Articles for category: English Articles

Scotland and the EU: Comment by KALYPSO NICOLAIDIS

With the Treaty of Lisbon, the EU formalised and entrenched a right of exit (article 50) which is at the heart of its nature as a polity: the peoples of Europe have come together and will remain together by choice, not under duress. In the same way as the exit clause proclaims loudly and clearly that EU member states and their citizens remain in the EU by choice, leaving the EU should be a collective choice too. It should not be a choice inferred from another choice, that of one part of a country to leave the whole.

9. September 2014

Scotland and the EU: Comment by JO MURKENS

Sionaidh Douglas-Scott’s reliance on Article 48 is far from persuasive on technical legal grounds (is it the correct legal basis to accommodate a new Member State?) as well as for strategic reasons (the negotiation process may well be dominated by the UK’s negotiating team pursuing its own agenda). But even if an independent Scotland’s continued membership in the EU were ‘smooth and straightforward’, Douglas-Scott provides no answer to the question as to what kind of member an independent Scotland would be.

8. September 2014

Scotland and the EU: a Comment by JOSEPH H.H. WEILER

It would be hugely ironic if the prospect of Membership in the Union ended up providing an incentive for an ethos of political disintegration. In seeking separation Scotland would be betraying the very ideals of solidarity and human integration for which Europe stands.

8. September 2014

Why the EU should welcome an independent Scotland

The comments below focus on the importance of an EU perspective on an independent Scotland’s EU membership, highlighting the EU as a distinctive, sui generis and new type of legal organisation. They argue that a strong case can be made for Scotland’s continued EU membership on the basis of EU law itself.

8. September 2014

Will an independent Scotland stay in the EU?

In less than two weeks we will know whether or not Scotland will remain part of the UK. In the polls, the No camp still leads, but just by a slight and shrinking margin. It might actually happen what has never happened before: One EU member state becomes two. Or, will they?

5. September 2014

„Nudging“ arrives in Germany

Obama did it, Cameron too, and now Germany seems determined to do it as well: Angela Merkel seeks advice in behavorial economics, according to her spokesman, in order to try new methods of „effective governance„. This refers to an approach which has been popularized by the constitutional law professor Cass Sunstein and the economics scholar Richard Thaler some years ago with their book „Nudge. Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth and Happiness„. It goes by the name of „libertarian parternalism“: Instead of bans, orders and sanctions government regulation  should rely on more subtle ways of „nudging“ behavioral change – by altering ... continue reading

27. August 2014

A Double Plea for International Opening and More Strongly Interlinked Multidisciplinarity

The German Council of Sciences and Humanities calls for an international opening and a legal science that is more strongly linked to its neighbouring disciplines. Both requests merit support – if they are considered as part of a development of the existing legal education, rather than a revolutionary request that overturns the current system in Germany. I. The Survey’s Main Theses Both of the central theses put forward by the German Council of Science and Humanities (henceforth Wissenschaftsrat) in a survey on ‚Perspectives of Jurisprudence in Germany‘ apply to research and teaching alike: The Wissenschaftsrat starts from the finding that ... continue reading

30. Juni 2014