林宜亭：Left-Right Politics in the EU

/in /by

Christine I. Lin

Integration, as Aspinwell puts it, is a process that binding rules lead to a reducion or a potential reduction in state power.  Actors in various levels are involved in the process, and whether their political backgrounds make a difference of their preferences in the integration is often asked.   This essay will first review the actors’ behaviours in European integration under the scope the cleavage theory.  Further, it examies whether the Euoprean institute representing its people, and does the European parliament reflects the left-right policy in European politics? Lastly, it looks into how does the Euro Crisis influence on left-right policy on the EU level.    The left-right policy dimension serves one of the indicators in European integration as Knutsen words “ the  language of left and right helps citizens as well as elites to orient themselves in a complex political landscape”.

Read more

譚偉恩：The Need for International Food Security Legal Norms

/in /by

Wei-en Tan
Slow Food NYC board member

Introduction

The international community undoubtedly has made progress over the past 40 years by reducing the population worldwide who suffer from starvation; however, as is known to us, the total number of people living with hunger continues to increase.

In 1996, the World Food Summit impressively concluded that the right to food is “firmly established in international law, but its operational content and means of application are generally little understood.”[1] More than 10 years later, global hunger has now seriously expanded to over 1 billion people, and the international community is far from achieving the goals of reducing famine.

Read more

宋承恩：如果釣魚台主權爭端走上國際法庭

/in /by

宋承恩
英國牛津大學國際法博士候選人

在兩岸四地與日本社會因釣魚台所起風波不斷之際，馬總統8月21日接受日本 NHK 專訪時，在堅持中華民國對釣魚台列島之主權主張以外，力陳「擱置爭議、共同開發」為最符合各方利益之暫行措施，並拋出「訴諸國際法院」作為爭端和平解決之方式之一。在民族主義情緒熾烈感染的時刻，馬總統結合長期鑽研與深思而來的洞見，以總統的高度，提出冷靜務實的主張，是值得肯定與歡迎的。畢竟，至遲自1960年代末期浮上國際檯面以來，釣魚台的主權爭端即存在於台、中、日三方；歷年來的大小事件，至多是爭端持續存在的佐證，並不構成法律上決定主權歸屬的相關事證。各方的「積極作為」，固然增加了各政府當下危機處理的壓力，長遠的對策為何，仍將形塑未來方案的可能走向。在此意義上，我政府之「東海和平倡議」仍是值得各方思考的。

Read more

陳純一：釣島、台灣、中華民國 密不可分

/in /by

【聯合報╱陳純一／政大外交系暨法律系合聘教授（台北市）】
2012.08.15 02:15 am

「釣魚台列嶼是台灣的附屬島嶼，中華民國的固有領土。」這句話不能單純的視為口號，它能有效地從國際法上駁斥日本的主張。

日本的主要法律主張有二：一是一八九五年時，釣魚台是不屬於任何國家的「無主地」，故日本先占之；二是日本先占後，並未受到任何國家抗議。

Read more

譚偉恩：食品法典委員會 – 帶著貿易自由化的包袱走向不確定的未來

/in /by

譚偉恩
A member of the Slow Food NYC

一、前言

1953年，世界衛生大會(World Health Assembly, WHA)鑒於化學物質被廣泛且大量地用於食品製造或加工，並且已成為一項國際性的衛生問題，遂建議將食品添加劑的使用作為研究重點。1955年，隸屬聯合國的糧食暨農業組織(Food and Agriculture, FAO)和世界衛生組織(World Health Organization, WHO)依照WHA的建議於日內瓦召開首次國際食品添加劑會議(Joint FAO/WHO Conference on Food Additives)，會中決定成立食品添加劑聯合專家委員會(Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives, JECFA)，此為FAO和WHO第一次針對食品安全問題展開的共同努力。隨後在1961年第11屆的FAO大會以及1963年第16屆WHO大會上，兩個組織分別通過建立食品法典委員會(Codex Alimentarius Commission,以下簡稱Codex)的決議。[1]至此，國際社會第一個政府間協調國際食品標準法規的組織正式成立，其主要功能是保護食品消費者之健康、負責全球食品標準制定之相關協調工作，以及協助國家食品安全制度的建立。

Read more

林宜亭：The European Integration and the Euro Crisis

/in /by

Christine I. Lin

The Euro Crisis shocked the world in 2009 after the 2007 global subprime mortgage crisis, but the Euro Crisis seem to be even more severe with its outcome and complicated with its roots out of the single market and common monetary policy of the Eurozone.  The article aims on analysing the main causes of the Euro crisis and the solution to it; in addition, it provides an alternative insight to the solution via the judicial channel of the European Union.

Read more

羅勝軒：美國控訴中國大陸對外國銀行電子支付服務貿易設限案（DS413）WTO爭端解決小組報告簡析

/in /by

[1]

羅勝軒*
東吳大學法學院法律學系研究所國際法組碩士
經濟部經貿談判代表辦公室約聘助理秘書

一、     本案當事方：

原告方－美國

被告方－中國大陸

Read more

蔡沛倫：The Olympic Games and Human Rights

/in /by

Pei-Lun Tsai
Ph.D. student, School of Law,
University of Nottingham

Sports and human rights, two concepts that seem to have little relevance, are in fact closely linked against the backdrop of the Olympic Movement.  The respect for human rights is embedded in the Olympic Charter and past practice has seen occasional use of the Olympic Games as a vehicle for changes and reform in the field of human rights in host and participating countries.  A recent example saw the International Olympic Committee (IOC) engaged in talks with Saudi Arabia before the commencement of the 2012 London Olympics, urging the country to allow female athletes to compete at the Games.  The contribution below reflects on the relation between the Olympics and human rights with reference to a number of notable examples in this regard.

Read more

林宜亭：The Institutional Changes in the EU after the Treaty of Lisbon

/in /by

Christine Ie-Ting Lin
Universiteit Leiden, MIRD

 

To understand the institutional design of the EU, one often encounters the problems on the names of the organs and their competences under the Union.  The institutional design of the EU contains seven main organs of the EU[1], and they fall into three main powers: executive, legislative and judicial, with the control power serves supportive tasks to the Union[2].  This article will examine the changes of the EU after the Treaty of Lisbon[3] came into force in three parts, the balance of power between the executive and legislative, the powers of judicial organ, and the effects given by a new international legal personality after the ToL.

Read more

蔡沛倫：Dispute over the Falkland Islands (Malvinas) and the Plan for Referendum

/in /by

Pei-Lun Tsai
Ph.D. student, School of Law,
University of Nottingham

On 12 June 2012, the Falkland Islands Government announced the plan of holding a referendum on the islands’ political status.  Sovereignty over the Falkland Islands, located in the South Atlantic Ocean and with a population of approximately 3,000, has been a subject of long-term dispute between Argentina and the United Kingdom (UK).  This year marks the 30-year anniversary of the Falklands War, the conflict between the two countries that attracted the attention of the international community and the United Nations (UN) Security Council.  Various theories have been put forward to justify the respective claims of sovereignty over the Falkland Islands, among which are some of the modes of acquisition of territory, such as occupation, prescription, and conquest.  The right to self-determination may also be of relevance in light of the Falklanders’ campaign for their entitlement to exercise such a right.

Read more