The Effect of the Judiciary-Induced Policy Development: Collective Order versus Individual Rights in EU Social and Employment Policy

As in other policy areas, one of the significant characteristics of EU social policy is the critical role played by the ECJ in its policy development. This paper analyses the effect of the leading role of the judiciary in the EU. The ECJ intervention is usually discussed using the dichotomy as “neo-liberalism” against “Social Europe”, or Community responsibility versus Member-states autonomy (F. Scharpf). Building on the argument proposed by Menedez (2010), which contrasts individualistic rights put forward by the ECJ with solidarity, this paper offers a new perspective to understand the political tension inherent in the EU social policy. The paper illuminates two elements of EU social policy. One is the “collective order” element. This element characterizes the “form” of EU social policy, most prominent in the Articles 153 – 155 of the TFEU. The other is the “individual rights” or citizenship element, which is prominent in the “content” of EU social and employment policy. This element is further enhanced by the ECJinduced policy development. These two elements are potentially in conflict. This inherent contradiction is manifest in recent labour cases, namely Laval, Viking, Rüffert and Luxemburg cases. Through the examination of the cases and responses of various political and social actors, this paper contends that it is not the question of whether liberal or social Europe. Rather, the conflict is between the individual and the collective element of the social and employment policy

Experts and Academics as Ideas Generators and Promulgators: Identifying the Social Policy Community of the European Union

The Social policy discourse of the EU is characterized by its continuous evolution. True, there are shifts in emphasis and change in the buzzwords; Social Model, Flexicurity, and Employability are examples. Still, beneath stylistic fluctuations, a common thread through policy development can be discerned since the Delors era. This paper is an attempt to figure out such continuity and seek its foundation in the existence of a rather stable policy community. Specifically, the paper highlights the role of academics and policy experts. The paper proceeds in three steps. First, it traces the development of the social policy discourse since the Delors era, based on comprehensive examination of the presidency conclusions of the European Council and the important social policy documents. This will show that recent topics and policy frames can be traced back to the earlier days, which is conditioned by the institutional configuration and objective policy tasks which the EU has been faced with. Second, this paper insists that such continuity cannot be taken for granted, because the issues are electorally important and the political power balance has shifted many times. As an explanation of such not-so-natural continuity, the paper stresses the role of the social policy community surrounding the EU institutions, especially that of academics and policy experts. Through the analysis of the participants and contents of the presidency conferences, academic reports and policy papers, it is shown that relatively stable members of the policy community have been continuously mobilised. Lastly, as a first step to gauge the net effect of that policy community, this paper picks up several examples to illuminate when and how this policy community takes effects and where the limits lie. As a concluding remark, the paper proposes a punctuated Europeanisation metaphor as a description of the policy dynamics in the social policy domain

Lightening of Citizenship and its Implication for Social Policy: 'Social Security Lite' in the Making?

This paper is an attempt to connect the internal and the external aspects in the transformation of citizenship, building on Christian Joppke's hypothesis on the 'lightening of citizenship'. Taking social policy developments in the EU as an example, the paper contends that lightening of citizenship entails universalization and lightening of social policy. It also highlights the leading role of the CJEU in this transformation. Substantially, we argue that universalisation and lightening of social security corresponds to functional requirement of the internal market and the increasingly diversified life career of its citizenry. In this regard, 'lightening' should be conceptually separated from mere 'retrenchment'. This direction has been augmented by the intervention of the ECJ, whose judgements has built on the Union Citizenship and enhanced individual social rights protection. Featuring citizenship as a universal status, however, individual rights can be protected, but collective ordering of social relations would take a back seat

Europeanizing Social Norms : Politics of Implementation of the Anti-Discrimination Directives in Germany and Austria

1990年代以降,社会規範に関わる分野でもEUレヴェルの立法が見られるようになった.しかし各社会の規範意識には差異があり,国内法制化は極めてセンシティヴなものとなる.本稿はその一例として反差別指令のドイツとオーストリアにおける国内法制化過程を分析する.これにより,以下の二つの点に光を当てるのが本稿の目的である.第一に,従来の「ヨーロッパ化(Europeanization)」研究は構造的要因に注目した政策分析を行ってきたが,国内の政治過程とその変容の意義は軽視されるべきではない.とりわけ指令置き換えという「外圧」を内政上の資源として利用しようとする政権の戦略,内政とヨーロッパのタイムテーブルのズレ,という二つの要因が本稿の中心におかれる.第二に本稿が照らし出すのは,「ヨーロッパ」に実体的価値を担わせることで,統合の正統性を獲得する試みから生じる衝突である.「民主主義の赤字」問題の本質が,EU機構の抽象的な民主性評価ではなく,「実感」に基づく一般市民の不満であるならば,この衝突は,憲法制定などにより問題を一挙に解決しようとする戦略の困難を示唆するだろう.Rule-making on ""social norms"" at the EU-level has been growing since the 1990s, whose transpotision sometimes becomes politically sensitive. As a case study, this article analyses the transpotision of anti-discrimination directives in Germany and Austria. Main contention of the analysis is twofold. First, domestic political processes should be given more weight in the Europeanization studies. Especially, the importance of the transposition strategy of the incumbent government and the different time tables of the EU-level and domestic politics are stressed. Second, it is illuminated how an attempt to legitimize further integration through highlighting substantial values of Europe causes the collision of norms. This would suggest the difficulty of eliminating democratic deficit at a brush, e.g. by the Constitution

Exploring the Dynamics of Post-national Governance : Toward and Beyond NAKAMURA Tamio ed, ""New Horizons of the EU Research""

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The whole blood transcriptional regulation landscape in 465 COVID-19 infected samples from Japan COVID-19 Task Force

「コロナ制圧タスクフォース」COVID-19患者由来の血液細胞における遺伝子発現の網羅的解析 --重症度に応じた遺伝子発現の変化には、ヒトゲノム配列の個人差が影響する--. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2022-08-23.Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a recently-emerged infectious disease that has caused millions of deaths, where comprehensive understanding of disease mechanisms is still unestablished. In particular, studies of gene expression dynamics and regulation landscape in COVID-19 infected individuals are limited. Here, we report on a thorough analysis of whole blood RNA-seq data from 465 genotyped samples from the Japan COVID-19 Task Force, including 359 severe and 106 non-severe COVID-19 cases. We discover 1169 putative causal expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs) including 34 possible colocalizations with biobank fine-mapping results of hematopoietic traits in a Japanese population, 1549 putative causal splice QTLs (sQTLs; e.g. two independent sQTLs at TOR1AIP1), as well as biologically interpretable trans-eQTL examples (e.g., REST and STING1), all fine-mapped at single variant resolution. We perform differential gene expression analysis to elucidate 198 genes with increased expression in severe COVID-19 cases and enriched for innate immune-related functions. Finally, we evaluate the limited but non-zero effect of COVID-19 phenotype on eQTL discovery, and highlight the presence of COVID-19 severity-interaction eQTLs (ieQTLs; e.g., CLEC4C and MYBL2). Our study provides a comprehensive catalog of whole blood regulatory variants in Japanese, as well as a reference for transcriptional landscapes in response to COVID-19 infection

DOCK2 is involved in the host genetics and biology of severe COVID-19

「コロナ制圧タスクフォース」COVID-19疾患感受性遺伝子DOCK2の重症化機序を解明 --アジア最大のバイオレポジトリーでCOVID-19の治療標的を発見--. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2022-08-10.Identifying the host genetic factors underlying severe COVID-19 is an emerging challenge. Here we conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) involving 2, 393 cases of COVID-19 in a cohort of Japanese individuals collected during the initial waves of the pandemic, with 3, 289 unaffected controls. We identified a variant on chromosome 5 at 5q35 (rs60200309-A), close to the dedicator of cytokinesis 2 gene (DOCK2), which was associated with severe COVID-19 in patients less than 65 years of age. This risk allele was prevalent in East Asian individuals but rare in Europeans, highlighting the value of genome-wide association studies in non-European populations. RNA-sequencing analysis of 473 bulk peripheral blood samples identified decreased expression of DOCK2 associated with the risk allele in these younger patients. DOCK2 expression was suppressed in patients with severe cases of COVID-19. Single-cell RNA-sequencing analysis (n = 61 individuals) identified cell-type-specific downregulation of DOCK2 and a COVID-19-specific decreasing effect of the risk allele on DOCK2 expression in non-classical monocytes. Immunohistochemistry of lung specimens from patients with severe COVID-19 pneumonia showed suppressed DOCK2 expression. Moreover, inhibition of DOCK2 function with CPYPP increased the severity of pneumonia in a Syrian hamster model of SARS-CoV-2 infection, characterized by weight loss, lung oedema, enhanced viral loads, impaired macrophage recruitment and dysregulated type I interferon responses. We conclude that DOCK2 has an important role in the host immune response to SARS-CoV-2 infection and the development of severe COVID-19, and could be further explored as a potential biomarker and/or therapeutic target

"Transposition Strategy and Political Time in the Europeanisation of Social Norms: Comparing Transposition of the Anti-discrimination Directives in Germany and Austria"

EU-level rule-making on social norms has been increasing since the 1990s, whose transposition sometimes has political repercussions. As a case study of such Europeanisation of social norms, this paper examines the transposition of anti-discrimination directives in Germany and Austria. Through the comparison of these two examples, based on the "most similar" case design, this paper contends that domestic political processes should be given more weight in the Europeanisation studies. Specifically, this paper highlights two factors influencing the Europeanisation. The one is the transposition strategy of the government, which is strategically determined in view of the electoral payoff. The choice of strategy influences transposition success or failure, and the legislative outcome. The more the government utilizes the European input for galvanizing its core constituencies, the higher the risk of transposition failure becomes. The other is the time constraint on the Member States. Whether the European input becomes asset or liability depends not only on the nature of the issue or the "goodness of fit" but also on the timing the issue is raised. One of the difficulties the governments face in the Europeanisation process is that political time management is constrained by the transposition deadline. Sometimes the governments have to choose between electoral misfortune and transposition delay. Further, the paper also illustrates how an attempt to legitimize further integration causes the collision of norms. This would suggest the difficulty of eliminating democratic deficit at a brush, e.g. by the constitution

From the 'Rescue of the Nation State' to the Emergence of European Spaces. EUIJ-Kansai Workshop on "New Research Horizons of the History of European Integration", May 10, 2008, Toyonaka (Osaka)

The aim of this paper is to make some contribution to the discussion on the future direction of the historical research on the European integration processes. What I intend to do here is, broadly, to link the contemporary European studies to the Historical studies, and concretely, to emphasise the transnational dimension of European integration. This exercise should be read as presenting my "wish list" to the Integration Historians