International Regimes for the Protection of Human Rights: Analytical Implications of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights

This article taps into the experience of creating regional human rights regimes in three different regions in order to extract certain commonalities that help create an analytical framework that is valid across the board. It then positions the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights into the so-constructed framework in order to examine the extent to which the two are compatible with each other. While the Charter clearly lends itself to analysis through reference to the framework’s four main dimensions – historical context, regional ethics, strong commitment to implementation and jus commune – it also introduces two additional ones. These stem from the particular context within which the Charter was created and are related to its purpose of legitimising the EU integration project and giving it a written constitutional form. Although the Charter presents itself as a peculiar case among the analysed regional human rights regimes, the article argues that on the most fundamental level its kinship with the family of international human rights instruments is uncontested

Informality in post-communist transition: determinants and consequences of the privatization process in Bulgaria

The article contributes to a scarce pool of academic literature on Bulgarian privatization. It reviews the process in its economic, political and social determinants and consequences and reveals the active participation and undue influence of particularistic networks enjoying exclusive access to power. In the circumstances of lacking conceptual and theoretical clarity no privatization alternative dominated on all grounds and considerations and enjoyed unequivocal popular support. This enabled the popular, and often populist, political discourse to determine outcomes that privileged mainly private interests. Networks of influential actors belonging to the political and economic elite of the country were key in turning privatization into a process contributing to the spread of informal practices, which have affected Bulgarian transition path