Les Communautés européennes et l'Union européenne ont toujours exprimé leur engagement à respecter les droits de l'homme. Depuis la première Convention intergouvernementale chargée de la rédaction du projet de Charte des Droits Fondamentaux (1999-2001), une deuxième Convention a été organisée. La dernière a proposé le projet de Constitution pour l'Union européenne qui par la suite a été rejeté dans deux referenda nationaux et a soulevé de nombreuses questions sur la légitimité de l'Union et son avenir. Récemment, le Conseil de l'Union Européenne a décidé d'abandonner le projet de Constitution pour l'Union européenne et a ouvert la voie vers le traité modificatif. À part la légitimité de l'Union en tant que organisation internationale ou ordre juridique international et tous les problèmes auxiliaires que la constitutionnalisation implique, ce processus est inextricablement lié au sujet très controversé de la politique des droits de l'homme. Conformément au traité constitutionnel, la Charte d'un côté et la Convention européenne des droits de l'Homme de l'autre seraient devenu parties intégrantes du système constitutionnel européen. Par contre, le nouveau traité modificatif comprendra juste un renvoi à la Charte. Néanmoins, le problème de l'Union européenne demeure l'absence d'une politique cohérente avec toutes ses éléments - des instruments écrits contraignants, l'efficacité des voies de recours, une agence des droits de l'homme, un budget et un plan horizontal. Tandis que le traité constitutionnel sans pour autant résoudre tous ces problèmes a représenté un grand pas en avant dans cette direction, le nouveau traité semble être un compromis. / The European Communities and the Union have always expressed their commitment to the respect of Human Rights. Since the first EU Convention drafted the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights in 1999/2001 a second Convention has been and gone proposing a Constitution to the Union which was subsequently rejected during the ratification phase in two national referenda raising a number of questions about the Union and its future. Recently, the European Council has decided to abandon the Constitution project and opened the way to the reform treaty. Let aside the legitimacy of the Union as international organization or legal order and all the ancillary problems that this constitutionalization entails, this whole process is genuinely and inextricably linked to another controversial point - the Human Rights policy. According to the Constitutional treaty the Charter on the one hand and the ECHR on the other hand, were to be internalized within the EU's constitutional system. As opposed to the Constitutional treaty the new reform treaty will only make reference to the Charter. Nevertheless, the real problem of the EU is the absence of a human rights policy with everything this entails, legally binding instruments assessing the fundamental rights, effective remedies, a human rights agency, a budget and a horizontal plan. While the Constitutional Treaty without entirely solving the problem marked important developments to this effect, the new reform treaty seems to be a compromise.

The objective of this thesis is to evaluate European States&rsquo / efforts to develop a coherent and effective foreign and security policy in the context of historical evolution of the CFSP. In this thesis, European States&rsquo / efforts to develop a coherent and effective foreign and security policy will be evaluated in three international political contexts. First period is Post World War II Period, second one is Post-Cold War Period and third one is Post September 11 Period. In the context of Post World War II period, European States&rsquo / efforts to develop a coherent and effective foreign and security policy is shaped by the conditions of Cold War, Bipolar World and threat of Soviet expansionism towards Western Europe and characterized by the attempts such as European Defence Community, Fouchet Plan and European Political Cooperation. In the context of Post-Cold War period, European States&rsquo / efforts to develop a coherent and effective foreign and security policy were shaped by ex-Yugoslavian Conflict in early 90s which brought new security challenges such as ethnic conflicts and instability in the ex-Communist States in Central and Eastern Europe. EU&rsquo / s attempts were characterized by the CFSP which was launched by the Maastricht Treaty and the CESDP which emerged after Kosovo War with Saint Malo Declaration as defence dimension of the CFSP. In the context of Post September 11 period, European States&rsquo / efforts to develop a coherent and effective foreign and security policy were shaped by global fight against international terrorism. EU&rsquo / s attempts were characterized by adoption of European Security Strategy which accepted international terrorism, organized crime and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction as key threats towards Europe and aimed at developing a coherent vision of strategic objectives, shared threat assessment for European States in order to prevent divisions among EU States in future international events. The main argument of this thesis is that in order to be an important and effective actor in global politics, EU Member States should act coherently and speak with one voice. Their influence on important international issues is greater if they act as a coherent actor rather than acting individually.

Magister Philosophiae - MPhil / Over the years, the world economy has experienced growth in foreign direct investments (FDI), with the role of developing countries becoming more evident as both recipients and investors alike. The proliferation of international investment has also led to more bilateral investment treaties (BITs) with their complex and often duplicated rules. The increase in BITs of this complex nature has thus resuscitated a less publicly debated course, although recently discussed within the United Nations Conference for Trade and Development (UNCTAD), is there need for multilateral agreement on investment (MAI), hosted within the multilateral institution(s)? Since the late 1990s, the discussion as to whether international investments require the MAI has been characterised by diverging interests of developed and developing countries, with neither willing to concede. Even in the immediate post-War II period, this standoff between developed and developing countries has dominated a discourse on whether there is a need for an international agreement on international investment. Yet developing countries, or African countries classified as least developing, continue to be left out of MAI discussions. For example, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) 1990's proposed plurilateral agreement excluded African countries.

This paper investigates the effects of double tax treaties (DTTs) on foreign direct investment (FDI) after controlling for their relevance in the presence of treaty shopping. DTTs cannot be considered a bilateral issue, but must be viewed as a network, since FDI can flow from home to host country through one or more conduit countries. By accounting for treaty shopping, we calculate the shortest (i.e. the cheapest) tax distance between any two countries allowing the corporate income to be channelled through intermediate jurisdictions. We differentiate between relevant and neutral DTTs - i.e. tax treaties that offer investors a financial advantage - and irrelevant DTTs and use these data to derive two important results. First, only relevant and neutral tax treaties increase bilateral FDI, whereas irrelevant DTTs do not. We can quantify the increase of FDI due to a relvant DTT at around 22%. Second, significant tax reductions due to treaty benefits will lead to an increase in FDI. / Series: WU International Taxation Research Paper Series

Transboundary water treaties are often expected to prevent conflicts over waters from shared rivers. However, empirical evidence shows that some upstream countries continue to experience conflict after signing a water treaty. This study explains why some upstream countries experience high post-treaty transboundary water conflict levels while others do not. Departing from theories on the character of states, I argue that weaker upstream countries are more likely to experience post-treaty transboundary water conflict than stronger upstream states. This is because a weak upstream state has fewer capabilities, which creates an imbalance of power with its downstream riparian neighbor and presents a zero-sum game condition. As a result, the upstream state is more likely to experience a high level of conflict after signing an agreement. The hypothesis is tested on two transboundary river cases, the Helmand River Basin and the Indus River Basin, using a structured, focused comparison method. The data is collected through secondary sources, including books, journals, news articles, and reports, government records. The results of the study mainly support the theoretical arguments. It shows a significant relationship between the character of the upstream state and the level of post-treaty transboundary water conflict in the upstream state.

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With water resources becoming scarcer every year, studying the negotiation processes that leads to the treaties that govern the distribution of water rights across national boundaries is more important than ever. Sub-state units sometimes play an important role in the negotiation of such treaties and thus it is important to better understand how specific types of regional, transborder sub-state units operate both within the context of their respective federal systems and in relation to each other. Exploring the case study of the Columbia River Treaty—governing the area known as the upper Columbia River Basin— and the Water Policy Working Group of the Pacific NorthWest Economic Region (PNWER), this thesis uses documentary sources and original qualitative interviews to examine the roles of sub-state governments and federalism on the original Columbia River Treaty negotiations, as well as the effect the historical legacy of the Treaty negotiations has left on constituent diplomacy today. Examining constituent diplomacy through a micro rather than macro lens, the thesis also explores the role of constituent diplomacy within PNWER with respect to the upcoming Columbia River Treaty negotiations and the impact that PNWER’s governance model has on the effectiveness and functionality of constituent diplomacy. The thesis demonstrates that sub-state governments, specifically the B.C. government, played a vital role in original Treaty negotiations, and suggests that the past Treaty negotiations are relevant to constituent diplomacy today because of modern-day and future Treaty negotiations and ongoing Treaty implementation. Drawing on documentary evidence and original interview data, this thesis details current PNWER governance structures and practices and then moves to argue that the structure, functions and dynamics of the Canadian and American federal systems can impact the effectiveness and functionality of constituent diplomacy.

Power inequalities and mistrust have characterized many interstate relationships. Yet most international relations theories do not take into account power and mistrust when explaining cooperation. While some scholars argue that power relations inhibit cooperation between states, other scholars expect interstate cooperation regardless of the power relations and level of trust. I argue that although states benefit from cooperation, they are also wary of the power relations between states, making cooperation difficult. Successful and cooperative bilateral relationships are formed between strong and weak states that are power asymmetric and have mistrust of one another, but they are built in such as way as to overcome the problem of power asymmetry and distrust. In this dissertation, I answer how and why states that are in power asymmetry and have mistrust of one another are able to build a cooperative bilateral relationship. I argue that states forge a relationship due to strategic needs such as economic or security needs. I have developed a database composed of the whole population of bilateral treaties between Russia and each of the former Soviet republics, and examine all of the bilateral relationships formed between Russia and the former Soviet republics. I find that Russia indeed forged relationships with the former republics based on its strategic interests. However, despite Russia's strategic interests, it had to build a bilateral relationship that would address the issues of mistrust and power asymmetry between the states. To achieve this, Russia and the former Soviet republics created treaty networks, which served to legitimize as well as legalize the independent status of each of the former republics while also increasing the cost to Russia of violating any of the treaties. I argue that strong treaty networks account for a more cooperative relationship between states, allowing both states to cooperate by alleviating the problems of mistrust and power asymmetry.

This thesis examines the default application of the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties reservation rules to reservations to human rights treaties. The contemporary practice of formulating reservations allows states to unilaterally modify their treaty obligations following the conclusion of negotiations. Though multilateral treaties address a broad spectrum of subjects and are negotiated using a variety of methods, all treaties are governed by the same residual reservation rules of the Vienna Convention when there is not a treaty-specific reservation regime in place. The Vienna Convention system is only engaged if a state seizes the opportunity to determine whether a reservation is valid pursuant to default rules or if a challenge regarding the validity of a reservation is brought before another competent mechanism of review, such as a dispute resolution mechanism. Even when applied, the Vienna Convention rules are ambiguous at best and have been criticised since their inception due to the high degree of flexibility in their application, especially in relation to human rights treaties. In light of the inherent flaws of the Vienna Convention reservation regime and the structural characteristics of human rights treaties, rarely will a reserving state be deprived of the benefit of the reservation even if it is determined to be invalid by another State Party. Though the consequences of an invalidity determination are more concrete when the decision is taken by a dispute resolution mechanism, such as a court, seldom are disputes over the validity of a reservation to a human rights treaty submitted to a competent mechanism. Using the core UN human rights treaties as a case study this research highlights that the past thirty years have revealed a practical impasse in treaty law when the default reservation rules are relied upon to regulate reservations to human rights treaties. Reservations of questionable validity gain the same status as valid reservations because the Vienna Convention rules do not address the consequence for a reservation determined to be invalid outwith the traditional inter se application of the reservation between the reserving and objecting states, which is not logical in the context of a human rights treaty. Against this background, this thesis examines whether the default reservation rules adequately govern reservations to human rights treaties. The conclusion affirms that the Vienna Convention reservation regime can regulate reservations to human rights treaties but only if there is a clearly defined final view on the validity of a reservation taken by an organ other than the state. Therefore, it is argued that treaty-specific supervisory mechanisms attached to each of the core UN human rights treaties should be invested with the competency to serve a determinative function with respect to evaluating reservations to human rights treaties in order to facilitate a stronger basis for the international human rights system.