The destructive force of the far-right was tragically witnessed through the mass devastation brought about by World War II. The international community sought to prevent the repetition of such destruction through the establishment of institutions, such as the United Nations, and the adoption of documents such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the European Convention on Human Rights. Jurisprudence and conventions on a supranational level directly prohibit speech and expression of the far-right with, for example, Article 4 of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination prohibiting racist associations and racist expression. Nevertheless, we are living in a world where violent far-right entities, such as Golden Dawn of Greece, have received unprecedented electoral support, where xenophobic parties have done spectacularly well at the latest European Parliament elections, where the United Kingdom has voted to leave the European Union and where Donald Trump has been elected as the next president of the United States of America. As such, the far-right is no longer a phenomenon of the past. It is one of the present, rising at swift and worrying rates. In this light, the study analyses how supranational bodies, namely the United Nations, the Council of Europe and the European Union, require their members to tackle right-wing extremism either directly, or through the regulation of by-products of right-wing extremism, such as hate speech. The adherence to international obligations is examined through an assessment of two jurisdictions, namely, England and Wales and Greece. For purposes of this thesis, supranational obligations emanate from, inter alia, instruments such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination and the European Convention on Human Rights. It must be noted that, on an EU level, there is also a centralised mechanism in the form of Article 7 TEU which can, in theory, be used against Member States which embrace a far-right ideology or, potentially, tolerate the far-right. However, this tool has never been used. The dissertation considers the means and methods adopted by the jurisdictions under consideration to interpret and apply international and European obligations through their national legal systems along with a broader conceptualisation of their legal and judicial approaches to right-wing extremism. The country analyses commence with an assessment of their adherence to international and European obligations, the thesis looks at the case-studies' domestic frameworks in the realm of challenging far-right movements. For both countries, there is a legal analysis of how central rights and freedoms, such as non-discrimination, expression, assembly and association, are established by law. For England and Wales, it proceeds to look at the role of criminal law in relation to the far-right, assessing the public order ambit which is the one most habitually used to challenge the rhetoric and activities of the far-right. This is followed by an evaluation of recent anti-terror legislation which has come into play in relation to the regulation of violent elements of the far-right movement. After looking at criminal law and how it deals with ensuring public order and countering terror, the assessment of England and Wales looks at how national law treats political parties before registration and during their functioning. The purpose is to determine what tools and sub-tools are available and can be used for challenging far-right parties contesting elections. From the above-described analysis, it is concluded that the legal framework of England and Wales embraces the significance of the freedom of expression but readily allows for the limitation of speech if issues of public order, terrorism or anti-social behaviour arise. Assemblies are also readily prohibited if public order or anti-social behaviour issues arise. What is clear is that this case-study is not willing to proscribe associations if such associations do not amount to terrorist organisations. In relation to Greece, the dissertation assesses the principal legal instrument that tackles issues relevant to challenging the far-right, namely the criminal law framework and particularly the law on the punishment of racially discriminatory acts, and relevant provisions of the Greek Penal Codes such as those on racial aggravation and criminal and terrorist organisations. It also look at the non-discrimination law which is relevant to this case-study given Golden Dawn's provision of services to Greeks only. It became evident from the analysis that relevant legislation has seldom been relied upon to challenge the far-right in Greece, a reality which has led to a state of impunity for the criminal activities of Golden Dawn and an issue that has become a key concern for national and international human rights institutions and non-governmental organisations. Although some members of Golden Dawn were convicted for their criminal activities and the Court recognised their affiliation with Golden Dawn, before the murder of an ethnic Greek, no steps were taken against the organisation. The chapter incorporates an analysis of the legal basis of the ongoing trial against Golden Dawn. Furthermore, the chapter also looks at how national law treats political parties before registration and during their functioning. This analysis demonstrated that political parties, even ones with dangerous and undemocratic intentions, can register and function without limitations with the only point of State intervention being when such entities cross into the threshold of a criminal organisation, as was the case of Golden Dawn.

From an historical perspective, environmental law is an assembly of common law principles and regulatory techniques derived from public health and planning legislation. Until recently, it lacked a distinct, recognisable identity, and status. A separate discipline of ‘environmental law’ now exists which appears to have an internal coherence and to operate within a settled conceptual framework, anchored by a number of guiding principles. This development is not, though, a one-way process. There is an equally dynamic contraflow of legal disciplines claiming environmental concerns as their own, notably property and tort, company and insurance law. In a similar vein, at both European Union and national levels of government, there is a sense that the very nature of environmental problems means that environmental protection must form part of a wider range of policies and law. This thesis takes account of these recent developments by considering the contribution of environmental assessment to the development of environmental law. It examines the implementation of Council Directive 85/337 on the Assessment of the Effects of Certain Public and Private Projects on the Environment' in the United Kingdom and thus the integration of a European Community method of environmental assessment alongside indigenous’ methods of environmental appraisal in the planning system. Some explanation is required, both as to the choice of subject matter, and to the methodology chosen to write this thesis.

University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities. / Department of Government and Public Administration

En tant que juge de droit commun du droit communautaire puis du droit de l'Union européenne, le Conseil d’Etat français a dû intégrer le droit communautaire puis le droit de l'Union européenne en tant que norme de référence du contrôle de conventionnalité. Pour l’aider dans cette intégration, le Conseil d’Etat dispose d’un outil : le renvoi préjudiciel.L’utilisation du renvoi préjudiciel par le Conseil d’Etat correspond à la recherche d’un équilibre fragile de partage des compétences entre la Cour de justice et le Conseil d’Etat. Le Conseil d’Etat a d’abord essayé de trouver sa place et en réalité de déterminer son rôle de juge de droit commun, il a aussi contribué à définir le rôle de juge national dans la procédure du renvoi préjudiciel. Ensuite, parce qu’il a su contribuer à définir le rôle de juge national dans le dialogue avec la Cour de justice, le Conseil d’Etat a utilisé le renvoi préjudiciel comme un outil de collaboration entre le juge national et la Cour de justice dans le but de parvenir à l’application harmonieuse du droit de l'Union européenne.Cette intégration a été lente puisqu’elle a eu pour socle un a priori négatif puis des incompréhensions entre la Cour de justice et le Conseil d’Etat puisque ces derniers n’envisageaient pas la procédure de renvoi préjudiciel sous le même angle. Si aujourd’hui, le Conseil d’Etat et la Cour de justice dialoguent dans la même direction, les divergences de conception, de perception du rôle du renvoi préjudiciel au cours des années d’échanges entre les deux juridictions ont permis que se développe un riche et constructif dialogue qui s’est révélé être bénéfique pour le droit de l'Union européenne. / As ordinary court of law of community law, then of law of the European Union, the French Council of State had to integrate community law followed by law of the European Union as reference standards of the control of conformity to a convention. In order to help in this integration, the Council of State has a tool: preliminary ruling proceedings. The use of preliminary ruling proceedings by the Council of State corresponds to the search for a delicate balance of shared competences between the Court of Justice and the Council of State. The Council of State tried at first to find its place and, in fact, to establish its role as a judge of common law. It also contributed to define the role of national judge in the preliminary ruling proceedings. Then, because it was able to contribute to define the role of the national judge in the exchange with the Court of Justice, the Council of State used preliminary ruling proceedings as a tool of understanding between the national judge and the Court of Justice in order to achieve the uniform application of Union law. This integration has been slow because at its core was a negative a priori, followed by a lack of understanding between the Court of Justice and the Council of State because the latter did not envisage preliminary ruling proceedings in the same way. If today the Council of State and the Court of Justice have entered into a dialogue in the same direction, divergences in conception, in perception of the role of the preliminary ruling proceedings during years of exchange between the two jurisdictions allowed the development of a rich and constructive dialogue, beneficial for the law of the European Union.

The role of the Court of Justice of the European Union in the process of direct tax integration in the European Union (EU) has been widely discussed in the academic literature, while another important actor, the European Commission, has attracted much less attention. The Commission’s input is commonly perceived to be limited to the right of legislative initiative. This study questions such an oversimplified interpretation and draws a more nuanced picture of EU tax harmonisation by integrating an analysis of the complex regulatory approaches adopted by the Commission for the establishment and smooth functioning of the Internal Market. It is argued that the past decade brought a notable change in the Court-dominated pattern of direct tax integration. This change is apparent first in the evolution of enforcement strategies under Articles 258 and 260 TFEU; and second, in the increased reliance upon non-binding regulatory measures. Both developments have strengthened the role of the Commission, supplying it with more possibilities for influencing national direct tax systems, despite the reluctance of Member States to agree upon legislative harmonisation. Against this background, the procedural and substantive problems associated with these instruments require closer examination. The normative scope of this research covers the key procedural problems related to the infringement procedure and non-binding regulatory measures. The empirical component explores the Commission’s enforcement and coordination practices, drawing particular attention to two case studies: the tax treatment of losses in cross-border situations and exit taxation. Following the analysis of enforcement and coordination in the field of direct taxation, the study argues the need and proposes potential solutions for (i) the developing of a more comprehensive procedural framework for the infringement procedure and non-binding regulatory acts; (ii) the strengthening of accountability mechanisms; and (iii) the enhancing of the effectiveness of their application.

A Corruption is perceived as a threat of the economical and political stability worldwide therefore a lot of anti-corruption steps are taken and the priority is given to international cooperation. To minimize the potential risk of corruption it is necessary to interconnect the systems of anti-corruption fight. In my thesis, the stress is put on the link between the law regulation of European Union and law regulations of member states aiming the Czech Republic measures. The anti-corruption legal framework set by the European Union has the preventive and represive character and it gives to every member state a space for its own anti-corruption iniciative to make the whole anti-corruption system more effective. The thesis is focused on criminal law, but there is also mentioned other areas of law as well as the relevant EU organizations and authorities. In the end I give specific results and recommendations.

JUDGE-MADE LAW COMPARISON BETWEEN THE COURT OF JUSTICE OF THE EUROPEAN UNION AND THE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES Keywords: judge-made law; the European Union; the Court of Justice of the European Union; the Supreme Court of the United States; judicialization of governance; Kelsenian court; European constitutional space; European constitution; normativity; constitutional pluralism; sovereignty; federalism; post-communist states; new Member States of the European Union. Standard page (that is 1800 characters per page) and word count (including footnotes; without the contents, bibliography and annexes): 327 standard pages; 82 795 words. The Ph.D. thesis offers a complex reconceptualization of the constitutional system in the European Union. The constitutional systems of the Member States have been substantially transformed during the 20th century. Meanwhile a new constitutional system functioning in the Member States alongside their own systems has emerged - the constitutional system of the European Union. These two fundamental changes are difficult to grasp through an existing theoretical framework. That is because the framework is based on a set of outdated concepts: (i) Rousseau's concept of volonté générale that forms the basis of the parliamentary supremacy in a constitutional system; (ii)...

La recherche menée dans cette thèse traite du discours de l’Union européenne sur l’espace judiciaire européen entre 1996 et 1999. En convoquant l’analyse du discours et la lexicométrie dans un cadre théorique de la sémantique argumentative, elle analyse le sens des mots autour de l’expression « espace de liberté, de sécurité et de justice ». L’objectif est de définir comment s’élabore la réappropriation de valeurs universelles au profit du discours et de l’identité européenne véhiculée par les procédés argumentatifs utilisés pour représenter l’espace judiciaire européen. Le contexte politique et les théories linguistiques de la méthode d’analyse exposés, cette thèse porte sur les conditions de communication du discours et de sa particularité sémantique, en montrant qu’il construit une identité en triade renvoyant aux trois valeurs de son emblème triptyque (« liberté, sécurité et justice ») :les institutions, la criminalité organisée et les citoyens. Elle révèle les indices linguistiques de cette construction identitaire avec ses enjeux politiques et de légitimation en introduisant la notion de « normalisation discursive ». Celle-ci adopte un schéma linguistique très marqué conduisant à la mise en œuvre d’un processus de « manipulation argumentative » défini et démontré dans ce travail. Les résultats illustrent que la normalisation et la manipulation engendrent une circularité du discours reposant sur le conflit de deux orientations discursives :celle d’un discours sécuritaire et celle d’un discours sur l’État de droit et la démocratie.<p><p>This thesis studies the discourse of the European Union about the European Judicial Network between 1996 and 1999. Using discourse analysis and lexicometrics within the theoretical framework of argumentative semantics, it explores the meaning of words associated with the expression of « area of freedom, security and justice ». The research mainly aims at understanding how the discourse reappropriate universal values in order to construct, through argumentative processes, a European identity that embodies the European Judicial Network. After presenting the political context and the linguistic theories used in the analysis methods, the thesis examines the conditions of discourse production and its semantic particularities. It argues that the discourse constructs an identity based on the values (liberty, security and justice) conveyed by the three pillars of the European Judicial Network :institutions, organised crime and citizens. The thesis then puts forward the idea of a “discursive normalisation” that helps, through its linguistic forms, to legitimate the identity construction and its political issues. It also defines a process of “argumentative manipulation” resulting from this “discursive normalisation” implementing a very distinctive linguistic frame. According to those results, the research concludes that normalisation and manipulation generate circularity of the discourse, which is based on the conflict between two discursive orientations, on the one hand security and on the other hand democracy and the Rule of law. / Doctorat en philosophie et lettres, Orientation langue et littérature / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished