É histórica a exploração dos recursos naturais dos países periféricos pelos centrais. No seio da atual Divisão Internacional do Trabalho essa exploração foi ganhando maior regulamentação dentro de alguns países. Os países da bacia hidrográfica amazônica, ricos em recursos genéticos, podem considerar o acesso a estes recursos em seus territórios lícito, como quando uma empresa ou pesquisador cumprem todos os requisitos burocráticos e práticos que constam na lei, mas pode ser também ilícito, o que configura biopirataria. A diferença nessa classificação sobre os usos do território tem sido matéria de polêmicas internacionais em um contexto geral de queda de barreiras comerciais e de descoberta do potencial econômico de recursos naturais antes desprezados pelo mercado. Este acesso envolve relações em diferentes escalas e com diversos atores que compõem o sistema geopolítico internacional, com regulamentações em acordos internacionais, regionais e com leis nacionais. Entre estes atores destacam-se grandes corporações, Estados e populações tradicionais competindo desigualmente pelo controle ou pela influência sobre o território. A simples forma de se apropriar e até mesmo de descrever uma planta, por exemplo, já reflete diferentes estratégias para o controle e classificação do território: tal planta poderia ser simultaneamente avaliada pelo seu potencial econômico e pelas suas propriedades científicas, ou pelo risco do seu desaparecimento e pela defesa de seu isolamento em relação aos homens, ou ainda pela antiguidade e pela permanência de usos comunitários e empíricos de suas folhas e raízes para garantir a manutenção do modo de vida de um grupo tradicional. Dentro desse quadro, os objetivos do trabalho são compreender os desdobramentos do ordenamento jurídico sobre recursos genéticos na região amazônica. Faremos esse trabalho por intermédio de acordos internacionais, leis nacionais e publicações de autores que trabalham o tema recursos genéticos na Amazônia. / The exploration of the natural resources of the peripheral countries by the central ones is historical. Within the current Labor International Division, this exploitation has been gaining more regulation in some countries. The countries in the Amazon basin, which are rich in genetic resources, may consider legal access to these resources in their territories, such as when a company or a researcher meets all the bureaucratic and practical requirements which are contained in the law, but the access may also be illegal, which constitutes biopiracy. The difference in this classification of land uses has been the subject of international controversy in a general context of the end of commercial barriers and in the discovering of the economic potential of natural resources previously despised by the market. This access involves relations at different scales and with different actors that participates the international geopolitical system, with regulations in regional and international agreements, and national laws. Among these actors stand out large corporations, national states and traditional populations competing unequally for control or influence over the territory. The simple way of framing and even describing a plant, for example, are enough to expose different strategies for the control and classification over the territory: such a plant could be evaluated simultaneously by its economic potential and its scientific properties, or by the risk of its disappearance and the defense of their isolation in relation to humans, or the antiquity and permanence of communitarian and empirical uses of its leaves and roots to guarantee the maintenance of the way of life of a traditional group. Within this framework, the objectives of this work are to understand the unfolding of the legal order on genetic resources in the Amazon region. We will do this work based on international agreements, national laws and publications of authors working on genetic resources in the Amazon.

Thesis advisor: David Deese / In recent years, the rise in the formation of regional organizations such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the Mercado Común Del Sur (Mercosur) has drawn an increasing amount of attention from political scientists and economists. However, countries preparing for entry into regional organizations have the challenging task of promoting both economic and social integration. When preparing for accession into regional organizations, Mexico and Argentina implemented multiple changes in their economic and political practices. As a result of these changes, citizens who perceived themselves to be excluded from the benefits of regional integration formed social movements such as the Zapatista Army for National Liberation and El Movimiento de las Mujeres en Lucha to voice their opposition. This thesis explores the policy changes made as Mexico and Argentina prepared for accession into regional organizations, the social movements formed in opposition to these changes, and the responses formulated by Mexico's and Argentina's leaders in reaction to these movements. I conclude that countries preparing for entry into regional organizations must implement policies which address the political concerns of these groups, rather than simply their economic concerns. Failure to do so will lead to deep social divisions which will hinder the formation and development of regional organizations. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2008. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Political Science. / Discipline: Political Science Honors Program. / Discipline: College Honors Program.

Partneravtal är ett växande fenomen i världen, inte enbart i kommersiella sammanhang. Det är en term som har funnits i många år för skilda ändamål och i denna uppsats riktas blicken till partneravtal inom affärsvärlden, som en möjlig associationsform. Partnerskap inleds som en samarbetsform mellan två eller flera företag för att tillsammans uppnå ett gemensamt mål. Det konkreta syftet specificeras i ett partneravtal och utifrån avtalet sker utbyten, såsom kunskap och resurser, mellan parterna i en slags samverkan. I förhållande till andra ”etablerade” samarbetsformer är den främsta skillnaden vid ett partneravtal att sådan avtalsform inte avser att gemensamt bilda ett nytt bolag.    Problem uppstår dock på grund av att det saknas en juridisk definition av partneravtal. Avsaknaden medför att partneravtal ingås med anledning av olika syften, i varierande former och särskilda krav. Saknaden av juridisk definition medför att partneravtal i dagsläget endast utgör ett avtal utan särskild tillhörighet till en associationsform. Utifrån uppsatsens analys har det dock framkommit att enkla bolag är en associationsform som torde motsvara partneravtalets innebörd, främst avseende de bolagsrekvisit som förutsätts i ett enkelt bolag. Sådana rekvisit kan ses i jämförande utsträckning för partneravtal. Eftersom partneravtal inte torde utgöra en egen associationsform enligt lag, kan i praktiken ett samarbete genom partnerskap leda till att ett enkelt bolag bildas. Likt tanken om att enkla bolag är en ”fri” associationsform, är partnerskapet likaså med anledning av att sådan ”bolagsform” saknar lagreglering och därmed förutbestämda krav. Enkla bolag är dock en lagreglerad associationsform men utgör ett bolagsavtal med viss frihet, eftersom lagbestämmelserna inte är lika omfattande som reglerna för andra associationsformer. Det medför att valfrihet föreligger för enkla bolag, för bildandet och genomförandet, av såsom passivt deltagande och ingen registreringsskyldighet. Med andra ord finns inte ett behov av att partneravtalet ska utgöra en egen associationsform, partneravtalet kan istället definieras som ett bolagsavtal för enkla bolag.    En jämförelse mellan partneravtal och enkla bolag är förhållandevis inte enkel. Saknaden av definition för partneravtal, i samband med att det är svårt att finna tillämplig innebörd och bolagsrekvisit för enkla bolag, talar för att en tydligare lagstiftning vore önskvärt. Ett förtydligande av enkla bolagets innebörd och bolagsrekvisit skulle minimera tolkningsmöjligheterna och därmed utforma en allmän accepterad definition. Enkla bolag anses utgöra en sorts slask-bolagsform, ändock är enkla bolag en populär associationsform, därför torde det finnas behov av ytterligare utredning av sådant bolagsavtal. En utredning som kanske skulle kunna upptäcka fler samarbetsformer som faller inom associationsformen, enkla bolag.

The thesis contains three chapters on environmental and natural resource economics and focuses on situations where agents receive private or public information. The first chapter analyses the problem of transboundary fisheries, where harvesting countries behave non-cooperatively. In addition to biological uncertainty, countries may face strategic uncertainty. A country that receives negative assessments about the current level of the fish stock, may become “pessimistic” about the assessment of the other harvesting country, which can ignite “panic-based” overfishing. In such a coordination problem, multiplicity of equilibria is a generic characteristic of the solution. Both strategic uncertainty and equilibrium selection, relatively, have been given less attention in the theoretical literature of common-property natural resources. In this model, in the limit as the harvesting countries observe more and more precise information, rationality ensures the unique “global game” equilibrium, a la Carlsson and van Damme (1993). The improved predictive power of the model helps a potential intergovernmental manager of the stock understand the threshold behaviour of harvesting countries. The global game threshold coincides with the risk-dominance threshold of a precise information model, as if there was no strategic uncertainty, and implies that the countries select the corresponding risk-dominant action for any level of assessment of the stock. Gaining from the risk-dominance equivalence, I derive policy suggestions for the overfishing cost and the property rights in common-property fisheries. The second chapter develops a theoretical framework to examine the role of public information in dynamic self-enforcing international environmental agreements (IEAs) on climate change. The countries choose self-enforcing emission abatement strategies in an infinite-horizon repeated game. In a stochastic model, where the social cost of greenhouse gasses (GHG) is a random variable, a central authority, as an information sender, can control release of information about the unknown state to the countries. In the literature on stochastic IEAs, it is shown that comparison of different scenarios of learning by the countries, depends on ex-ante difference of true social cost of GHG from the prior belief of countries. Here, I try to understand, in a signalling game between the informed sender and the countries, whether the no-learning or imperfect-learning scenarios, can be an equilibrium outcome. It is shown that the equilibrium strategy of the sender, who is constrained to a specific randomisation device and tries to induce an incentive-compatible abatement level which is Pareto superior, leads to full learning of social cost of GHG of symmetric and asymmetric countries. Finally, in the third chapter, I again examine a setting, where a central authority, as an information sender, conducts research on the true social cost of climate change, and releases information to the countries. However, in this chapter, instead of restricting the sender to a specific signalling structure, the sender, who has commitment power, by designing an information mechanism (a set of signals and a probability distribution over them), maximises his payoff, which depends on the mitigation action of countries and the social cost of green-house gases(GHG). The countries, given the information policy (the probability distribution over signals) and the public signal, update their beliefs about the social cost of GHG and take a mitigation action. I derive the optimal information mechanism from the general set of public information mechanisms, in coalition formation games. I show that the coalition size, as a function of beliefs, is an endogenous variable, induced by the information sender. If the sender maximises the expected payoff of either of non-signatories or signatories of the climate treaty, then full revelation is the optimal information policy, while if the sender attempts to reduce the global level of GHG, then optimal information policy leads to imperfect disclosure of the social cost. Furthermore, given any of the specifications of the sender’s payoff, the optimal information policy leads to the socially optimal mitigation and membership outcomes.

Como uma nova perspectiva da teoria federalista, o federalismo cooperativo opõe-se à clássica abordagem dualista, balanceando a tensão entre a autonomia dos entes federados e o mútuo auxílio. Nesse quadro, os consórcios públicos podem ser considerados o estágio final do processo de cooperação, fornecendo os instrumentos para possibilitar a gestão e a prestação conjunta de serviços públicos. O trabalho busca analisar o desenvolvimento de tais ajustes no direito brasileiro, especialmente após as recentes mudanças operadas no texto constitucional e levadas adiante pela Lei n.º 11.107/05 (Lei de Consórcios Públicos), que resultaram no advento de um novo modelo contratual, concretizado numa pessoa jurídica intergovernamental. Os métodos de estudo envolvem as tarefas de indentificação das raízes históricas das formas de cooperação, investigação das atuais possibilidades dos consórcios e seus limites e, finalmente, detalhamento do funcionamento da gestão associada, incluindo a estrutura da pessoa interfederativa, seus poderes e regime jurídico. As conclusões apontam para a importância da utilização planejada dos consórcios públicos de modo a que se alcancem consideráveis ganhos econômicos e sociais, permitindo aos governos locais enfrentar problemas comuns que de outra maneira não seriam resolvidos, em matérias como saúde pública, educação e outros serviços públicos e apenas serviços públicos, já que a legislação restringe as possíveis metas consorciais a esse específico conceito. / As a new perspective of the federalist theory, cooperative federalism opposes to the classic dualistic approach, balancing the conflict between states autonomy and mutual aid. Under this arrangement, intergovernmental agreements may be considered the final level of the cooperation process, providing the means to allow the joint management and deliver of public services. The paper aims to analyze these agreements development on brazilian law, especially after the recent changes enacted in the constitutional text and carried on by Law 11.107/05, which resulted in a new contractual model, materialized in an intergovernmental corporation. The study methods involve the tasks of identifying historical sources of cooperation forms, inquiring the agreements current possibilities and its limits and, finally, detailing the joint management functioning, including the corporation structure, powers and legal regime. The conclusions points to the importance of planned use of the cooperative agreements in order to reaching considerable economical and social gains, by allowing local governments to face common issues that otherwise would never be solved, in matters such as public health, education and other public services and only public services, since the legislation restricts the agreements possible goals to this specific concept.

O objetivo desta pesquisa é estudar os binômios que ocorrem em contratos de common law à luz da Lingüística de Corpus, procurando dar subsídios que auxiliem os tradutores de textos jurídicos a chegar a uma tradução natural, ou seja, para que traduzam linguagem jurídica por linguagem jurídica. Os binômios são formados por duas palavras pertencentes à mesma categoria gramatical, ligadas pela conjunção and ou or. Alguns exemplos são: terms and conditions, any and all, executed and delivered, due and payable, action or proceeding, agreement or obligation. Os binômios são uma marca do inglês jurídico e como tal têm sido objeto de diversos estudos. O mesmo, porém, não ocorre com a linguagem jurídica em português. Assim, ao lidar com a tradução de binômios, estudos mostram que os tradutores brasileiros se apegam à opção mais literal. A escolha de estudar os binômios nos contratos de common law se deve ao fato de estarem os contratos entre os documentos mais difíceis de traduzir e de ler e por terem uma altíssima concentração de binômios. Por essas razões, para estudar os binômios na linguagem jurídica em inglês e dar elementos para o tradutor chegar à tradução em português do Brasil, compilamos um corpus comparável de agreements e contratos autênticos perfazendo, aproximadamente, 1 milhão de palavras - 705 744 em inglês e 289 984 em português - composto por 5 amostras de 28 espécies de contratos e agreements, totalizando 140 documentos em cada língua. O corpus foi explorado de acordo com os princípios e ferramentas da Lingüística de Corpus. Para etiquetar o corpus usamos o programa CLAWS 7 (the Constituent Likelihood Automatic Word-tagging System) do UCREL (Universidade de Lancaster) e para explorá-lo, o WordSmith Tools de Mike Scott. / This research aims at studying binomial expressions in common law agreements in the light of Corpus Linguistics in an attempt to provide translators with the necessary linguistic elements that will enable them to render a natural translation, that is, to translate legal language into legal language. Binomial expressions are formed by two words belonging to the same grammatical category and joined by and or or. Some examples are: terms and conditions, any and all, executed and delivered, due and payable, action or proceeding, agreement or obligation. Binomials are an integral part of English legal language and as such have deserved a considerable amount of study. The same, however, does not occur in Brazilian Portuguese legal language. Therefore, when dealing with binomial expressions, studies show that Brazilian translators tend to translate all the elements of a binomial literally. The choice of text type is due to the fact that agreements and contratos are among the most difficult documents to translate and seem to have an incredibly high concentration of binomial expressions. For said reasons, in order to study binomials in English legal language and provide elements for translators to arrive at their own translation into Brazilian Portuguese, we have compiled and explored a bilingual comparable corpus consisting of authentic agreements and contratos, totalling, approximately, 1 million words - 705,744 in English and 289,984 in Brazilian Portuguese - made up of 5 samples of 28 different kinds of contratos and agreements, a total of 140 documents in each language. Exploring such a corpus greatly depended on the principles and tools of Corpus Linguistics. To tag the corpus we used UCREL\'s CLAWS 7 (the Constituent Likelihood Automatic Word-tagging System) and to explore the corpus we used Mike Scott\'s WordSmith Tools.

Submitted by Rosina Valeria Lanzellotti Mattiussi Teixeira (rosina.teixeira@unisantos.br) on 2015-05-18T19:06:42Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Maria de Fatima Rodrigues Marques.pdf: 807222 bytes, checksum: da828be74da50f13f6b1e38c6bb6bce1 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-05-18T19:06:42Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Maria de Fatima Rodrigues Marques.pdf: 807222 bytes, checksum: da828be74da50f13f6b1e38c6bb6bce1 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-10-23 / The present work aims to analyze the phenomenon of double taxation with respect specifically to tax the income of individuals. In the Introduction, it is some considerations about the changes occurred in trade relations between the countries from the last century. In Chapter I, we analyze the International Tax Law, as an expression of state sovereignty itself. And the principles of territoriality and universality. In Chapter II, considerations concerning the obligation of international law and, therefore, treaties which are their sources are made. Are studied treaties, notably those involving tax in Chapter III. Have called for the application of the double taxation agreements with the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties and the hierarchical relationship of treaties in Brazil. In Chapter IV, it is an analysis of double taxation. Fiscal neutrality and unilateral measures to neutralize the double taxation. In Chapter V, is considered the tax treatment of the income of individuals in Brazil, in the context of international law in the two situations: the existence or not of an agreement on double taxation . These two situations are addressed individually in the following Chapters VI and VII. In Chapter VIII, brings up the issue of tax avoidance. In Chapter IX, it is the relationship between the double taxation agreements and human dignity. In Chapter X, presents a conclusive overview on the topic. / O presente trabalho pretende fazer uma análise do fenômeno da dupla tributação internacional com relação especificamente ao imposto sobre a renda da pessoa física. Na Introdução, faz-se algumas considerações a respeito das mudanças havidas nas relações comerciais entre os países a partir do século passado. No Capítulo I, é analisado o Direito Tributário Internacional, como expressão da própria soberania do Estado. E, os princípios da territorialidade e da universalidade. No Capítulo II, são feitas considerações acerca da obrigatoriedade do direito internacional e, por conseguinte, dos tratados que são suas fontes. No Capítulo III, são estudados os tratados, notadamente os de natureza tributária. Propugna-se pela aplicação nos acordos de bitributação da Convenção de Viena sobre o direito dos tratados e a relação hierárquica dos tratados no Brasil. No Capítulo IV, faz-se uma análise sobre a dupla tributação. A neutralidade fiscal e as medidas unilaterais para neutralizar a dupla tributação. No Capítulos V, é analisado o tratamento fiscal dos rendimentos das pessoas físicas no Brasil, no contexto do direito internacional nas duas situações: existência, ou não, de um acordo contra a dupla tributação. Essas duas situações são isoladamente enfrentadas nos Capítulos seguintes: VI e VII. No Capítulo VIII, traz-se a problemática da elisão fiscal. No Capítulo IX, faz-se a relação entre os acordos de bitributação e a dignidade da pessoa humana. No Capítulo X, apresenta-se uma síntese conclusiva sobre o tema.

From its emergence to its expansion, intellectual property (IP) has not been isolated from trade. However, in the late 1970s, business interests in the United States (US) exerted powerful pressure, leading to IP norms becoming increasingly trade-centric. Hypothesis of this thesis is that such trade-centric IP norms, encouraged and formed by the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), and subsequent TRIPS-plus rules pursued by the two most active actors, the US and the European Union (EU), fail to achieve the intended purposes of IP protection. This normalization of tradecentric regulation also creates conflict with a range of economic, social and cultural values that have significant human rights implications. The goal of this thesis is to: (a) critically examine this predominance of trade in contemporary IP norms; and (b) provide a counter framework for IP policy reform. It seeks to do this by juxtaposing the theoretical and empirical aspects of IP norms against human rights. This study will pursue to prove the hypothesis by conducting case studies on two free trade agreements (FTAs) enacted by South Korea with the US and the EU. The thesis concludes that, on the whole, the context of human rights provides a just counter framework that can unify the diverse range of issues. This is more so given that human rights are strengthened by international consensual norms institutionalised by intergovernmental organisations and supported by transnational advocacy networks. Nevertheless, this thesis advocates that an overemphasis on state and individuals in the human rights discourse needs to be challenged by taking into account the dominance of global economic regulations, the prevailing role of non-state actors, and the culturally relative nature of IP.

Dans un contexte de mondialisation, face à l’accroissement des échanges et la complexification des contrats internationaux, les négociations précontractuelles ont pris une dimension particulière : création de nouvelles obligations, étirement de la durée des pourparlers, multiplications des contrats préliminaires, tout conduit à transformer cette simple période de transition en une étape primordiale de la vie contractuelle. Les différentes phases de négociation entre partenaires internationaux vont ainsi générer des contentieux qui intéressent le droit international privé. En effet, la valeur juridique de la négociation diverge d’un régime juridique à un autre. Alors que les Etats de common law adoptent une conception individualiste des pourparlers avec pour principe une liberté contractuelle très étendue, la civil law circonscrit la liberté contractuelle par le respect d’un devoir de bonne foi. Par conséquent, il apparaît essentiel, pour les parties, de connaître avec certitude le droit applicable à leur relation précontractuelle.Or les règles de conflits existantes, supposées garantir la sécurité juridique des parties à la négociation en leur assurant une certaine prévisibilité des solutions, ne sont pas adaptées à l’heure actuelle. Dans cette perspective, l’objet de la recherche s’attache à considérer les spécificités de la période précontractuelle et les questions de droit international privé s’y rattachant et tente d’y apporter des réponses efficaces en proposant des règles de conflits adaptées, afin de garantir la sécurité juridique à laquelle aspirent les parties à la négociation. / In a context of globalization, facing increased trade and the increasing complexity of international contracts, pre-contractual negotiations take a special dimension: creating new obligations, stretching the length of talks, multiplications of preliminary contracts, are leading to transform this simple transition in a primordial stage of contracts. The different phases of negotiation between international partners and will generate interest litigation private international law.Indeed, the legal negotiation differs from one legal regime to another. Common law countries adopt an individualistic principle for talks with extensive contractual freedom, whereas civil law circumscribes the freedom of contract in respect of a duty of good faith. Therefore, it is essential for the parties to know with certainty the law applicable to their pre-contractual relationship.However, the existing conflict rules, supposed to guarantee the legal security of the negotiating parties by ensuring predictability solutions are not appropriate at this time. In this perspective, the purpose of the research focuses on considering the specificities of the pre-contractual period and issues of private international law relating thereto and attempts to provide effective responses by providing conflict rules adapted to ensure legal certainty aspired parties to the negotiation.

Depuis plus de deux décennies, 320 accords d'entreprise transnationaux (AET) ont été conclus par 190 entreprises transnationales couvrant plus de 10 millions de salariés dont 2 en Europe (y.c fournisseurs et sous-traitants). On dispose désormais du recul nécessaire pour affirmer que I' AET est un accord de droit privé, négocié en l'absence d'un cadre juridique qui l'ignore encore, par des acteurs patronaux et salariés à la légitimité parfois incertaine, mais disposant d'une large autonomie d'opportunité, de méthode, de choix des thèmes, de périmètre, et de résolution des litiges. Or cette autonomie n'est que relative: l'application homogène de I' AET en son périmètre multinational reste une gageure, puisque confrontée à la diversité des règlementations. C'est l'occasion pour I' AET de révéler sa capacité de créer et déployer ses dispositions privées sans intervention externe, en particulier du juge. Ses atouts : son opportunisme à se mouler dans les imperfections légales, à combler des vides juridiques, et à instaurer d'improbables harmonisations légales sur un périmètre qu'il se donne. Cette thèse a pour objet de démontrer que l'AET est le fruit d'un délicat équilibre reposant sur trois phases d'égale importance (négociation, déploiement et suivi) dont les engagements désormais tangibles et synallagmatiques, se consolident sur la durée. Afin que I' AET ne soit pas perçu comme une« norme d'ajustement», l'ancrage de son autonomie devrait faire l'objet d'une reconnaissance légale internationale et nationale, lui conférant une véritable identité, prohibant toute régression en matière économique, sociale et environnementale et lui permettre de se démocratiser davantage. / In the past two or so decades, 320 transnational company-wide agreements (TCAs) have been entered into by 190 transnational corporations, covering over 10 million employees (2 million in Europe), along with suppliers and sub­contractors. By now, one has sufficient hindsight to confidently state that a TCA is a private-law agreement, negotiated (statute law being silent here) by corporate management and employees (some of whom of doubtful legitimacy), and enjoying considerable leeway when it comes to opportunities, method, choice of issues, purview and conflict-resolution. That independence nonetheless remains relative: for a TCA to apply across-the-board on a multinational level continues to be somewhat hazardous, given how greatly regulations may vary. This provides the occasion for a TCA to show its capacity for setting up and deploying private provisions without third-party intervention, notably from the Courts. The advantages: its ability to fill-out, as it were, gaps in the law, making up for the law's eventual inadequacies, while harmonising the law, against ail expectation, within a self-defined purview.This thesis has been designed to show how the TCA emerges from a delicate balance between three stages, equal in importance (negotiations, deployment, follow-up) with its tangible, synallagmatic commitments consolidating as time goes on. In order for a TCA to be viewed otherwise than as a mere "adjustment-standard", we suggest that its independence should henceforth be acknowledged by both domestic and international law, thereby granting it a true identity and preventing back-sliding in economic, social and environmental matters, while enabling it to become ever more democratic.