Azerbaijan presents itself as a country with an independent foreign policy, refusing European requirements for democratic reforms within the Eastern Partnership. Yet, the European Union keeps developing mutual relations, especially in the field of energy cooperation. The EU has been criticized for betraying its fundamental values of democracy and human rights, and doubts arise if the EU can represent a normative power, as described by Ian Manners in 2002. This master thesis therefore analyzes the European policy in Azerbaijan from a normative perspective. It concludes that the European Union's policy in Azerbaijan is normative and the economic cooperation is not an obstacle. Nevertheless, the impact of the European policy is hampered, making it not possible to state that EU has normative power. The main reasons are insufficient efficiency of European means and Azerbaijan's hostile approach. Still, the current situation of Azerbaijan's economic problems provides Europe with potential to increase its normative influence.

The aim of this thesis was to examine the extent to which the European Union can be considered a normative power in relation to the Russian Federation. The European Union has evolved into one of the most important global actors in the international arena and this development has, consequently, sparked series of debates trying to define the role of its actorness in relation to third parties. On one hand, scholars have emphasized the normative and value-driven features of the European Union as a whole, especially in the area of foreign policy cooperation where there exists enhanced emphasis on the importance of values and norms in comparison to other traditional actors in international relations. On the other hand, structural realists provided alternative interest-driven vision under which the member states are expected to follow common approach of the European Union only in cases that do not conflict with their national interests that are claimed to always prevail. These two alternative perspectives to the research have provided thesis with criteria of expected behaviour that the thesis examined on the specific case of the visa policy of the European Union towards Russia. The accuracy of the two theoretical frameworks was analysed by following three criteria - development of the policy over time,...

Normative Power Europe theory presented by Ian Manners defines the European Union as a normative actor in international relations. According to him, EU's ability to change what passes for "normal" in international relations originates from its internal set-up which the EU uses to shape its environment and international norms in its own image. After first studying Manner's tripartite analysis and defining normative goals, means and impact of the normative policy, the thesis then proceeds to test normative theory in the European neighbourhood, particularly in the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership, by analysing EU's democracy and human rights promotion in Tunisia. It identifies discrepancy between EU's goals and means and discovers that on the one side, Euro-Mediterranean cooperation improves socio-economic development, however on the other it impedes the political one. This finding reflects incoherence and inconsistency of the EU's policies in the Mediterranean and arrives to the conclusion that EU is not a normative power in its neighbourhood policy.

In connection with its foreign policy, the European Union was until 2003 often seen as an actor lacking basically any "hard" power and it was often labeled as a "normative" power, "civilian" power etc. However, a group of scholars led by Ian Manners has been claiming that in connection with the adoption of the European Security Strategy in December 2003 the EU has lost its "soft" characteristics and has moved closer towards a traditional military actor. The master thesis deals with this issue of the alleged militarization of the Union's Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) after 2003/2004 while focusing on one particular area of the CFSP - the policy of restrictive measures or sanctions. This area is unique because of its special characteristic: on one hand, sanctions as such represent a "hard", coercive foreign policy tool and on the other, the EU has been autonomously using them already since the 1980s. The question therefore is what the frequent use of sanctions implies about the character of the EU and whether does the policy of restrictive measures stand, as a matter of principle, in opposition to being a "soft" power. By means of discourse analysis of the official EU sanction documents and by using the case of Burma (which represents a "typical case"), the thesis attempts to demonstrate,...

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Ever since its inception, the EU’s main goal has always been to spread its values of democracy and freedom. The EU’s success in spreading these values has been great until recently when some of the member states have gone through an autocratization. The clearest case of this is Hungary, which can no longer be seen as a democracy, due to its autocratization. Seeing as the EU has certain demands in democracy for countries that want to join the EU, it is strange that they let Hungary continue to be a part of the EU.  This paper will examine what the EU has done to hinder Hungary’s autocratization through its normative power. The results show that the EU has penalised Hungary in terms of sanctions and an article-7 procedure. Though, the EU is far away from throwing Hungary out of the EU, mostly because it is near impossible for the EU to exclude Hungary from the EU. The only way that Hungary can leave the EU is by their own choice.

Through the conception of the EU as a normative power, scholars envisage moving beyond the traditional notion of power in international relations. Scholars have argued that this “new kind of political ethics” entails an expectation on political discourse to avoid antagonistic othering and for consistency between the internal and external dimensions of identity construction. By exploring the previously overlooked internal dimension of Normative Power Europe (NPE), in light of Hungary challenging the upholding of the EU’s founding values, this thesis investigates how EU representatives discursively manage differences “at home”. The discourse analysis identified a dominant pattern of antagonistic othering towards the Hungarian government, suggesting a dilemma in upholding EU values while complying with the expectation that being a “new kind of power” entails. The results further suggest that the internal dilemma has implications on the credibility of the EU as an actor in foreign policy. In studying the managing of internal differences, this thesis adds to previous NPE scholarship on how the EU, in addressing internal fallacies, could work as a “laboratory” and project credible normative power in international relations.

Following the signature of the Millennium Declaration in 2000, and of the Lisbon treaty in 2009, the EU developed a key-role role on the international stage notably through the development of the CSFP and its HR representative, Federica Mogherini. While the EU reinforced its security policies, its involvement in developing countries increased as well. Higher requirements toward its foreign partners are expected, notably regarding the implementation of democratic principles. The EUROMED partnership, through which Tunisia is bound to the EU´s financial support and socio-economic goals, deploys a wide range of democracy promotion instruments. This research looks at the meanings of democracy in the context of the EU-Tunisian partnership through a transversal discursive analysis based on the work of Chaban & Holland, the foucauldian normative theory and the criteria for an ideal democracy from Dahl and Habermas. The analysis compares two layers of democratic discourses: the official one, from the EU and the Tunisian government; and the civil society level, from NGOs, journalists and activist bloggers. The aim of the study being to look at the possible mismatch between democratic discourse and democratic realities, resulting in a transformation of the democracy definition. The findings show discrepancies between the EU´s institutionalized democratic discourse, the Tunisian governments newly democratic discourse based on familial and religious values, and finally a Tunisian civil society distanced from political life, but speaking the "parrhesian" truth of Foucault and appearing as the last authentic layer of authentic democracy.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-26T20:21:05Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Eduardo Araujo Bim.pdf: 404308 bytes, checksum: 9a8f1253b20feb21f490ad97e885935f (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-06-01 / The contemporary society craves a renowned justice, qualitative and which well serve as a guiding tool, capable of pointing the direction that the courts are waving in relation to each law. This study aims to see that this important social claim is achieved through case law in its different forms. In the specific context of the Labour Process, the research pointed out that the case-law itself does not represent an adequately way of making society feel comfortable enough about the rights they seek for. It is essential, however, to surround the court decisions by making it robust and, therefore, we have developed studies about the surrounded case-law by guiding principles, translated from its origin as well as sources and principles of legal certainty, the perfect juridical act and res judicata. We also tried to elaborate an analysis on the context of the case-law as a fundamental guarantee of the individuals who both seek to bring findings about the ways of Power between the Union s Advisory Bodies, especially the judiciary judicial branch from which emanates the decisions, those ones that are capable of bringing social peace to a particular historical and cultural context for a plaintiff firm in a democratic state of law / A sociedade contemporânea anseia por uma justiça célere, qualitativa e que sirva de instrumento norteador, capaz de apontar a direção que os Tribunais estão a acenar relativamente a cada Direito. O presente estudo visa constatar que este importante reclame social é atingido através da jurisprudência nas suas mais diferentes formas. No âmbito específico do Processo do Trabalho, aponta-se nesta pesquisa que, a jurisprudência sozinha, não representa uma forma cabal de fazer com que a sociedade se sinta confortável em relação aos direitos que almeja. É fundamental, porém cercar a decisões judiciais tornando-a robusta e, para isso, desenvolvemos estudos sobre a jurisprudência cercada de princípios norteadores, desde seu nascedouro assim traduzido como fontes e os princípios da segurança jurídica, do ato jurídico perfeito e da coisa julgada. Buscou-se também elaborar analise sobre a jurisprudência num contexto de garantia fundamental do indivíduo e, para tanto, procurou-se trazer constatações sobre as formas de Poder entre os Órgãos da União, principalmente do Poder Judiciário donde emanam as decisões, estas, capaz de trazer a paz social num determinado contexto histórico-cultural para uma reclamante sociedade pertencente a um Estado Democrático de Direito

The applicability of the constitutional principle of consumer protection is indicated here as the main solution to fill the legal gap concerning the new electronic contracts. From an unknown and irrelevant precept in the consumption relationships developed during the Liberal State, to a leading factor for the economical activity of the Social and Constitutional State of Right, the constitutional principle of consumer protection walked a long hard path before being reconized and valued, bringing to the extent of consumption relationships the desired placement of a vulnerable consumer in the same level as the businesses that sell goods and services, through protective norms. According to this, The Federal Constitution of 1988 took the consumer protection as one of its icons, including it in the fundamental rights and guarantees and, like one of them, a self-aplicable right, with immediate normative power, in spite of the determination of preparation of the Protection Code, which made it stronger, rulling all developed peculiarities in the consumption relationships so far. With the globalization and one of its most interesting features, the internet, a new stage in the consumption relationships began, as well in the international business: The e-commerce was launched, what, in a chaotic but self-organized way, developed a new comfortable layout for the comsumption relationships, when by a simple mouse click, it is possible to reach any kind of goods or services, from national or international businesses, through their virtual shops. However, although it is just a new way of bringing into effect traditional legal contracts, since they are made through electronic support, a lot of doubts and questions related to the regulation of their main aspects have been coming up, for there is not a whole effective national norm, which has been restricting the practice of consumption relationships due to the remaining suspicion about the way they are done. In this case, it is summoned the normative power of the constitucional principle of consumer protection, displayed in the Federal Constitution of 1988, and, as well, in the other Constitutions of all democratic countries, which values highly the consumer citizen protection and their dignity. Due to the nonexistence, and even the difficulties in preparing a harmonic norm which reaches the national and international e-commerce, it is vented the invocation of this normative power as guidelines for solving the increasing demand coming around the Judicial Power related to this new contract perspective through the matrix. / A aplicabilidade do princípio constitucional de proteção do consumidor é apontada aqui como a principal saída para a solução da lacuna legislativa existente, no que tange aos novos contratos eletrônicos. De preceito desconhecido e irrelevante nas relações de consumo desenvolvidas durante o Estado Liberal, a vetor da atividade econômica do Estado Social e Constitucional de Direito, o princípio constitucional da proteção do consumidor teve que trilhar um árduo e longo caminho até ser reconhecido e valorado, trazendo para o âmbito das relações de consumo a realização da almejada colocação do consumidor vulnerável em um nível de paridade com os fornecedores de bens e serviços, através de normas protetivas daqueles. Nesse sentido, a Constituição Federal de 1988 abraçou a proteção do consumidor como um de seus ícones, consagrando-a dentre os direitos e garantias fundamentais e, como tal, direito auto-aplicável, com força normativa imediata, inobstante a determinação de elaboração de um Código de Proteção que o fortaleceu, regulando todas as particularidades das relações de consumo desenvolvidas até então. Eis que com a globalização e sua faceta mais interessante, a internet, deu-se início a uma nova fase nas relações de consumo, bem como no comércio internacional: Despontou o e-commerce, que de uma forma caótica, mas ao mesmo tempo auto-organizada, impulsionou as relações de consumo em um formato novo, cômodo e confortável, através do qual, com simples toques no mouse, pode-se adquirir bens e serviços de fornecedores nacionais ou estrangeiros, através de suas lojas virtuais. Todavia, apesar de ser apenas uma nova forma de se efetivar os tradicionais negócios jurídicos, já que se perfazem através de suporte eletrônico, muitas dúvidas e questões vêm surgindo quanto à regulação de seus principais aspectos, que ainda não foram agraciados a nível nacional com uma normativa eficaz e plena, fato que vem restringindo o exercício pleno das relações de consumo em linha, máxime em face da persistente desconfiança quanto ao meio. Neste sentido, eis que se convoca a força normativa do princípio constitucional da proteção do consumidor, presente na Carta de 1988, assim como nas Constituições dos demais países democráticos que prezam pela proteção do consumidor cidadão em sua dignidade. De modo que diante da inexistência, e mesmo da dificuldade de elaboração de uma normativa harmônica que alcance o comércio eletrônico interno e o internacional, pugna-se aqui pela invocação desta força normativa como norte para a solução das demandas que começam a bater às portas do Judiciário em torno desta nova perspectiva de formulação contratual através da matrix.