This case study focuses on the European Semester (ES) and assesses whether the ES constituted a ‘critical juncture’ in the sense of a radical departure from an earlier path of European economic and... Show moreThis case study focuses on the European Semester (ES) and assesses whether the ES constituted a ‘critical juncture’ in the sense of a radical departure from an earlier path of European economic and fiscal governance taken, or whether it was largely a result of a process of ‘path dependence’. It formulates two hypotheses and carries out a historical-institutionalist analysis based on the legal provisions contained in Treaty reforms, ranging from the Maastricht Treaty via the Nice and Amsterdam Treaties to the Lisbon Treaty.In the scheme of the three-step analytical model applied, T(0) reflected the situation encompassed in the TEU (Maastricht Treaty), T(1) the Nice and Amsterdam Treaty provisions and T(2) the respective contents of the Lisbon Treaty. Exploring the respective Treaty articles and their detailed formulations, a table was created demonstrating adaptations over time. Based on the results of the analysis, using specified indicators, the study concludes that the ES was a result of path dependence or ‘incremental change’. The distribution of power in either a member state to member state perspective (horizontal power distribution) or a comparison between the power allocation between EU member states and the supranational level (vertical power distribution) was not seen as having been strongly affected, providing further evidence for the lack of a critical or path-changing juncture.Historical institutionalism was found to have been particularly useful to guide the analysis based on a range of relevant indicators. As a bridge between claims made between intergovernmentalist and neo-functionalist ‘camps’, it provides a useful angle to explore in more detailed ways processes and developments of EU post-crisis economic governance. Show less
The European Parliament (EP) has seen a gradual increase in its powers since the introduction of direct elections in 1979. Scholars have focused on both individual-level and aggregate factors to... Show moreThe European Parliament (EP) has seen a gradual increase in its powers since the introduction of direct elections in 1979. Scholars have focused on both individual-level and aggregate factors to explain turnout rates in EP elections over time, including increased levels of EU politicization and the rise in support for Eurosceptic parties. However, one strand of analysis seems to partially have been overlooked: Some earlier research on EP election turnout claimed that absolute turnout rates across the EU should be used with care, as a number of ‘structural factors’ influences these shares and with this, affects estimates of actual voter turnout. Are such structural variables still relevant in a time where European politics are becoming increasingly salient among the wider public, pro- and anti-EU sentiments may increase citizens’ inclination to vote and trust in EU institutions may be getting increasingly important? Based on various estimates, we find that structural factors can still be characterized as determinants in EP elections, but that the power of structural factors to explain turnout at the EU level, compared to non-structural factors, has decreased. Nonetheless, EU-wide (average) EP turnout rates, as widely reported, are not likely to be good reflections of actual trends in EP turnout over time. Show less
First ladies are prominent public persons, arguably even among the most influential non-elected representatives of the American public. This article presents an analysis of the first lady’s... Show moreFirst ladies are prominent public persons, arguably even among the most influential non-elected representatives of the American public. This article presents an analysis of the first lady’s relationship with policy problems in the period 1945-2013 on the basis of a content analysis of New York Times articles, applying the topic classification system developed within the Comparative Agendas Project. It finds that first ladies are increasingly associated with policy over time; that they are associated primarily with so- called compassion issues; that they have a rather diversified agenda; that her agenda has no real relation to the president’s; and that there are no clear partisan divisions. Over time, the first lady has become a stronger policy advocate and political partner to the president. Show less
This article examines the outcome of the International Law Commission’s (ILC) Study on the Protection of the Environment in relation to Armed Conflict as adopted on first reading. The twenty-eight... Show moreThis article examines the outcome of the International Law Commission’s (ILC) Study on the Protection of the Environment in relation to Armed Conflict as adopted on first reading. The twenty-eight draft principles, adopted by the ILC in July 2019, aim to enhance environmental protection before, during, and after armed conflict. This article evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of the draft principles and highlights principal innovations of the draft principles. Then this article concludes that the ILC study makes important substantive contributions to enhancing environmental protection, but it also misses opportunities to advance the law in this field. The principal strength of the study is that it brings in many different aspects relating to the environment and armed conflicts under one framework, including legal questions that were hitherto neglected. Its weaknesses relate most notably to the protection of the environment during armed conflict. This article argues that, even though there was limited space for the ILC to develop the applicable law in this field, it nevertheless could have been more ambitious. Show less
Transboundary crises, incidents and disasters, such as chemical spills, airplane crashes and critical infrastructure breakdowns, involving multiple levels and domains of governance pose a... Show moreTransboundary crises, incidents and disasters, such as chemical spills, airplane crashes and critical infrastructure breakdowns, involving multiple levels and domains of governance pose a particular set of challenges (Ansell et al, 2010; Kuipers and Boin, 2015; Boin 2019). These challenges also pertain to the investigation and learning phase of a crisis. We study a typical transboundary case: the crash of a Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 (MH17), with 298 people on board from a variety of nationalities but the majority from the Netherlands, that crashed in Ukraine in a conflict zone near the Russian border. The MH17 case contains valuable lessons on transboundary disaster investigations. The Dutch Safety Board (DSB) took the lead of the international independent investigation into the causes of the crash. With an international group of stakeholders the DSB investigated a crash that resulted from a bilateral conflict, requiring the support from Ukraine’s powerful neighbor Russia that meanwhile stood accused of withholding evidence and supporting Ukrainian separatists. Retrieving evidence and researching the causality of the crash was no easy task. If countries wish to follow their ambition to learn from accidents in order to ‘prevent the past repeated’, they may more often need to investigate such transboundary cases. This case study probes into how challenges that are typical to transboundary crises affected the accident investigation into the MH17 disaster. We search for lessons on transboundary accident investigation that transcend the boundaries of this single case. Such lessons may prove invaluable for learning from future accidents. Show less
Decision-making on the optimum transition pathway to an energy economy that meets agreed carbon reduction goals in the European Union (EU) by 2050 is challenging, because of the size of the... Show moreDecision-making on the optimum transition pathway to an energy economy that meets agreed carbon reduction goals in the European Union (EU) by 2050 is challenging, because of the size of the infrastructural legacy, technological uncertainties, affordability and assumptions on future energy demand. This task is even more complicated in transportation because of additional issues, such as minimum travel range at acceptable impact on payload and ensuring hazzle-free long-distance driving in case of regionally varying fuel economies. Biofuels were the first viable option for a large-scale partly renewable fuel economy. E10 and B7 fuels have been successfully and remarkably smoothly introduced, owing to the fact that these are liquid and can be used in conventional combustion engines with little impact on full-tank travel range. In contrast, the decision-making process on biofuels in the EU has been particularly turbulent, with an initially favourable assessment changing into controversial. Here the compatibility between the fuel economies of member states and avoidance of disruptive social effects are considered as essential pre-requisite of a viable transition pathway. Rebalancing three different aspects of the social dimension of sustainability is used to demonstrate that a succession of infrastructures based on liquid fuels, with biofuels as an interlock towards an economy that includes methanol-based eFuel, has the potential to bring continuity, reduce dependence on anticipated technological advances and improve cost management. Awareness of this underexposed prospect of biofuel may positively affect the assessment on its role in a low-carbon fuel economy, potentially influencing the current decision-making process on biofuels. Show less
Natural resources are strongly connected to the onset, duration and recurrence of armed conflicts. However, even after an armed conflict has formally ended, natural resources can be an important... Show moreNatural resources are strongly connected to the onset, duration and recurrence of armed conflicts. However, even after an armed conflict has formally ended, natural resources can be an important trigger for a relapse into armed conflict. For these reasons, it is of the utmost importance, both from a security and a development perspective, to address natural resources as an integral part of the peace process. This article aims to assess how provisions in peace agreements addressing natural resource governance are embedded in the international legal framework. It inquires into the particularities and legal nature of peace agreements and examines the various functions of natural resource arrangements as part of peace agreements. Finally, as each category of natural resources comes with distinct legal questions and peacebuilding challenges, the article zooms in on water governance as a case study to explore the different ways in which natural resource arrangements in peace agreements and international law interact. The analysis is based on a study of 40 intra‐State agreements, including the 2015 South Sudan agreement, the 2015 Mali agreement and the 2016 Colombian agreement. Show less
Target 16.6 of the 2015 Sustainable Development Goals (sdgs) seeks to create ‘effective, accountable and transparent institutions at all levels’ for the purpose of achieving sustainable development... Show moreTarget 16.6 of the 2015 Sustainable Development Goals (sdgs) seeks to create ‘effective, accountable and transparent institutions at all levels’ for the purpose of achieving sustainable development. Nevertheless, the inherent vagueness of the notions of transparency and accountability poses difficulties for achieving the target. This is why this article examines how these notions have been conceptualized in international legal discourse and applied in practice. It does so within the context of the trade in natural resources that finance armed conflict, which is considered detrimental to the development opportunities of developing countries. The article examines how two of the most important initiatives in this field, namely the Kimberley Process for the Certification of Rough Diamonds and the oecd Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Supply Chains of Minerals from Conflict-affected and High-risk Areas, operationalize transparency and accountability. It posits that both initiatives fall short of establishing full accountability. However, notwithstanding their flaws and limitations, they make a valuable contribution to achieving target 16.6. Show less
This paper studies how voting rules affect the ease with which decisions are made, basing the analysis on the key premise that ideology makes some coalitions more likely to form than others. Our... Show moreThis paper studies how voting rules affect the ease with which decisions are made, basing the analysis on the key premise that ideology makes some coalitions more likely to form than others. Our study focuses on the Council of the European Union (EU), where member states hold different voting weights and ideological positions are strongly linked to the affiliation of actors to political parties. Accordingly, to explore the influence of ideology on the probability of coalition formation, and to thus formulate a ‘decision probability’, we incorporate ideological positions in the analysis of efficiency of the voting system. For the case of the EU, we particularly consider the transition from the triple-majority voting system of the Nice Treaty to the double-majority system incorporated into the Lisbon Treaty. The standard assumption that member states vote independently and affirmatively with a probability of 0.5 leads to a more pessimistic view of the Council’s decision-making capacity than does the premise that member state votes are biased towards voting with the Council majority. The latter assumption is supported by voting data and anecdotal evidence on the ‘consensus-seeking’ culture in the Council. Hence, this paper offers some insights into the ‘efficiency’ of the decision-making process, given institutional voting rules, in combination with actual actor ideological positions. Show less
