The Importance of Being Nice: An Institutionalist Analysis of French Preferences on the Future of Europe

This article offers an institutionalist explanation of French preferences on the future of Europe from the Maastricht Treaty of 1992 through the Constitutional Treaty of 2004. It argues that the autonomous institutional logic of the constitution-drafting exercise increasingly shaped the evolution of French preferences. More specifically, the French Government’s preferences reflected its acceptance of the European Union’s new method of debate at the Convention, the contingency of a revived alliance with Germany in that debate, and the legacy of a half century of European integration. Beneath the surface, this autonomous institutionalist logic offset French leaders’ aspirations to maximize national power interests, to improve decision-making efficiency, and to achieve their ideal visions of Europe. Domestic politics also played a relatively unimportant role because the French constitution enabled the president to discount domestic coalition-building considerations. Altogether, this argument suggests that state preferences cannot be understood in isolation from the international and domestic institutional environment in which they are formed.France; European Convention; Constitution for Europe; institutionalism

"Decision Making in Europe: Were Spain and Poland Right to Stop the Constitution in December 2003?"

This paper tries to explain why Spain and Poland stopped the Draft Constitution for the European Union in December 2003 and discusses whether this action was compatible with these countries long term interests. The author finds that the decline in power – measured by a power index – arising for Spain and Poland when going from the Nice Treaty to the Draft Constitution cannot explain their veto. While the two countries lose power when shifting from Nice to the Draft Constitution other countries’ power shrinks even more. Other measures - passage probability, blocking leverage and fairness - cannot explain the two countries’ opposition either. This paper contends that the Spanish and Polish rejection can be explained by the weakness of government in the Polish and the need for a reelection topic in the Spanish case. Furthermore this paper asserts that the Spanish and Polish government’s veto was against the medium and long term interest of their own countries. Poland and Spain must have been able to anticipate that the Nice Treaty would not last due to most EU countries’ dislike of it. An analysis of reasonable alternative voting schemes in the EU finds that Spain and Poland would not have been better off in any of these cases and worse off in most; under the voting rules agreed upon under the Irish presidency in June 2004 the two countries are weaker than under the Draft Constitution

Prerogative legislation as the paradigm of bad law-making: The Chagos Islands

Through a detailed examination of the British Indian Ocean Territory (Constitution) Order 2004 and its impact on the Chagos Islands (a small archipelago of coral atolls in the Indian Ocean and a British Overseas Territory) this dissertation describes the characteristics of bad law - law that is low quality, inaccessible and ultra vires. The author identifies the anti-democratic dimensions of the law-making involved, highlighting the ways in which the 2004 Order is legislation without a legislature; was not voted upon or assented to by the British Parliament; was not the subject of a referendum among the Chagossians and was not voted upon by any representatives of the Chagossians

Constitutions for the 21st Century: Emerging Patterns-The EU, Iraq, Afghanistan…

Professor Mallat delivered the Third Annual Herbert L. Bernstein Memorial Lecture in Comparative Law in 2004 and this article is based on his remarks. The article is included in the inaugural volume of CICLOPs that collects the first six Bernstein lectures. Strong moments in constitution-making often result from traumas; the breakthroughs by the European Union and constitutional achievements by both Iraq and Afghanistan stand as modern examples. The traumas of Europe, Afghanistan, and Iraq have been typified by violent conflict over the past century, including two World Wars, the Cold War, and the ‘war on terrorism’. Efforts and successes at constructing 21st Century constitutions can largely be seen as a response to these 20th Century traumas. Looking beyond the black-letter law of the European, Afghani, and Iraqi constitutions, emerging patterns in constitution making are to be found, including the recent international drive behind constitutions and the classical Montesquieuian separation of powers. Though these are two major driving forces in constitutional design, three ‘acid tests’ are not only heavily considered in the creation of these constitutions, but they are also heavily determinative in the success of any given constitution: religion, federalism, and, most importantly, the presidency. By analyzing these considerations and the acid tests in the context of the European Union, Iraq, and Afghanistan, their overwhelming importance and the difficulties in negotiating each within varied political climates becomes apparent. The hope is that these attempts and successes at constitutional design can serve as examples for other regions suffering from intense and prolonged violent turmoil, such as the successful resolution of the Northern Ireland problem or the as yet resolved Arab-Israeli conflict concerning Palestine. Further, these shifts in constitutional design over the past century act as signposts, pointing in the direction of change as the process and needs of constitutional design evolves from old concerns of self-contained internal affairs to a new modern concern of internationalism and, eventually, to a state of depoliticisation of constitutions

Bentuk Kekerasan Rumah Tangga Menelantarkan Orang Lain Menurut Undang-undang Nomor. 23 Tahun 2004

Paragraph 9 article 1 constitution number 23 of year 2004 that anybody forbidden to neglect anyone ini the household whereasin accordance with the prevailing law for them or because of the agreement or contract, the employer is obligatory to support theirliving, treatment or care of them. The problem in this paper is how to enforce law toward perpetrators, neglecting someone in thehousehold. The method used constitution approaches. The result shows that the law enforcement toward perpetrotars, neglectingsomeone in the household, in view of the constitution number 23 of year 2004 about eliminating domestic violence stating thedefendant has been proved legitimately and convincingly guilty to commit crime “by neglecting someone in the houshold” sentencedto the defendant 7 (seven) months. Based on paragraph 49 costitution number 23 of year 200

The Constitution and the Citizens – (Not) Much Ado about Nothing. Jean Monnet/Robert Schuman Paper Series, Vol. 4 No. 7, August 2004

While the Convention on the Future of Europe and its product, the Draft Constitution, might be considered a successful endeavor by many European policy-makers and other academic and socio-economic elites, it received little positive attention by the citizens. Aside from being a highly specialized and, for the ordinary citizen, complicated matter, few people actually are aware of the Convention process and the content of the Constitution. In this paper, I will locate the public awareness of the Constitution among the EU’s population, lay out some basic ideas about the democratic legitimacy this act entails and look at ways that could facilitate the Constitution’s acceptance in the future. Finally, I argue that, given the institutional structure of the EU and organizational constraints of the Convention, so far the democratic legitimacy has been sufficient but still awaits the challenge of ratification

Komunikasi Politik Dalam Pemilihan Kepala Daerah Di Sumatera Utara

The change of the provision in the 2004 constitution Number 32 and the effective of the 2008 constitution number 12 in which assert that the contestants of the Head District and Mayoral election (PEMILUKADA -Walikota) can also come from personal supported by a number of people. This fact indicates that the freedom of politics happen in the numerious members of society. The situation of democracy in the local level is obviously seen clearly in the contest of the head district and mayoral election. In the event of such election, either the head district or the mayor have been as an object to be run after. Whereas society is put as a primary subject

INTEGRACIÓN EUROPEA Y CONSTITUCIONES NACIONALES

In the light of the current debatesand events on both the EuropeanUnion Constitution and on theeffects that the latter has had ondomestic constitutional and legalsystems, this article discusses theposition of EU legislation (and futureconstitution) in the Spanishconstitutional and legal order, asset by the 1/2004 Ruling of theSpanish Constitutional Court. Inthis sense, the article mainly focuseson the consequences of theabovementioned ruling on thesupremacy of the Spanish Constitution