Suchergebnisse

Economic relations between Australia and the European Union (EU) have always been strong, but they have not always been easy. They have been difficult for Australia because it associated the EU with the loss of the UK preferential export market on its entry into the then European Economic Community. And because Australia associated the EU with the original Common Agricultural Policy, which combined subsidies for agricultural production and high agricultural tariffs to make Australian agricultural exports not competitive. They have been difficult for the EU also. Australia developed a biosecurity system to protect its agricultural sector: quarantine requirements and food safety standards made the importation of EU plant and animal products too costly. Yet Australia and the EU need each other. The EU, which is Australia's largest services trade and investment partner, supplies the business services that drive a knowledge economy and provides the credit to finance economic development. Correspondingly, the EU needs Australia both as a commercial base in Asia and as a reliable energy supplier. This article analyses the drivers and difficulties in the economic relationship between Australia and the EU as they start negotiations for a free trade agreement.

En septiembre del 2011, las Cortes Generales aprobaron una reforma al Artículo 135 de la Constitución Española por la cual se incorpora el principio de estabilidad presupuestaria: es decir, el Estado no puede gastar más de lo que ingresa. Varios comentaristas celebraron esta iniciativa como un nuevo avance del derecho constitucional económico. Aunque la constitucionalización del principio de equilibrio presupuestario es, sin duda, novedosa en la zona euro - Alemania era, hasta hace poco, el único otro país con una disposición equivalente - no deja de tener precedentes en otras jurisdicciones. Muchos son los estados norteamericanos que disponen, desde hace tiempo, de una regla de equilibrio presupuestario en sus constituciones al igual que Suecia y Chile. La Ley Básica de Hong Kong - la 'Basic Law' - tampoco es una excepción.
En este artículo, comparo la regla de equilibrio presupuestario de Hong Kong con la regla española. Argumento que, en casi todos los aspectos, la regla española es superior, ya que combina un nivel adecuado de flexibilidad macroeconómica con un compromiso absoluto con la sostenibilidad fiscal en cada una de sus tres aplicaciones: una regla de equilibrio presupuestario, una regla de gasto, y, una regla de deuda. Este artículo se mantiene fiel a la tradición funcional del derecho constitucional comparado en la esperanza de que el modelo español pueda contribuir a la mejora de la constitución económica de Hong Kong y la de otras jurisdicciones.

This Article analyses the preliminary reference procedure under Article 158(3) of the Hong Kong Basic Law and its transplantation from Article 267 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. Preliminary reference procedures require courts of finalappeal to refer certain questions of law to a higher legal authority for determination before they can give judgement. This Article argues that this area of Hong Kong constitutional law is underdeveloped, due in large part to the unwillingness of the Hong Kong judiciary to respect the interests of the national legislature. An examination of the preliminary reference procedure, as practiced in the E.U., makes clear that the constitutional order in Hong Kong must do more tobalance regional and national interests. To that end, this Article recommends several reforms: 1) to eliminate the existing jurisprudence regarding Article 158(3) of the Basic Law; 2) to adopt E.U.-style doctrines of judicial economy, including irrelevant question, acte éclairé, and acte clair; 3) to adopt a doctrine of sincere cooperation, so as to increase the quality and quantity of judicial references; and 4) to modernize the concept of Hong Kong law to a hybrid system of common law and Chinese law.

Is free trade a force of political stability? This article argues that, while political stability could be a cause, it is not always a consequence of free trade. To test this argument, the article analyses the political causes and consequences of the external and internal trade liberalisation initiatives of Mainland China and Hong Kong through a selection of their current and proposed free trade agreements and free trade zones, namely, the Mainland and Hong Kong Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement, China-Japan-Korea Free Trade Agreement, Hong Kong Free Port, and China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone. Together, these initiatives comprise a uniquely outlier case study on individual customs territories in a common state jurisdiction with contrary political economies. This article concludes that the effectiveness of free trade as a force of political stability is, by and large, more of a perception than a reality.

"This is the first book about the Hong Kong Basic Law as an economic document. Its publication coincides with the twenty-fifth anniversary of the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China, whose Basic Law serves as the lion rock of what Professors Gonzalo Villalta Puig and Eric C Ip call free market constitutionalism, the foundation of much of the Region's economic success as the freest market in the world. The book, which is the outcome of several years of study financed by a General Research Fund from Hong Kong's Research Grants Council, explores the public choice architecture of the Basic Law as well as its impact on the Hong Kong economy, with particular emphasis on how it facilitates economic liberty internally and free trade externally. Drawing from the academic tradition of Buchanian constitutional political economy, the book traces the origins of Hong Kong's constitutional principles of economic liberty in the nineteenth century, documenting how they evolved along Hayekian lines under British colonial rule, were codified into the Basic Law, and are interpreted and applied by the various branches of government. The book closes with remarks on the future of Hong Kong's free market constitutionalism in face of recent challenges as the year 2047 approaches. The book will appeal to law students, legal scholars, and legal practitioners, especially to those with an interest in Hong Kong law or international economic law and comparative constitutional law in general"--