other group consists of countries introducing compulsory schooling up to the age of 16. I have examined the curriculum regulation and the textbook market, it can be stated that, as a result of the reforms, new curricula were prepared, the textbooks were adapted according to these. Examining curriculum regulation is the result of countries striving for central regulation, but it has to be emphasized that there are countries that have integrated framework curricula and / or local curricula into a single national core curriculum, thus giving the opportunity to more autonomous management. In summary it can be concluded that the history of the countries studied and the development of their educational systems evolved similarly, however, differences can be observed by examining the different educational characteristics. My theoretical research can contribute to the discovery of the situation in Hungary and to the development tendencies and trends in the region.