Transnational security threats are among the most pressing and complicated problems facing both governmental and non-governmental actors in today's world. Human trafficking is one example of contemporary transnational security threat that is relatively less studied compared to other transnational security threats. Because transnational security threats such as human trafficking exist above and outside the boundaries of state control, it may be supposed that a greater degree of supranationalism in the policy responses to them would yield better results in combatting these modern-day ills. Anti-trafficking efforts from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the European Union are examined to assess the impact of degree of supranationalism present in the respective policy responses to determine if any advantage is gained from aligning supranational policies to transnational problems. This question is not answered conclusively due to a lack of supranationalism present in key areas of EU governance responsible for law enforcement efforts.

This thesis takes up the mantle of studying the Constitutional Treaty in the context of European Integration. This work examines how constitutionalization affected the process of European integration in relation to the democratic legitimacy of the European Union. Albert O. Hirschman&#039 / s Exit, Voice and Loyalty paradigm is used to assess and define the process of constitutionalization in the context of the supranational and intergovernmental tendencies of the European construct which birthed the democratic deficit in its foundational period. Special focus is allotted to the role of the European elites in drafting the Constitutional Treaty which was the culmination of their attempts to compensate for the foundational lack of democratic legitimacy. In order to make this assessment this thesis delineates the history of European integration. Furthermore, this work examines the European constitutional drive and evaluates the implications of the failed ratification process in correlation to the aforementioned issues. In conclusion this thesis maintains that the future feasibility of the constitutional project is directly related to the degree of democratic legitimacy achieved by the whole of the European Union.

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The volume deals with the analysis of the relationship of the two dominant theoretical approaches of European integration - supranational and intergovernmental - towards the EU enlargement policy on the example of the accession process of Montenegro. The research goes into depth by analysing not the complex accession process as such, but the relations and attention of various European institutions and the EU member states to the particular and deliberately selected negotiation chapters of the Acquis Communautaire. The main aim of the thesis is to find out to what extent and whether at all does the behaviour of the EU institutions and its member states by the accession process correspond with the internal structure of the EU policies and competences stipulated in the EU treaties. The thesis succeeded to show that there is no reason to believe that the activities of the supranational institutions of the EU - the Commission and the Parliament - are dominant by chapter which is closely connected to the exclusive competence of the EU or that they would pay any special attention to this chapter. Similarly, there is no explicit proof that the activities of the incumbent EU member states are dominant by chapter which is closely connected to the shared competence of the EU or that they would pay any...

Submitted by Ana Valéria de Jesus Moura (anavaleria_131@hotmail.com) on 2018-09-17T16:26:53Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Simone Thay Wey Lee.pdf: 965632 bytes, checksum: 3ebd44c4d3df7ac4c5d0239da165fcd5 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Ana Valéria de Jesus Moura (anavaleria_131@hotmail.com) on 2018-09-17T16:27:01Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Simone Thay Wey Lee.pdf: 965632 bytes, checksum: 3ebd44c4d3df7ac4c5d0239da165fcd5 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-09-17T16:27:01Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Simone Thay Wey Lee.pdf: 965632 bytes, checksum: 3ebd44c4d3df7ac4c5d0239da165fcd5 (MD5) / O presente trabalho tem como objetivo principal a análise quanto à possibilidade e à necessidade de criação de uma corte supranacional de justiça dentro do sistema de solução de controvérsias do MERCOSUL. Para tanto, inicia-se analisando o fenômeno da integração regional no mundo e, mais especificamente, no contexto da América do Sul, as suas finalidades, a sua origem histórica e as fases pelas quais o Estado deve passar para alcançar a integração total com seus pares. Passa-se então ao exame das características dos países sulamericanos, para elencar as suas semelhanças e distinções e, assim, identificar os desafios para promover a integração regional no subcontinente sul-americano. Em seguida, é traçado o desenvolvimento histórico do movimento de integração na América do Sul, desde CEPAL até a UNASUL. Importante, também, para atingir o fim almejado aqui, é trabalhar com os conceitos de soberania e supranacionalidade para asseverar que esta não macula aquela, mas, apesar disso, é necessário reforma constitucional, ao menos para o Brasil, para admissão da supranacionalidade na ordem interna. Já o capítulo 2 é voltado exclusivamente para o estudo do MERCOSUL, incluindo a sua formação histórica, as suas finalidades, o seu papel de relevo desempenhado na região e, principalmente, a sua estrutura institucional, chamando a atenção para o seu caráter intergovernamental. Finalmente, o capítulo 3 se destina a realizar uma construção teórica quanto à criação hipotética de uma corte supranacional de justiça, voltada principalmente para a solução de demandas comerciais, cujas decisões devem ter primazia sobre o direito interno e ser dotada de eficácia e aplicabilidade imediata nos territórios nacionais. Nesse contexto, defende-se a desnecessidade, a priori, de uso do órgão judicial para analisar demandas que envolvam violação aos direitos humanos e às instituições democráticas, sobretudo para evitar um conflito de competência com a Corte Interamericana de Direitos Humanos. Por fim, defende-se a necessidade de conceder acesso dos particulares à corte supranacional, de modo a minorar o déficit democrático. / The following work has as its primary purpose the analysis as to the possibility and the need to create a supranational court of justice within the South American Common Market (MERCOSUL) dispute resolution system. For this purpose, it starts off with the assessment of the integration phenomenon occurring in the world and, more specifically, in South America, its objectives, its historical origin and the phases in which the State must go through in order to achieve a full integration with other neighboring countries. Afterwards, it examines the characteristics of the South American countries in order to enumerate its similarities and distinctions, enabling the identification of the challenges that they must overcome to achieve regional integration in the South American subcontinent. Subsequently, it studies the historical development of the regional integration, since the creation of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) until the Union of South American Nations (USAN). It’s also important, in order to achieve the main purpose of this work, study the concepts of sovereignty and supranationalism, to affirm that the latter one doesn´t violate, by any means, the Estate sovereignty but, nevertheless, it´s necessary a constitutional reform, at least for Brazil, to introduce supranationalism into the national legal system. Chapter 2 is entirely focused on the study of MERCOSUL, including its origin, its objectives, its important role played within the region and, most significantly, its institutional structure, calling attention to its intergovernmental feature. Finally, chapter 3 is aimed to describe the characteristics of a supranational court of justice to be created for MERCOSUL, whose main purpose would be to settle commercial disputes through judicial decisions that must prevail over the national legal system and must be immediately effective within the national territories. In this context, the position held in this work is that there is no need, at least initially, for the judicial body to analyze disputes that involves human rights violation or breach of democratic institutions, mainly to avoid a conflict of competence with the Inter- American Court of Human Rights. At last, this work focuses on the need to grant direct access to individuals and private companies to the supranational court of justice in order to diminish the democratic deficit.

[pt] A dissertação apresenta a possibilidade do surgimento de um novo paradigma internacional, baseado nos processos de integração regional e em suas instituições supranacionais que ameaçam a noção clássica de soberania estatal. Faz-se uma revisão das diferentes teorias da integração tomando a experiência européia como marco referencial. Posteriormente, no contexto das experiências de integração latino-americana, concentra-se na Comunidade Andina de Nações e no Mercosul, descrevendo sua estrutura e desenho institucional. Em particular, consideram-se os mecanismos de solução de controvérsias como meio garantidor dos compromissos assumidos pelos Estados, analisando a predominância das características supranacionais ou intergovernamentais dessas instituições. O estudo focaliza as implicações da adoção de cada uma das alternativas, tanto em relação à Comunidade Andina e ao Mercosul, quanto aos respectivos Estados que as adotaram, tendo em conta que ambos os organismos estão em constante mudança e construção institucional. / [en] The dissertation presents the possibility of the emergency of a new paradigm of international order based on processes of regional integration and the supranational institutions that challenge the classic notion of State sovereignty. The different Integration theories and conceptual approaches taking the European Union as a referential framework are reviewed. Then, in the context of Latin American integration experiences, it concentrates in the Andean Community and Mercosur, addressing their performance and institutional design with special emphasis in their dispute settlement mechanisms. Analyzing the predominance of supranational or intergovernmental characteristics for these institutions. The study focuses on the implications of the adoption of each of the alternatives in the Andean Community and the Mercosur, and in the corresponding State members that implemented them, considering the dynamic character of both organisms, constantly changing and building institutions.

This thesis is concerned with attitudes towards supra-national bodies, and more specifically with Scots' attitudes towards union in Britain and Europe. Firstly, it is suggested that support for, or opposition, to integration in a supra-national body depends on the extent to which this body is believed to enhance or undermine the ability to express national identity {identity enhancement vs. identity undermining). Identity undermining, in turn, depends upon a combined sense of incompatibility with outgroup identities/interests and of ingroup powerlessness within the supranational body. Secondly, it is suggested that these features of the social context and of identity meanings can be actively constructed in order to fulfil strategic purposes, such as persuading audiences in favour of separatism or integration. Five studies are reported which investigated these hypotheses. In study 1, we looked at the discourses of Scottish politicians and at the way their accounts of group identities and social reality could be understood in strategic terms, i.e. in relation to their political projects regarding Scotland's status in Britain and in Europe. In the second study, a survey design was used in order to provide quantitative evidence of the relationship between identity undermining, incompatibility, powerlessness and separatism. The third (experimental) study sought to clarify the causal relationship between these variables and showed that manipulating identity undermining lead to increased support for separatism. Finally, the fourth and the fifth (experimental) studies suggested that identity constructions, in the form of judgements of group prototypicality, can vary as a function of the strategic claim made by participants. In conclusion, the merits are stressed of an approach to identity processes and attitudes towards supra-national bodies that is sensitive to both context and content. It is also stressed that context and contents should not be taken as perceptual givens but as actively constructed by social actors.

Doctorat en sciences sociales, politiques et économiques / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

The emergence of the African Union (AU) is seen as an effort to reposition Africa for the challenges of contemporary global realpolitik and, in particular, it provides a road map towards the attainment of a political union. The institutional architecture of the AU, modelled after the European Union (EU), indicates an intention on the part of the architects of the AU to endow the organisation with supranational attributes. However, none of its institutions has as yet started to exercise supranational powers. It is against this background that this thesis explores the feasibility of transforming the AU from a mere intergovernmental organisation into a supranational entity. In the course of the investigation, it was found that a major obstacle to realising this is the absence of shared democratic norms and standards, a consequence of the unconditional membership ideology of the AU. This thesis argues that the starting point of closer integration in Africa should be the cultivation and adoption of shared norms and values. To address this, the study proposes that the AU design an institutional mechanism for regulating its membership. Using the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) as a case study, this study shows that it is possible to establish a regulatory regime based on strict adherence to shared fundamental norms and values. A major recommendation is the transformation of the APRM into a legally binding instrument for setting continental democratic standards, assessing whether member states fulfil these standards and ultimately determining which member states are qualified, based on objective standards, to be part of a democratic AU. / Thesis (LLD)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Public Law / unrestricted

This thesis examines the European Peace Facility and more specifically how this off-      budget fund has been put into effect in Ukraine in light of the recent events of the Russian invasion of 2022.  This thesis will carry out a single case study about how the European Peace Facility (EPF) has been established in support of Ukraine since the end of February 2022. It will also analyse data that concerns the support provided by Member States to Ukraine to provide a better picture of how the EPF has been implemented in Ukraine. The topic can be deemed to be remarkably recent since the situation in Ukraine is still in rapid development. This is proved by the fact that European Union’s Council Decisions that are analysed in this dissertation are still being further amended. Moreover, the topic is relevant for the field of European Studies since it provides a preliminary study of these unprecedented matters that have had a profound impact on the EU. Theories of Intergovernmentalism and Supranationalism will be employed to analytically analyse the material.  This thesis will conclude that even though the EU bodies have had a marginal role in the implementation of the EPF, their response has been timely. The funds allocated by the decisions of the Council of the EU to support Ukraine are quite a substantial part of the whole financial reference of Facility. It is also discussed that the Member States have committed to a great extent to the support of Ukraine both in the training of Ukrainian troops through the EUMAM Ukraine and through the provision of weapons and arms to the UAF. In addition to this, the thesis draws considerations which connect the theory and the single case in question.