Magister Legum - LLM / The study aims to detect the outcomes for provincial and local governments when the veto power was invoked. This in turn provides evidence based information on the extent to which the intergovernmental checks and balances are working in practice. This is significant as the study measures the degree to which the veto power acts as a safeguard in protecting the autonomy and institutional integrity of local governments. While the data to be collated and presented will document the role and function currently performed by the Minister and NCOP it will also provide an opportunity to assess the legal framework.

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Made available in DSpace on 2014-08-20T13:46:46Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 dissertacao_rafael_vargas_hetsper.pdf: 1858865 bytes, checksum: e5d2e3a7d89ead9b07eb76b2dd79fa81 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-07-18 / This work has as its main purpose identifying the political-institutional meanings that the veto usage by the Mayor of Pelotas (RS) acquired for the relationship between the Executive and Legislative powers in a period of time between 2001 and 2008. As a secondary plan, it aims at finding behavioral changes in the relationship standard between the local powers when there was the change from Fernando Marroni s government (PT) (2001-04) to Bernardo de Souza (PPS)/Fetter Júnior s government (PP) (2005-08). Methodologically, it uses as its primary analysis object all the bills that, once approved by the City Council and then sent for executive deliberation in the period 2001-2008, could be vetoed by the City Mayor, and it elects as analytical variables factors related to the veto itself (type, motivation presented by the Executive power and appreciation result), as well as correlated to nature and the processing of bills (authorship, theme, urgent appreciation, incorporation of amendments to the initial project and processing time), and the influence of the Executive power on the legislative process (term of office of the Mayor and support of coalition government). The result of the multidimensional analysis of the 64 vetoes which occurred in the period (from a total of 950 identified bills) shows, in a coherent way, the present interpretations in the national Political Science, that the usage of veto by the Mayor of Pelotas in the period 2001-2008 meant the type of relationship developed between the local powers, which was of moderate conflict in the period 2001-2008, and of higher conflictive relation in the 2001-04 Government in comparison to the 2005-08 Government. / Este trabalho tem por objetivo principal identificar os significados políticoinstitucionais que o uso do veto pelo Prefeito de Pelotas (RS) adquiriu para as relações entre os poderes Executivo e Legislativo no corte temporal compreendido entre os anos de 2001 a 2008. Como desígnio secundário, almeja encontrar alterações comportamentais no padrão de relacionamento entre os poderes locais quando da sucessão da gestão de Fernando Marroni (PT) (2001-04) pela de Bernardo de Souza (PPS)/Fetter Júnior (PP) (2005-08). Metodologicamente, toma como objeto primário de análise todos os projetos de lei que, uma vez aprovados pela Câmara de Vereadores e encaminhados para deliberação executiva no período 2001-2008, poderiam vir a ser vetados pelo Prefeito municipal, e elege como variáveis analíticas fatores relacionados tanto ao veto em si (tipo, motivação apresentada pelo Executivo e resultado da apreciação), como correlatos à natureza e à tramitação dos projetos de lei (autoria, matéria, apreciação em regime de urgência, incorporação de emendas ao projeto inicial e tempo de tramitação), e a influência do Executivo sobre o processo legislativo (tempo de mandato do Prefeito e apoio da coalizão de governo). O resultado da análise multidimensional dos 64 vetos ocorridos no período (de um total de 950 projetos de lei identificados) mostra, de modo coerente às interpretações correntes na Ciência Política nacional, que o uso do veto pelo Prefeito de Pelotas no período 2001-2008 significou o tipo de relacionamento estabelecido entre os poderes locais, o qual foi de conflito moderado no período 2001-2008, e de maior conflitividade no Governo 2001-04 em comparação com o Governo 2005-08.

This thesis focuses on the correlation of the UNSC voting behaviour of the People's Republic of China and its foreign policy. China's importance as a global power at the platform of the UN has been rising ever since 1971, the year of China's admittance as a new member of the UN and more importantly also the permanent member of the Security Council with the power of veto. Given that the veto power strongly influences the actions of the UNSC, its use has served as a major indicator of what issues are considered as most unfavourable and threatening to China's national interests and foreign policy goals. This thesis elaborates on the development of the foreign policy of China, which has changed significantly since the year of its acquired UN membership but has also kept many principles, present even before the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949. By specifically concentrating on the individual cast vetoes, also considering the use of a so-called hidden veto and the reasons behind them being cast, this thesis tries to find out, how China has been using its veto power with regards to its declared foreign policy objectives within the UN Security Council.

The article focuses on the current situation in Syria in light of international criminal law and international humanitarian law. In particular, the author focuses on events and developments carried out from mid 2013 until September 2014. The author begins her research by providing a brief summary of the reasons that have lead to an armed conflict in Syria, and, inturn, examines the issue of the humanitarian consequences of the conflict, as well as some of the measures that have been adopted by the international community to address such consequences. Some of the main sources for this article are the reports adopted by the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic, which provide a crucial tool in order to assess the legal nature and characterization of the armed conflict, particularly in light of the increasing presence of new parties to the conflict. The evolution of the conflict allows the author to further examine the nature of the specific crimes that are being documented in Syria, giving way to an analysis within the field of international criminal law and international criminal responsibility. In the last section, the author examines the role of the UN Security Council in ensuring accountability for crimes in Syria. In particular, the vote on the referral of the Syria situation to the International Criminal Court is thoroughly assessed, leading, in turn, to the current debate on the use of the veto in situations involving crimes under international law. / El presente artículo analiza la situación actual en Siria a la luz del derecho penal internacional y el derecho internacional humanitario. El artículo se enfoca, principalmente, en los desarrollos que tuvieron lugar a partir de mediados de 2013 hasta septiembre de 2014. La autora inicia su investigación con un breve resumen del devenir del conflicto, para luego proceder a analizar las consecuencias humanitarias del mismo y algunas medidas adoptadas por la comunidad internacional. Seguidamente, y tomando como fuente esencial de investigación los informes de la Comisión Internacional Independiente de Investigación sobre la República Árabe de Siria (Comisión de Investigación sobre Siria), la autora analiza la naturaleza y calificación jurídica del conflicto, tomando en cuenta la presencia de nuevos actores en el conflicto. A su vez, la evolución del conflicto exige el análisis de los crímenes concretos que se vienen cometiendo en Siria, lo que lleva a la autora al plano del derecho penal internacional y la responsabilidad penal internacional del individuo. Finalmente, la autora procede a analizar detalladamente el rol del Consejo de Seguridad en promover medidas de accountability en Siria, lo cual lleva al análisis detenido de la votación en el seno del Consejo en torno a la remisión de la situación en Siria a la Corte Penal Internacional, así como al debate actual respecto al empleo del derecho al veto ante situaciones que involucran crímenes bajo el derecho internacional.

Le différend entre la France et les Etats-Unis sur le règlement de la question irakienne a provoqué une crise diplomatique majeure entre les deux pays, jugée par certains comme la plus sérieuse dans l’histoire des relations bilatérales. Le dossier irakien a cristallisé les positions diplomatiques des deux alliés et mis en lumière deux lectures d’une grande question internationale. Pour la France, il a été l’occasion de défendre des principes, de faire entendre sa voix et de partager sa vision d’un monde multipolaire fondé sur la quête d’un règlement pacifique des différends. Pour les Etats-Unis, cette question relevait d’un enjeu de sécurité nationale, dans une Amérique profondément traumatisée par les attentats de septembre 2001. La rupture franco-américaine a résulté de facteurs structurels anciens : la concurrence entre deux modèles politiques et diplomatiques qui se veulent universels et le déséquilibre entre une puissance française, déclinante, qui aspire à préserver ses sphères d’influence sur la scène internationale, et une puissance américaine, ascendante, devenue, depuis l’effondrement du bloc soviétique, l’unique superpuissance à la tête d’un monde unipolaire. L’affrontement bilatéral du printemps 2003 a ainsi révélé les caractères intrinsèques qui opposent la diplomatie française et la diplomatie américaine et dévoilé leur conception très éloignée qu’elles se faisaient du nouvel ordre mondial et de la place qu’elles aspirent à occuper sur l’échiquier international / The disagreement between France and the US over the Iraqi issue led to a serious diplomatic crisis between the two countries, considered by many analysts as the most serious one in the history of bilateral relations. The Iraqi case crystallized the diplomatic positions of both allies and revealed two different reads of this major international issue. For France, this case was the opportunity to defend its principles, to get itself heard by the rest of the world and to share its vision of a multipolar world, where disputes would be peacefully settled through international organizations. For the US, that issue fell under a matter of national security, in a country deeply traumatized by ‘9/11’. The split between thetwo countries resulted from historical structural causes : (i) the competition between two political and diplomatic models that present themselves as universal, and (ii) the imbalance between France’s declining power aspiring to preserve its spheres of influence over the world and America’s ascending power that has become, since the end of the Cold War, the only superpower. The bilateral confrontation of 2003 revealed the distinctive patterns of both French and American foreign policies and exposed their different views and models of the new world order, as well as their ambitions on the international scene

In 1948 the international community in reaction to the horrors of the holocaust sought to eradicate genocide forever by creating the 'Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide'. This Convention criminalised the preparation and act of genocide by international law, making all individuals accountable irrelevant of status or sovereignty. But the Convention has not been enough to deter the act of genocide from occurring again, and again, and again. Worst, the international community has been slow to react to cases of genocide. The problem with preventing and punishing genocide is hindered by the power and right of veto held by permanent members of the UNSC. The UNSC has been given the responsibility to maintain international peace and security and is the only entity that can mandate an intervention that overrides the principle of non-intervention. The aim of this thesis is to show that the veto has been a crucial factor in stopping the prevention of genocide, thus it is imperative that the veto change. This study argues that to effectively prevent and punish genocide the veto needs to be barred from use in cases of genocide. It looks at different cases since the Armenian genocide during WWI through to the Darfur genocide which is still in process. The case of Armenia is significant because for the first time, members of the international community were prepared to hold leaders of another state accountable for their treatment of their own citizens. However the collective will to bring justice to those accountable waned coming to an abrupt end in 1923. The holocaust followed in WWII; six million Jews died, and numerous other groups were targeted under the Nazi's serial genocide. The shock of the holocaust led to the Genocide Convention. But thirty years later during the Cold War, Cambodia became embroiled in a genocide perpetrated by the Khmer Rouge. The international community silently stood by. The USSR, China, and the US all had their reasons to stay out of Cambodia, from supporting a regime with a likeminded political ideology to war weariness from Vietnam. In the 1990s, genocides in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia (Bosnia and Kosovo) followed. The former was neglected by the US's unwillingness to be involved in another peacekeeping disaster. The two genocides in the former Yugoslavia were affected by Russia and China's reluctance to use military force even after the clear failure of serial negotiations. Finally, in 2003 Darfur became the latest tragedy of genocide. Again, Russia and China have been timid of calling the conflict genocide thus avoiding any affirmative action to stop it. These cases all show that where one state is unwilling to be involved in stopping genocide, their right and power to the veto stops or delays the international community from preventing and punishing genocide, regardless of whether the veto is used or merely seen as a threat. Therefore, for future prevention of genocide, the veto needs to be changed to prevent its use in times of genocide.

Reform of the UN Security Council and a stumbling block associated with it - abstract This thesis deals with matter of the Security Council reform, the most crucial body of the United Nations. It examines approaches of eleven specific countries which are divided into two groups. The first group is comprised by permanent members of the Security Council, the second one by states which, in case of their creation, could claim new permanent seats in this body. This thesis examines not only their real policies, but also their policies from theoretical - specifically neorealistic - point of view. Two different hypotheses were deduced from neorealism which were tested and subsequently evaluated as (in)valid. Hypothesis emerging from a standard neorealism put emphasis on policy whose goal is to maintain, alternatively to increase a state's autonomy (autonomy-seeking policy). International organizations are viewed as entity which limits, to some extent, this autonomy. On the other hand, hypothesis emerging from a modified neorealism put emphasis on policy whose goal is to gain, alternatively to increase influence on other actors (influence-seeking policy). On the contrary, within this policy international organizations are an useful entity because it is possible to achieve such an influence by means of them. In the...

Der Einfluss Internationaler Organisationen reicht angesichts der Herausforderung, für globale Probleme Lösungen zu finden, mittlerweile so weit, dass sich die Frage nach den in ihnen vorhandenen Machtbegrenzungsmechanismen stellt. Doch wie kann die Macht Internationaler Organisationen kontrolliert werden, wenn das aus dem nationalen Verfassungsrecht bekannte Gewaltenteilungsprinzip nicht auf die internationale Ebene übertragen werden kann?   Die Arbeit analysiert die dazu innerhalb der Vereinten Nationen (UNO) und der Welthandelsorganisation (WTO) existierenden formalisierten Mechanismen anhand ihrer Gründungsverträge. Dabei werden drei Kategorien von Machtbegrenzungsmechanismen identifiziert: Kompetenzzuweisungen und -abgrenzungen, organinterne Mechanismen und schließlich Interaktion zwischen den Organen. Die in der Praxis bedeutsamsten Mechanismen stellen zum einen das Vetorecht im UN-Sicherheitsrat sowie der negative Konsens im Streitbeilegungsgremium der WTO dar, die zur Gruppe der organinternen Mechanismen gehören. Zum anderen besteht in der Kontrolle der Streitbeilegungs-Panel der WTO durch den Appellate Body eine wichtige Machtbegrenzung durch Interaktion.  Die Untersuchung dokumentiert das paradoxe Phänomen, dass die Mechanismen zur Begrenzung der Macht in vielen Fällen auch eine machtsteigernde Wirkung haben, indem sie die Effizienz, Akzeptanz und Legitimation der Organisation erhöhen. Die Verfasserin erklärt dies damit, dass das Augenmerk der Gründungsstaaten in der Entstehungsphase auf dem Funktionieren der Organisation als Gegengewicht zu ihren jeweiligen Mitgliedsstaaten lag. Dass Internationale Organisationen in der Zwischenzeit so stark an Einfluss gewonnen haben, dass ihre Macht nunmehr begrenzt werden sollte, ist eine neue Entwicklung, die jedoch in Zukunft deutlich an Bedeutung gewinnen wird. / In light of the challenge to find answers to global problems, the influence of international organizations nowadays goes so far that the question of existing checks and balances within these organizations arises. But how can power be controlled when the principle of separation of powers originating from national constitutional law cannot be transferred to the international stage? The purpose of this thesis is to analyze existing formalized internal mechanisms within the United Nations and the World Trade Organization on the basis of their founding treaties. The author identifies three categories of checks and balances: allowing and limiting competencies, mechanisms within the organs and finally interactions between the organs. In practice, the most important mechanisms of these organizations are on the one hand the power of veto within the UN Security Council and the negative consensus within the WTO dispute settlement body, which belong to the category of mechanisms within the organs. In addition, the control of the WTO dispute settlement panels by the Appellate Body is an important form of checks and balances through interaction. The analysis shows the paradoxical phenomenon, that checks and balances in many cases have the effect of increasing power by augmenting the efficiency, acceptance and legitimacy of the organization. The author explains this by reference to the intentions of the founding states during the developing phase to strengthen these organizations as a counterbalance to their respective member states. It is a new development that international organizations have now increased their influence so much that their power should be limited, but this will become significantly more important in the future.