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Tekst przedstawia dynamikę i zmienność opcji politycznych oraz sojuszy, które ukształtowały granice współczesnej Syrii w decydującej fazie pierwszej wojny światowej oraz w pierwszych latach powojennej rzeczywistości na Bliskim Wschodzie. Badacze przedstawiają sposób, w jaki zewnętrzne interesy mocarstw przeważyły and wewnętrznymi sprawami Syryjczyków. Dla mieszkańców Lewantu wiązało się to z praktyką ignorowania przez Zachód opinii i aspiracji Arabów w następstwie pierwszej wojny światowej, przypieczętowaną w Traktacie Wersalskim. Mimo pozytywnych rozwiązań zaproponowanych przez komisję Kinga-Crane'a (1919), nowy post-osmański porządek wprowadzono bez względu na lokalne tożsamości i preferencje polityczne. Nowe granice zostały utworzone sztucznie i ustalone w sposób arbitralny. Umowa Sykes-Picot sprzyjała nie tylko teoriom spiskowym na Bliskim Wschodzie, lecz także kształtowaniu mitologii powstania arabskiego. Rywalizacja zachodnich mocarstw odbywała się kosztem lokalnych mniejszości, podsycając niechęć i wzmacniając sekciarstwo. W latach 1919-1920, pansyrianizm umocnił się i przyjął charakterystyczną formę dążenia do poskładania rozbitego narodu Wielkiej Syrii. W uchwałach Kongresu Syryjskiego z 2 lipca 1919 r. zawarto ponadczasowe założenia orientacji politycznej syryjskich nacjonalistów, co miało znaczący wpływ na politykę na Bliskim Wschodzie w ciągu następnych kilkudziesięciu lat. Jednak podział Wielkiej Syrii po pierwszej wojnie światowej okazał się jedną z najgorszych spośród wielu politycznych traum, jakich doświadczył w tamtym czasie Bliski Wschód. Pansyrianizm ulegał systematycznemu osłabieniu przez kolidujące ze sobą aspiracje Syryjczyków, Libańczyków, Palestyńczyków i Jordańczyków. The text presents the dynamics and variability of the political options and alliances which shaped the borders of modern Syria in the most crucial period of World War I and the first years of post-war reality in the Middle East. The researchers show how the external interests of the Great Powers took priority over the Syrians' internal affairs. For the inhabitants of the Levant, it meant the Western practice of ignoring Arab opinions and aspirations in the aftermath of the Great War, which was sealed in the Treaty of Versailles. Despite the positive solutions proposed by The King-Crane Commission (1919), the new post-Ottoman order ignored local identities and political preferences. The new borders were created artificially and determined arbitrarily. The Sykes-Picot agreement reinforced both conspiracy theories in the Middle East and the mythology of the Great Arab Revolt. The competing Western powers took advantage of the local minorities, fueling dislike and strengthening sectarianism. In the years 1919-1920, Pan-Syrianism solidified and took a characteristic form of striving to consolidate the fragmented nation of the Greater Syria. The resolutions of the General Syrian Congress of 2 July 1919 provided timeless premises for the political orientation of the Syrian nationalists, which strongly influenced politics in the Middle East in the following decades. However, the partition of Greater Syria after World War I proved to be one of the worst of many political traumas experienced in the Middle East at that time. Pan-Syrianism was systematically weakened by the conflicting aspirations among the Syrians, the Lebanese, the Palestinians, and Jordanians.

This article focuses on the three treaties which were signed in 1718 in Požarevac between Vienna, Constantinople and Venice. The reason for this is the large and long impact which can be observed until the present day, not only regarding these three powers or the Balkans, but the whole Europe. Although the political, juridical, economic and social consequences of these treaties ended mostly at the end of the First World War, the communication infrastructure, the knowledge culture and the mental effects have kept their actuality since the 18th century until today.

The subject of this article is Latin reception of Averroes’s treatise De substantia orbis, with special regard to the commentary practice in the late Middle Ages. Numerous philosophical problems were taken up in these commentaries following Averroes’s lead. The most controver-sial among them were these concerning divine attributes, i.e., infinite power, efficient and final causality, and, consequently, God's ability to create out of nothing. Three different commentaries were therefore chosen to exemplify the key differences be-tween the doctrinal approaches of the commentaries on the De substantia orbis. The first two of them—composed by Fernand of Spain and Maino de’ Maineri—represent the Averroistic approach, adopting and developing Averroes’s ideas; the third commentary—composed by an anonymous author in Erfurt around 1362—represents the non-Averroistic approach referring to the questions raised in the De substantia orbis in order to propose orthodox solutions being far from these adopted in the treaty by Averroes himself. The article aims at scrutinizing the problems of infinite power of God and divine causali-ty as they have been taken up by Latin philosophers from the late XIIIth to the second half of the XIVth century by elucidating the key differences between the two lines of inquiry and highligh-ting the variety of approaches to Averroes’s De substantia orbis.

After the Battle of Ankara (1402) Ottoman state went through the long crisis of interregnum. Suleyman, Musa and Mehmed, sons of the Sultan Bayezid I (1389–1402), started the struggle for the throne. It was powerfully influenced by the conflict between European states – Venice and Hungary. Their interests clashed in the Balkans. The Treaty of Gallipoli (1403) originated the process. It balanced the interests of Venice, Genoa, the Byzantine Empire and the Turkish ruler of Rumelia Suleyman (1402–1411). But Hungary did not take part in the treaty, and afterwards Hungarian King Sigismund Luxemburg (1387–1437) attempted to upset the balance of power, founded on the treaty. For this purpose Sigismund entered into the alliance with Serbia and then offered the alliance to the Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Palaeologos (1391–1425). The victory of supporters of Hungary in Bosnia was of great importance. Activities of Sigismund provoked retaliatory measures of Venice. In 1409 the Republic claimed rights to Dalmatia. In 1411 diplomatic feud led to the war. Just that very period was the critical phase of the Turkish «interregnum». Musa, who had opposed Suleyman, defeated him and entered into the alliance with Serbia and Walachia. He attacked the Byzantium. As a result, Sigismund lost potential allies. On the contrary Venice gained an advantage form the treaty with the new Turkish ruler. However the subsequent victory of Mehmed partly restored the parity between Hungary and Venice. Mehmed exploited the alliance with the Byzantium. During the Turkish discord the Byzantine Empire had not been interfering in the conflict between Hungary and Venice and only after the victory of Mehmed offered itself as a honest broker. Venice rejected the offer, but the sense of the Byzantine policy is evident. The Byzantine Empire attempted to renew the treaty of 1403 with enlarged membership and to strengthen the alliance with Turks through the international balance of power, the only way to get some pledging of security for the Empire.

This research suggests an interpretation of the reasons behind the Byzantine attack on the Turkish fort of Gallipoli in spring 1410. The citadel that controlled Dardanelles was attacked by a squadron of eight ships. This operation is considered not successful. However, there are reasons to consider that initially Greeks did not plan to take the town. The search for the proofs should be in the sphere of international relations. In the period in question, the Byzantine policy was influenced by contradictions between Venice and Hungarian king Sigismund of Luxembourg concerning Dalmatia. Their interests were also connected with Gallipoli, so the question of the status of the fort could only aggravate their relations. The incipient conflict was dangerous for Byzantium. The Turkish factor was also important in this conflict: one more time, it turned against Byzantium and did not allow it to maintain the peace with the Ottomans concluded in 1403. The Byzantine emperor’s reaction to the crisis can be considered as an attempt of meditation by renewal of the treaty with the Turks, with participation of Western states. The main problem was king Sigismund’s position: a contact with him became necessary. In spring 1410, Byzantine diplomats along with the Pope prepared conditions for the meeting with the Hungarian ambassador in Italy. However, Sigismund’s desirable reaction followed just after the Byzantine attack on Gallipoli. From the analysis of the facts and chronology, there are reasons to conclude that the military operation in question was planned specifically to provoke the king to negotiations, which took place in Bologna in June of the same year.

This article examines the ways in which Māori met royal visitors to New Zealand. The New Zealand Government wished to present Māori as a loyal people who provided the country with a unique culture, and to show that New Zealand had excellent race relations. Māori had different concerns. They believed that Māori had a special relationship to the Crown because Queen Victoria was the other signatory to the Treaty of Waitangi, signed in 1840. In honouring her descendants they would honour the Treaty. Some Māori also believed royalty might help challenge some of the actions of the settler government. After some difficulties on the three visits of Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, in 1869-1871, these diverse aims were largely achieved on royal visits in 1901, 1920, 1927, 1934, and in the first visit of Elizabeth II in 1953 by one large gathering of the tribes at Rotorua. Not all Māori were happy about this policy, especially the Māori King, who wished to meet royalty on his own ground. From 1953 royal visitors did meet the Māori King at his home in the Waikato; and after that date the large Rotorua gathering ceased. Instead, gatherings of all the tribes began to occur at Waitangi, most notably when Elizabeth II visited for the 150th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty in 1990.

Summary Being one of the oldest Christian communities in the Middle East, Assyrians have continued to live in various parts of Turkey for thousands of years. Today, the estimates related to the number of Assyrians living in Turkey vary between 4,000–25,000 while they cannot benefit from the rights put forward by the Lausanne Treaty among which schooling is the most important. Assyrian community can be said to be deteriorating in number. This decline in the number of Assyrians living in Turkey raises the question of whether they could maintain their ethnic identity while maintaining their language (Syriac). No studies so far have been carried out to find out the linguistic practices of Assyrian community living in Turkey, as well as their attitudes toward the languages they use. This study aims at shedding light on the present situation of Syriac used among the Assyrian community living in Turkey. The participants are limited to those living in Istanbul due to practical reasons. In this study, language attitudes and language use practices of Assyrian community living in Istanbul are found out through a language attitudes questionnaire. It is hoped that the results of the study will provide the current situation of the Syriac language in terms of its ethnolinguistic vitality as spoken among the community. It is also hoped that the results of the study will provide useful data for those who would like to help protect the ethnolinguistic identities of Assyrian minority in Turkey, as well as all those dispersed around the world, which seems to have become increasingly important for such a country at the gates of the European Union as Turkey.

International audience; The mystery of the Lonyz Treaty (1222) at the heart of the conflict between the Teutonic Order and the Bishop of Prussia Christian In 1222, at Lonyz, the Duke Conrad of Masovia gave to the bishop in charge of the christianization of Prussia, Christian, some goods in the Culmerland. The existence of three different versions of this treatise (confirmation by the pope in 1223 – two vidimus of 1238/1240 and 1264) has led to many debates between historians. What was the initial donation? Are later versions forgeries? And from whom? From a rereading of the documents and the study of the historical, archaeological and geographical context one arrives at the following hypothesis: the version of 1240 was interpolated by Christian of Prussia to incorporate the land of Löbau and the castles which protected this land. If Christian had indeed ceded his property in the Culmerland to the Order in 1231, he had retained some estates and still had rights in the land of Lubawa (agreement concluded with the Order between April 1240 and April 1242). It would not be strictly speaking of a forgery but of the insertion of legitimate elements to defend the bishop and his estates against the usurpations of the Teutonic Order. The 1264 version was simply updated by the Teutonic Order to take into account territorial changes since the late 1220s (replacement of the Bishop of Prussia by four bishops, agreements with the Dukes of Masovia on the land of Löbau between 1242 and 1257, entrance of the bishop of Culm into the Teutonic Order).

This contribution examines two documents issued by the terrorist organisation known as the ‘Islamic State in Iraq and Syria’ (IS) regarding the status and treatment of non-Muslims, namely the protection treaty with the Christians of Raqqa and the ultimatum to the Christians of Mosul. As IS’ claim to represent true Islam should be judged by the way in which they relate to Islamic tradition, the documents’ texts are presented with a commentary and translation. Both documents arbitrarily combine elements from authoritative texts with twenty first-century attitudes, disregarding more than a thousand years of Islamic scholarship. The Raqqa treaty, in particular, is part of the organisation’s professional public relations policy.

Research suggests that civil society mobilization together with the ratification of human rights treaties put pressure on governments to improve their human rights practices. An unexplored theoretical implication is that pressure provokes counterpressure. Instead of improving treaty compliance, some governments will have an interest in demobilizing civil society to silence their critics. Yet we do not know how and to what extent this incentive shapes governments’ policies and practices regarding civil society organizations. In this article we argue and show—using a new global database of government-sponsored restrictions on civil society organizations—that when governments have committed to human rights treaties and, at the same time, continue to commit severe human rights abuses, they impose restrictions on civil society groups to avoid monitoring and mitigate the international costs of abuses.

The aim of this work is to present the military and political role of the Habsburg monarchy in the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars between 1792 and 1809. Within this belligerent period, the peace treaty of Pressburg, the central event in a series of several peace resolutions, is considered as Napoleon's greatest triumph. Therefore, the path of the Habsburg monarchy to this treaty and the overcoming of the crises of those years represent the central events, which are analyzed in this work., historia.scribere, iss. 10, p. 401

The beginning of the war in 1939 changed the geopolitical situation in the Baltic region. AfterPoland had lost its sovereignty and the Soviet Union approached the borders of Lithuania, thecountry’s defence concept also changed. Reforms of the army that had started in Lithuania asearly as 1935 fundamentally changed the approach to the defence of the country. The visionwas declared that every citizen was a defender of his country. After the reinforcement of bordercontrol, mobilisation plans were drawn up, and the Riflemen’s Union was included in Lithuania’sdefence plans. In 1939, after the Mutual Assistance Treaty had been signed with the SovietUnion, 20,000 Soviet soldiers entered Lithuania. Given the new geopolitical circumstances, adetailed restructuring of the concept of national defence was undertaken. This paper looks intothe directives for mobilisation drawn up in the spring of 1940, the mobilisation plan for the Riflemen’sUnion, and the plans for the use of the riflemen for national defence. Key words : paramilitarism, Lithuanian Riflemen’s Union, border guard, Lithuanian army, militarydefence of Lithuania. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/ 10.15181/ahuk.v28i0.926

Global population aging constitutes one of the greatest challenges societies face today. Projected demographic shifts will have far-reaching consequences on social security and health care systems around the globe. Not surprisingly, aging has therefore long been approached from a development perspective. In recent years, however, an international human rights approach to aging has emerged as well. It is increasingly recognized that the well-being and inclusion of older persons in society depends on the promotion and protection of their fundamental rights. While great efforts have been made towards a new UN Convention on the Rights of Older Persons, many states remain critical when it comes to the adoption of category-specific rights for older adults, especially in the form of legally binding instruments. This contribution thus aims to clarify why a rights-based approach to aging remains crucial and why it is important to clarify how fundamental rights apply to older persons in an international human rights treaty.

From the Treaty of Karlowitz to the Austro-Turkish War of 1737-1739 the migrations of Serbian people in the provincial districts of Hungary were far more modest in number than in the Migration of 1690. Based on the sources and literature we made efforts to include those particular examples and show that besides families, of which some left deep trace in Serbian history and culture (the Ruvarac family), the clergy settled here as well; and not only the clergy from Serbia, which was at one time under Austrian rule (1718-1739). Moreover, there was a great influx of merchants and craftsmen, whose settlement fortified Serbian ethnic territory in Hungary and contributed to final creation and establishment of Serbian middle class within the Monarchy. Another larger wave of migration of Serbian people in overall territory of Hungary followed the outbreak of a new Austro-Turkish war in 1737, during which Serbs were again forced to leave their homes led by patriarch Arsenije IV Sakabenta.

The article analyses the concept and content of the key EU values as well as raises questions on Europe’s crisis of values. The paper is structured in three parts. The first part provides a detailed analysis of legal-philosophical foundations of values focusing on values in the context of EU as an international organisation. The second part introduces the reader to the key EU values embedded in Article 2 of the Treaty of the European Union as well as their normative content. It claims that belonging to the core of the EU’s legal-political system, Article 2 values represent a constitutional compass allowing the EU to stay the course. At the same, their enforcement relies solemnly on a special political procedure established by Article 7 TEU. The third part of the article is dedicated to present day challenges. The author claims that the EU is experiencing a crisis of values which is of new type and hard to overcome.

Zusammenfassung Im Jahr 1997 wurden die Prinzipien Gender Mainstreaming und Antidiskriminierung auf Grund von Geschlecht, „Rasse“, ethnischer Herkunft, Religion/Weltanschauung, Behinderung/Beeintrachtigung, Alter und sexueller Orientierung im Amsterdamer Vertrag verankert. Die Einleitung zum Schwerpunktheft bilanziert zwanzig Jahre nach der Verabschiedung die Wirkungen dieser vertraglichen Verankerung und kommt dabei zu einem gemischten Fazit. Einerseits hat sich das supranationale EU Gender- und Antidiskriminierungs-Regime dank wachsender Aufmerksamkeit fur Gleichstellung in den verschiedenen Politikfeldern und neuer rechtlicher Grundlagen fur vielfaltige Diskriminierungsgrunde deutlich uber die damaligen Grenzen der Beschaftigungs- und Sozialpolitik hinaus entwickelt. Andererseits haben sich die Erwartungen an Gender Mainstreaming als transformative Strategie trotz feministischem Aktivismus und gleichstellungsorientierter Forschung nicht erfullt, und die Mitgliedsstaaten haben die Entwicklung eines Antidiskriminierungs-Regimes auf „softe“ Politikinstrumente und lediglich zwei bindende Richtlinien begrenzt. Daruber hinaus blieben die beiden Politikprozesse – Gender Mainstreaming und Antidiskriminierung – institutionell und strategisch unverbunden. Anstatt Intersektionalitat zu „mainstreamen“, werden Diskriminierungsgrunde separat behandelt und Geschlechtergleichstellung scheint in die reaktive Politiklogik von Antidiskriminierung absorbiert zu werden, wahrend Gender Mainstreaming oft darauf begrenzt bleibt, Manner und Frauen als zwei feststehende Kategorien einzufugen. Die Osterweiterung und die Finanz- und Legitimitatskrise der EU haben zudem eine soziale und politische Konstellation hervorgebracht, die der Entwicklung einer alternativen Gleichstellungsstrategie nicht gerade forderlich ist. ----- The Treaty of Amsterdam celebrating its 20th anniversary – visionary or disappointing EU equality politics? Abstract In 1997 the principles of gender mainstreaming and anti-discrimination based on sex, racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation were enshrined in the Treaty of Amsterdam. The introduction to this special issue takes stock of the results twenty years after and finds mixed results. It argues that a supranational EU gender and antidiscrimination regime has developed beyond the original limitations to discrimination between women and men in employment and social security, thanks to the attention to gender equality in other policy domains and the adoption of legal and political instruments dealing with other grounds for discrimination. However, in spite of feminist activism and research, gender mainstreaming has not fulfilled the expectations as a transformative strategy, and member states have limited the development of an antidiscrimination regime to a set of ever softer policy instruments and two binding legal instruments. Importantly, the processes of gender mainstreaming and antidiscrimination remain disconnected institutionally and strategically. Instead of mainstreaming the concept of intersectionality, antidiscrimination policies continue to treat grounds for discrimination separately, gender equality seems to be absorbed by the logic of antidiscrimination as a reactive policy approach, and gender mainstreaming is reduced to inserting woman and man as two fixed categories. Unfortunately, the eastern enlargement, the financial crisis and the legitimacy crisis faced by the EU have created a social and political constellation, which is not propitious for the development of an alternative equality strategy. ----- Bibliographie: Ahrens, Petra/Scheele, Alexandra/van der Vleuten, Anna: 20 Jahre Vertrag von Amsterdam – Europaische Gleichstellungspolitik revisited, Femina Politica, 2-2016, S. 9-20. https://doi.org/10.3224/feminapolitica.v25i2.25349

O objetivo do presente estudo é, à luzdos desafios enfrentados pelo processo deintegração regional da União Européia, avaliar oquadro geral de reformas proposto pelo Tratadode Lisboa. Mais especificamente, analisar os efeitosdas dimensões institucional, econômica e políticasobre a dinâmica de reformas do processode integração. Os resultados do estudo apontampara três principais lacunas no funcionamentoda União: déficit democrático, a disputa acirradaquanto à separação de competências entre a UEe seus Estados-membros e, por último, os desafiosda eficiência da tomada de decisão e suaimplementação. O Tratado de Lisboa procurousolucionar tais questões, ao mesmo tempo emque mantinha o delicado equilíbrio entre tendênciasfederais e intergovernamentais. No entanto,o não irlandês renovou a discussão sobre a concepçãodo projeto de integração européia: espaçode coordenação econômica e comercial ou uniãopolítica.Abstract: The aim of the present study is, in the lightof the challenges faced by the EU regional integration,to evaluate the general framework of reforms proposedby the Lisbon Treaty. More specifically, to analyzethe effects of the institutional, economic and politicaldimensions on the dynamic of the reform process ofintegration. The results of the study show that interm of the configuration of the European regionalintegration process, three main omissions can beobserved: democracy deficit, competencesdistributions between the EU and the member states,and, finally, the challenges of efficiency in term ofdecision making and implementation. The LisbonTreaty represents a general framework to overcomeall those limitations and to keep also a balance betweenfederal and intergovernamental tendencies.Nevertheless the Irish No to the treaty and the skepticamong many other member-states reviewed thediscussion about the concept and strategy ofintegration framework: just a coordination of aneconomic space or a political union.

The author analyzes the Reform Treaty and comes to the conclusion that there are changes in the concept of European citizen in it, in the sense that its democratic potential has been enhanced. In showing this the author relies on 'pragmatic model' for understanding individual and collective identity as it was introduced in social science by sociologist Raymond Breton.

Article 4 (2) of the Treaty of the European Union, in its version following the adoption of the Lisbon Treaty, proclaims that the European Union shall respect the national identities of its Member States, inherent in their political and constitutional fundamental structures, inclusive of regional and local self-government. This clause can be compared with the third paragraph of the preamble of the Lithuanian Constitutional Act of Membership of Lithuania in the European Union, which states that the Union shall respect national identity and constitutional traditions of its Member States. One can note that the clause on the respect by the European Union of the national identities of its Member States is the result of a desire to ensure a balance between the strengthening of the European integration process and the protection of the national identities of Member States.Legal doctrine recognises the clause of respect, by the European Union, of the national identities of its Member States as a legal principle. According to the doctrine, this principle is important not only for the EU legal system, but also for the interaction between the EU and its Member States’ legal systems. Authors analyse the diverse aspects of this principle (cultural, political- institutional) and the relationships between national and constitutional identities. Legal doctrine has proposed a wide range of possible meanings of this principle, which can be used as a basis for a serious reflection on the potential judicial interpretation and application of this principle.The European Court of Justice, which is the official interpreter of EU law, applies the clause of respect for national identities of EU Member States in its case-law together with other legal elements (such as fundamental rights, proportionality, protection of public order etc.) on which it grounds its decisions. The judgments of the Court of Justice in Omega, Spain v United Kingdom, Sayn-Wittgenstein, and Runevic-Vardyn and Wardyn cases are examples of this principle being used in European case-law. This principle is usually applied in the case-law of the European Court of Justice in order to draw limits of fundamental freedoms and principles of EU law in individual cases.Because of the impact of the principle of respect for national identities of Member States on the balance between the European and the national legal systems, a dialogue between the ECJ and the national constitutional courts for the convergence of their positions is necessary.

Arbeitspapiere des Hans-Bredow-Instituts

Reasons and Limits of the Public Service Broadcasting Remit in the Internet In 2007 the European Commission decided formally to close an investigation under EC Treaty state aid rules into the financing regime for German public service broadcasters in light of formal commitments by the German Government to amend the current regime. The core of this reform, confirmed by the German Government, was to substantiate the description of the public service remit for the new media services and to establish a “three-step test” for these offers which adapts the British Public Value Test of the BBC. Enacting the necessary measures, however, the compliance with national constitutional law was hardly considered. According to the constitutional “freedom of broadcasting” the public service broadcasters are allowed to offer new media services only with programme-related content. Such limitations on the public service remit are clearly compatible with European Union Law. The “three-step test” recently implemented t...

This article defines private international law doctrines of incorporation and real seat and then turns to the analysis of freedom of establishment guaranteed by the EC Treaty. The article analyses judgments of the European Court of Justice, interpreting the freedom of establishment in cases where companies tried to transfer their seats across frontiers, especially in light of the newest judgment in this area in the Cartesio case. The analysis of case law shows the link between the freedom of establishment and private international law doctrines. The article is concluded by a discussion of opportunities that free­dom of establishment provides for companies, alternatives for cross-border business restructurings and implications of rising number of these activities. Straipsnyje apibūdinamos tarptautinės privatinės teisės taikomos inkorporavimo ir buveinės doktri­nos ir tada analizuojama EB steigimo sutarties garantuojama steigimosi laisvė. Aptariama Europos Tei­singumo Teismo praktika interpretuojant steigimosi laisvę bylose, kai bendrovės bandė perkelti buveinę už valstybės ribų. Atsižvelgiant į tai, kaip supratimą keičia naujausia byla šioje srityje − Cartesio. Teis­mo praktikos analizė parodo steigimosi laisvės ir tarptautinės privatinės teisės doktrinų ryšį. Straipsnis baigiamas aptariant galimybes, kurias bendrovėms suteikia steigimosi laisvė, ir alternatyvas, kuriomis jos gali pasinaudoti, siekdamos pertvarkyti verslą, kai tai apima kelias valstybes, bei šio reiškinio dažnė­jimo padarinius.

Straipsnyje Europos Sąjungos (ES) konstitucinės sutarties ir Lisabonos sutarties požiūriu analizuojami ES prigimties klausimai. 2007 m. birželio 21-22 d. Europos Vadovų Taryba (EVT) priėmė išvadas, kuriose, be kita ko, nurodoma, jog Lisabonos sutartis nebus konstitucinio pobūdžio. Būtent šis teiginys yra pagrindinis straipsnio tyrimo pradžios taškas ir objektas. Atitinkamai straipsnyje analizuojama ES dabartis, t. y. siekiama atsakyti į klausimą, kiek egzistuojanti ES ir jos teisės sistema gali būti suvokiama kaip konstitucinė sistema, kiek ES kontekste pateisinamas konstitucinės kalbos vartojimas, ir ateitis, t. y. konstitucionalizmo požiūriu analizuojama ES konstitucinė sutartis ir Lisabonos sutartis. The article deals with issues of the nature of the EU from the point of view of the EU Constitutional Treaty and the Lisbon Treaty. The European Council has adopted conclusions in June 21-22, 2007 which state among the other things that the Lisbon Treaty will not have a constitutional character. Namely this statement is the main point of departure of the article and its main object of research. First of all, the article analyses the present of the EU aiming at providing the answer to the question, to what extent the currently existing EU may be treated as constitutional system, to what extent the use of constitutional language in the context of the EU is justified. Various attitudes of academic community and court practice are examined from that point of view. Analysis is also provided how the above mentioned conclusions of the European Council may be interpreted. The conclusion is drawn that the EU may be treated as specific constitutional community already under the existing legal framework. The article singles out three dimensions of constitutionalism. On the basis of above performed research the analysis is provided to what extent the EU Constitutional Treaty and the Lisbon Treaty differ from the point of view of various dimensions of constitutionalism, to what extent the statement of the European Council about the "de-constitutionalised" nature of the Lisbon Treaty is optimal. The conclusion is drawn that the EU Constitutional Treaty and the Lisbon Treaty have no essential differences from the point of view of various dimensions of constitutionalism, whereas the Lisbon Treaty in some respects may be even treated as a reflection of more intensive constitutional ambitions. It is argued that the conclusions of the European Council may be perceived at least in two ways - as a mere renouncement of certain "technical" elements of the EU Constitutional Treaty or as a renouncement of claims to a status of a deeper constitutional community on the part of the EU. However, only the practice of EU and national institutions is able to reveal a practical importance of such statement if the Lisbon Treaty conies into force.

Straipsnyje nagrinėjamas tarptautinės sutarties galiojimo sustabdymo institutas. Analizei pasitelkiamas Rusijos Federacijos sprendimas sustabdyti įsipareigojimų pagal Įprastinių karinių pajėgų Europoje sutar­tį vykdymą. The article analyses the suspension of the operation of international treaty. The decision by the Russian Federation to suspend implementation of its obligations under the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe is used an example.

Compared with previous treaty ratifications, the proposed constitution for the European Union (EU) has triggered an unprecedented number of referen-dums. Overall, citizens in ten EU member countries were scheduled to express their view on the EU constitution. Two of these referendums resulted, however, in negative outcomes, namely the ones in France and the Netherlands. This put a rather abrupt stop to the ratification process for this new treaty. This possibility of “involuntary defections” (e.g., Schelling 1960, Putnam 1988, Iida 1996) may - according to several theoretical mod-els relying on two-level games - have affected the bargaining which took place at the Intergovernmental Conference (IGC) called to adopt the final version of the EU constitution. As an additional constraint on ratification, referendums may have strengthened the bargaining position of some negotiators, according to Schelling’s (1960) “paradox of weakness”. For this to occur, however, referendums must have been perceived as a credible op-tion for the ratification process during the negotiations, and they needed to add an additional hurdle to ratification. In this paper we propose initial systematic tests of this proposition for the negotiations which led up to the adoption of the EU constitution at the June 2004 IGC.

The member countries of the European Union (EU) signed the treaty of Amsterdam on October 2, 1997. It amended the Treaty on European Union (TEU) and the three Community Treaties. The most noteworthy modifications concerned the six areas of citizenship, justice and home affairs, employment, the environment, agricultural and fishing, and a common foreign and security policy (Langrish 1998: 3). Compared to the Maastricht treaty, which formed the last addition to the reversion point, these modifications were less ambitious on European integration, because member states excluded half of the issues of the draft proposal to find consensus at the Amsterdam intergovernmental conference (Hug and Konig 2002). According to Moravcsik and Nicolaidis (1999: 70), governments widely circulated the draft proposal for the intergovernmental conference “to minimize the possibility of subsequent ratification failures.” If this is correct, the Amsterdam intergovernmental conference (IGC) provides a powerful illustration of the influence domestic ratification constraints may have on the bargaining process of international cooperation. However, the mere existence of domestic ratification constraints at the institutional level does not tell the full story.

Die Wirksamkeit völkerrechtlicher Verträge liegt sowohl auf völkerrechtlicher als auch auf innerstaatlicher Ebene. Wie sie auf innerstaatlicher Ebene wirksam sein können, handelt es sich um das innerstaatliche Recht in drei Bereichen: Vertragsabschluss, Umsetzung völkerrechtlicher Verträge ins innerstaatliche Recht und die Anwendung völkerrechtlicher Verträge im innerstaatlichen Recht. Völkerrechtliche Verträge müssen zunächst nach innerstaatlichem Recht rechtsmäßig abgeschlossen werden. Danach müssen sie ins innerstaatliche Recht umgesetzt werden, damit sie im innerstaatlichen Recht angewendet werden können. Da Völkerrecht keine Regelung oder Voraussetzung der Umsetzung völkerrechtlicher Verträge ins innerstaatliche Recht bestimmt, können Staaten die Umsetzung selbst festlegen. Zwar völkerrechtliche Verträge rechtsmäßig abgeschlossen werden und ins innerstaatliche Recht umgesetzt werden, aber es kann nicht garantieren, dass sie im innerstaatlichen Recht wirksam sein kann. Sie oder ihre erfüllende Gesetze müssen von den Rechtsanwendungsorganen, Verwaltungsbehörder oder Gericht innerstaatlich beachtet und effektiv angewendet werden. Die innerstaatliche Wirksamkeit völkerrechtlicher Verträge nach deutschem und thailändischem Recht wird in drei Bereichen untersucht: Wie völkerrechtliche Verträge im deutschen und thailändischen Recht rechtsmäßig abgeschlossen werden, wie sie ins deutsche und thailändische Recht umgesetzt werden können und wie sie im deutschen und thailändischen Recht ausgeführt und angewendet werden können. The validity of Treaties depends on international and internal law. The internal validity of treaties shall be concerned in three spheres: the conclusion of Treaties, the conversion of treaties into internal law and the application of treaties in internal law. Treaties must be first concluded completely under the internal law. Af-ter the complete conclusion the treaties must be converted in order to be applied in internal law. Since international law does not direct any rules or conditions to convert the treaties into the internal law. The conversion of treaties into the internal law can be specified by the states. Although treaties were concluded completely under the internal law and were converted into the internal law, it does not guarantee that the treaties shall be valid in the internal law. The treaties must be attended by the states authorities, administrative Organs and Judge, to apply and enforce effectively in the internal law. The internal validity of treaties under German and Thai law shall be examined in this three spheres: the conclusion of treaties under German and Thai law, the conversion of treaties into German and Thai law and the application and enforcement in German and Thai law.