The primary objective of the study as contained in this thesis is the discussion of the approaches to dilution taken by the legal systems of the European Union and South Africa. Although a comparative methodology is employed the discussion grounds the separate development of the anti-dilution provisions in both systems first before discussing comparisons and diverging approaches (should they exist). As a result of the South African anti-dilution provisions being relatively new, there exists a lot of overlap between the approaches in the United Kingdom, European Union and South Africa. Dilution both as a concept and a reality remains controversial as both the courts and commentators grapple with how it fits within greater Trade Mark law. The relationship between traditional infringement and dilution is equally contentious as questions continue to be asked about the relevance of the anti-dilution provisions when traditional infringement already exists and is effective. A question that is constantly asked is: can there be infringement without confusion? Equally contentious is the issue of whether a parody exception should be introduced in Trade Mark law even though there is minimal litigation around the issue of parody and dilution.

Taking off from a security related interest in de-democratization processes throughout Europe and the limited theoretical field thereof, this paper examines the political development in Poland 2008-2018. Through a comparison of the development in Poland and Hungary, the ambition is to identify what differs the de-democratization process of the two East European countries in regards to their communist past and in a broader sense to their current membership in the European Union. To guide the comparison is the theoretical framework of Merkel (2004), through both qualitative and quantitative analysis as it has been applied on Hungary by Bogaards (2018). The combined framework provides five categories of defect democracies: exclusive, illiberal, delegative, tutelary and diffusely defect. While Bogaards (2018) categorizes Hungary as a diffusely defect democracy, the study finds that Poland does not adhere to any single one of the categories. The question of what differs the development in Poland and Hungary is best answered in terms of legality. Whereas the systematic Hungarian process has been carried out within legal frames of the majority rule in parliament, the hasty Polish process resembles a palace revolution, as the leading party is interfering with and partly controlling the rule of law. The study provides support to the observations of the EU being an externally limiting, enabling and legitimizing factor of autocratic developments in member states, made by Bozóki and Hegedüs (2018). Additionally, a reverse snowball effect is being put to action by Poland and Hungary vetoing on EU sanctions against one another. The findings of the paper also support observation made of a limited research field; theoretical understanding and international measurement indexes of democratization being insufficient in explaining and describing the emerging de-democratization. The study opens up for further research regarding democratic peace in Europe.

The aim of this thesis is to examine how the EU directive 2004/35/EC on environmental liability impacts the Swedish administrative legal order. The thesis examines the directive through two main EU principles - the principle of good administration and the principle of procedural autonomy. The EU principle of good administration as a concept contains various procedural and substantive obligations that make up the subject for examination of the directive, both as regulated in the directive and as general principles of EU law. The directive is analyzed using a comparative method to determine to what extent the procedural and substantive principles of the directive impacts the Swedish administrative law, and weather or not the Swedish regulations comply with the EU principle of good administration. The results of the study shows that, althought there’s a general principle of national procedural autonomy, the EU principles of good administration do affect the Swedish administrative regulation in various aspects, through the implementaion of the directive on environmental liability as well as general principles of EU law. Furthermore the study shows that the Swedish regulations that are used to implement the directive don’t always act in accordance with the EU principles of good administration in certain areas, which potentially could restrain the impact of the directive in the Swedish legal order.

Muslims and islam are unquestionably a part of European social life. In recent times, however, different events, such as the enlargement of the EU and the fact that muslims to a higher extent demand their rights, have brought a number of questions to the fore concerning muslims and islam in Europe. Moreover, we can see an increasing level of islamophobia in contemporary Europe, but also that the EU has launched several programs to increase both the diversity and the unity throughout the Union and to combat islamophobia. However, most of these programs focus on islam as religion and muslims in general, and such a narrow viewpoint runs the risk of missing important issues. In this new context it would be interesting to widen the scope and ask what place not only the muslim community and islam, but also sharia (an important element in islam), may have in future Europe – especially when it comes to muslim identity? My main objects are to see how the concept of sharia is constructed in the debates in the European Parliament, how that discourse relates to a social practice – the increasing islamophobic ideas in Europe – and what effect this may have on muslim identity in a European context. The results shows that the Parliament constructs sharia as, for example, something archaic, threatening, inhuman and misogynistic. In that sense, the discourse fits in with the predominant order of discourse regarding islam and muslims (in Europe) – and strengthen it. Though my results are neither absolute nor uniform, they show, persuasively enough, that sharia (as it is seen by the Parliament) is not consistent with and can not be included in or accepted by “European norms and values”. However, this must be said with one reservation: sharia is not always excluded as a whole. Still, it is not difficult to maintain that it is sharia as such that activates the (negative and) excluding connotations. Thus, an “approved” European muslim identity, as it seems, can not have too close connections with sharia, if (any) at all. Moreover, there is a risk that muslims themselves take on a restricting practice concerning their identity. In all, this will to a large extent circumscribe the possible muslim identities in Europe. To form a substantial and really pluralistic diversity in Europe, the EU, and others, must liberate itself from the logic of these discourses. But this is not an easy thing to do. One way that might be profitable, is to challenge the prevailing discourse with new narratives – narratives and voices that for the most part must come from the muslims themselves. Despite the fact that these voices do exist, as has been shown, the question is how and under what circumstances they can be seen – or rather heard. Unfortunately the answer is not to be found in this thesis; the need of further research is obvious.

An increasing number of educational policies, academic studies, and university courses today propagate ‘interculturality’ as a method for approaching ‘the Other’ and reconciling universal values and cultural specificities. Based on a thorough discussion of Europe’s colonial past and the hierarchies of knowledge that colonialism established, this dissertation interrogates the definitions of intercultural knowledge put forth by EU policy discourse, academic textbooks on interculturality, and students who have completed a university course on the subject. Taking a decolonial approach that makes its central concern the ways in which differences are formed and sustained through references to cultural identities, this study shows that interculturality, as defined in these texts, runs the risk of affirming a singular European outlook on the world, and of elevating this outlook into a universal law. Contrary to its selfproclaimed goal of learning from the Other, interculturality may in fact contribute to the repression of the Other by silencing those who are already muted. The dissertation suggests an alternative definition of interculturality, which is not framed in terms of cultural differences but in terms of colonial difference. This argument is substantiated by an analysis of the Latin American concept of interculturalidad, which derives from the struggles for public and political recognition among indigenous social movements in Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru. By bringing interculturalidad into the picture, with its roots in the particular and with strong reverberations of the historical experience of colonialism, this study explores the possibility of decentring the discourse of interculturality and its Eurocentric outlook. In this way, the dissertation argues that an emancipation from colonial legacies requires that we start seeing interculturality as inter-epistemic rather than simply inter-cultural. / Fokus för denna avhandling är spridningen av begreppet interkulturalitet inom utbildning. Utbildningspolicy, akademisk litteratur och mängden kurser i högre utbildning ägnade åt begreppet vittnar alla om dess betydelse i försöken att förena det kulturellt partikulära med det universella. Med Europas koloniala förflutna i åtanke och dess skapande av hierarkier mellan vad som definieras som kunskap, ämnar denna avhandling undersöka vilka kunskaper som krävs för att bli interkulturell. Syftet är framför allt att besvara frågan vad som händer med interkulturalitet om kulturella skillnader istället förstås som koloniala skillnader. Utifrån ett dekolonialt perspektiv som fokuserar på hur skillnader skapas och upprätthålls utifrån föreställningar om kulturella identiteter, analyseras EU-policy, akademisk litteratur samt intervjuer med studenter som avklarat en kurs i interkulturalitet. Analysen visar på hur interkulturalitet, i dess nuvarande tappning, riskerar fastna i en singulär europeisk utblick på världen upphöjd till universell lag. Snarare än att mildra eller förändra maktrelationer och skapa möjligheter till mellanmänskliga möten, riskerar därför interkulturaliteten att bidra till fortsatt förtryck av den som anses kulturellt annorlunda. En alternativ utgångspunkt står att finna i en annan översättning av interkulturalitet – interculturalidad – hämtad från ursprungsbefolkningarnas kamp för att bli synliggjorda, att dela makten, på den offentliga arenan i Bolivia, Ecuador och Peru. Genom att lyfta fram begreppet interculturalidad, som just har sitt ursprung i singulariteten och bär med sig själva erfarenheten av kolonialism, tillförs en möjlig distansering från interkulturalitet med dess implicita eurocentrism. Avslutningsvis argumenteras för att befrielse från kolonialismens ok kräver att interkulturalitet omkodas som inter-epistemisk.

This study aim’s to examine how conceptions regarding culture and ethnicity influence the daily work of personnel in integration projects financed by the European Social Fund (ESF). The method of this study was individual semi-structured interviews with nine persons working in three different projects. The reason why we have chosen these specific projects was because of their work with immigrant participants. Concepts that our study is based on was culture and ethnicity, but also the theory considering in-groups and out-groups. The result of our study shows that the personnel acknowledge the importance of individual adaptation in the work with the participants, but with awareness considering cultural expressions based on their origin. The answers of the personnel also reveal a cultural hierarchy in the Swedish society. We found out that discrimination from employers is mainly based on the immigrant’s lack of Swedish linguistics. The personnel consider the knowledge of language to be one of the most important factors for immigrants when integrating into a new society. Some of the personnel mentioned that cultural prejudices affect their refutation in the meeting with immigrant participants.

Vad gör företag som vill påverka offentliga beslut? Denna doktorsavhandling handlar om detta. Vad företag gjorde har studerats i två beslutsprocesser där Europeiska Unionens direktiv tog form. Ett av direktiven var av stor betydelse för lastbilstillverkande företag. Det andra var viktigt för kraftproducerande företag.Att vara deltagare i EUs beslutsprocesser var på flera sätt krävande och svårt. Deltagandet avvek väsentligt från lobbylitteraturens ofta enkla och oproblematiserade uppfattningar om vad företag gör och bör göra. För att förstå vad beslutsprocesser innebar för dess deltagare var det viktigt att inte automatiskt se deltagare som aktörer. Identitet, preferenser, rationella insikter och handlingsutrymme var inte den enskilde deltagarens givna, välkända och samordnade tillhörigheter. Istället behövde dessa ”delar” av aktörskapet i möjligaste mån konstrueras. I boken behandlas sammantaget varför och hur deltagares beteenden i beslutsprocesser avvek från vår tids starka aktörsidé. Boken vänder sig dels till forskare med besluts- och organisationsintresse, dels till praktiker som vill lära mer om vad lobbying och andra påverkansformer innebär i praktiken. / Diss. Stockholm : Handelshögsk., 2004

The purpose of this thesis is to examine which factors that can explain the variation in EU citizens support for a larger integration of social issues within the EU from a country perspective where 18 EU countries are included in the statistical analysis. The thesis is based on five theoretical assumptions in order to try to explain the variation in the citizen´s support between different EU countries for more decision-making at an EU level for health and social security issues. To study these relations, a multivariate regression analysis is used. The result shows that none of the theoretical assumptions can explain the differences between citizens' support for a more social Europe. The thesis complementary bivariate Pearson R-tests show, on the other hand, that there is a correlation between support for the national government and values for cognitive mobilization (how politically interested citizens are and how often citizens discuss EU issues) and the support for more decision-making at the EU level. However, the result show a opposite direction for the correlations than the theoretical assumptions of the thesis initiates. This emphasizes the relevance of the theoretical framework of this thesis; the concept of response variability, which means that citizens are ambivalent in their support towards different EU issues. Because earlier research for some of the variables are based on theories of european integration from a one dimensional perspective and not from a policy-specific perspective for increased social integration, there is an important difference between these theoretical bases that stand in conflict with each other.

Den 13 december 2007 undertecknades ett nytt EU-fördrag i Portugals huvudstad Lissabon. Detta fördrag, kallat Lissabonfördraget, utgör en reviderad form av den EU-konstitution som inte blev godkänd vid folkomröstningar i Frankrike och Nederländerna 2005. Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka vilka förändringar som skett under omarbetningen från EUkonstitutionen till Lissabonfördraget. Vidare har uppsatsen för avsikt att förklara de bakomliggande motiven till dessa förändringar ur två olika identitetsperspektiv. Frågorna som initialt fångade vårt intresse var; Varför fick EU dra tillbaka den tilltänkta grundlagen? Hur omfattande var egentligen förändringarna mellan EU-konstitutionen till Lissabonfördraget? Och slutligen, finns det någon europeisk identitet? / On the 13th of December 2007, a new EU-treaty was signed in Portugal’s capital, Lisbon. This treaty, known as the Treaty of Lisbon, is a revised form of the old European Constitution that was turned down in referendums in France and The Netherlands in 2005. Our aim with this thesis is to examine the changes during the revision from the European Constitution to the Treaty of Lisbon. Furthermore in this thesis we have the intention to explain the underlying motives from two perspectives of identity. The questions that initially captured our interest were; Why did the EU pull back from the European Constitution? How comprehensive are the changes from the European Constitution to the Treaty of Lisbon? And finally, is there any such thing as European identity?

Uppsatsen behandlar demokratibegreppets konstruktion i ett urval artiklar ur Dagens Nyheters EU-debatt. Med ett diskursanalytiskt angreppssätt studeras hur de olika begreppen demokrati, EU och Europa tillskrivs innebörder i artiklarna och hur de relateras till varandra. Utgångspunkten är socialkonstruktivistisk och poststrukturalistisk och pekar på samband mellan framställningarna av de olika begreppen och förståelserna av de fenomen de beskriver. I analysen presenteras ett antal diskurser som urskiljts som styrande våra föreställningar om de olika begreppen. Dessa handlar om hur EU och Europa framstår som utbytbara och som utgörande en sorts självklar gemenskap, om demokrati och andra värdens önskvärdhet samt om EU som en hjälte med ansvar för demokratin och för Europa. Här problematiseras framställningen och föreställningen av och om demokrati, EU och Europa som självklart åtråvärda begrepp, vars önskvärdhet – och sammanhörighet – inte går att ifrågasätta. Inte minst demokratin förklaras som en social representation eller doxa, som vilken den framstår som nästintill helig.